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Matchday 30 - Nottingham Forest Football Club vs Crystal Palace Football Club. Saturday, 30th of March KO 3pm

Who will win?

  • Total voters
    81
C

Cloughie1975

John Robertson
Colbackstreet Boys said:
We (Nuno) are selecting our way back to the Championship.

His team selections reek of either not knowing his best 11 (still), hubris, favouritism, wanting to be sacked, or combination of the four. His obsession with bringing Origi into the side and benching Elanga or CHO has beaten out any fluidity or relationship between the front four and seems to be picking the middle two from a f***ing tombola every week. Its nigh-impossible anymore to identify any discernible game plan or strategy from the team he sends out week on week. It's just a random, incomprehensible mess.

Origi shouldn't be anywhere near the 11. Nor should Sangare. And frankly not should Felipe on current form. Conversely, Elanga or CHO shouldn't be anywhere near the bench if fit.

I'm sick of this season. Sick of this squad. Sick of Marinakis insistence that we remain a circus. Sick of knowing far too much about football accounting than I should do. Becoming increasingly sick of the manager. Sense he is sick of us, too.

After today I think there's a very real chance we don't win another game this season. No cohesion, at least half the squad clearly already thinking and talking to agents about their options for next season, and seemingly no system or formula that will get this group of players winning games.

And most worst of all, our secret weapon - The City Ground - is now a soft touch.

Tuesday huge.
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Spot on,young man.
 
T

T Francis

Youth Team
can someone come up with a new song that will get the whole ground rocking like last season?
Think it’s time to ditch the “magic on and off the pitch” as we’re clearly not. Unless making 4 points disappear counts!
 
Wes' Organ

Wes' Organ

Biggles
Malwood said:
Depends on his wages, since we're probably paying him way more than a Seria A club like Lazio or Napoli would be happy with. There's been a lot of asset appreciation in CDMs as well. If we stay up I think we'd be able to sell him for vaguely what we paid. If we go down, well, buying clubs will know we have no choice....
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I honestly can't see anything other than someone taking a punt at £12-15 million for him. He hasn't shown that he can do anything particularly well at premier league level, maybe he will but no one is going to spend £35 million on maybe with the possible exception of Forest.
 
Rockabilly

Rockabilly

GAFF LAD. "Open your knees and feel the breeze"
Bonfy177

Bonfy177

LTLF MORON
Wes' Organ said:
I honestly can't see anything other than someone taking a punt at £12-15 million for him. He hasn't shown that he can do anything particularly well at premier league level, maybe he will but no one is going to spend £35 million on maybe with the possible exception of Forest.
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We’ll lightly sell him for 12m with an obligation to buy him back for another 35m
 
C

Cloughie1975

John Robertson
A draw was more than we deserved.
I like to give managers time but I’m losing faith with Nuno already-there’s no way that Sangare,
Felipe or Origi should have been playing today (I’m afraid they aren’t at the required standard).
We have 6 games to save ourselves (given that the Tottenham and Manchester City games
look hopeless).
Sorry,Larry-you deserved a better send off.
 
Rockabilly

Rockabilly

GAFF LAD. "Open your knees and feel the breeze"
Captain Sinister said:
My one man destrucion of our most expensive signing appears in today's Match Report!

Saturday 30th March 2024: Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace (Premier League; Kick Off 15:00):

I would like to start this report by stating my solidarity with Steven Reid: Paul Tierney is a f***ing ****! Can I than say that I am still feeling very sad about the loss of a Forest Miracle Man this week, and give my heart-felt condolences to the family of Larry Lloyd.

To the game: I posted in the matchday thread that I considered this the first “Must Win” game of the season. Failure to win it hasn’t spelled the Doom of Forest as other results were in our favour, but it is a said state of affairs to report that the best news of the day was that Forest have climbed out of the bottom 3. The trouble is, of our last 9 games of the season, todays was probably the best opportunity for Forest to secure a win. We welcome Fulham on Tuesday, which now becomes a “Must Win” game, while Luton (realistically, the only real other contender for the final relegation slot) travel to the Emirates stadium to play Arsenal.

In a nutshell, today’s game failed to live up to the “Rebel City: Nottingham until we die” video posted by the Club, with Nuno and the squad all telling us they were giving their all, and we fans were needed to give them our all. It was a poor game with both sides gifting possession to the other on far too many occasions. However, such a poor game was blessed with 2 equally well taken goals before ending in what I will grudgingly describe as a fair draw after the 90 minutes.

Forest started the game like a team on Prozac: listless, lackadaisical, and sluggish. It came as no surprise that Palace took the lead on 10 minutes, when an otherwise decent Neco Williams won the ball on the edge of the Forest box and played an under hit, ill-conceived pass up to Chris Wood. Wood was not able to get to the ball and the Palace defender marking him got there first to put a lovely pass through to the ever-dangerous Eze. Eze took the ball into the Forest box, looked to have a shooting chance, but he squared the ball to the unmarked Mateta who fired home from 14-yards, giving Sels no chance.

Forest did come to life a bit, but found their efforts thwarted by serious time-wasting by Palace, and by continuing to misplace pass after pass. Palace were denied a 2nd goal on 3 occasions by the impressive Sels, while Forest, pressing hard failed to put a single shot worthy of the name for Henderson to deal with.

Felipe escaped with a telling off, having hacked Mateta down on the halfway line, but was yellow-carded late in the half for wrestling his man to the ground. It was not Felipes best game, truth be told. And so the half ended with a chorus of boos for the ineffective referee who should have booked Henderson for his persistent time wasting, and despite all the time-wasting a mere 2-minutes was added on.

I now have to own up to being rather critical of our £35m central midfielder, Ibrahim Sangare. UI watched him closely during the warm up before kick-off, and was appalled by his lack of interest or effort during the loosening sprints, and the tippy-tappy one touch game. He carried this lassiez-faire attitude into the first half, failing to break sweat at any time, making stupid passes and loosing out in 50/50 challenges. Yes, he made the occasional pass but he is so out of touch with the pace of the game I was yelling for him to be taken off well before the half-time whistle.

Obviously, NES had been listening, because Sangare didn’t reappear after the half-time tea and orange: Anthony Elanga coming on to try an inject some pace and urgency into Forest. Seeing Luton 1-0 up at half time, away at Spurs, was a serious worry. We lose and they win, and the mountain to escape relegation would have been terrifying.

The2nd half was rather different to the first, with Palace putting 9 men behind the ball, relying on breakaways to try and nick a 2nd goal. Thankfully, Forest were able to play at a higher tempo, and cope with the threats posed, but once again they had Sels to thank for keeping the ball out of the net. Forest attacked at pace down both flanks, but a combination of poor final passes, and a lack of men in the box meant attacks came to nothing. Hudson-Odoi was in good form, and eventually a mazey run to the by-line and knock back to MGW enabled the Forest No.10 to chip in a delightful cross that Wood was able, with immense skill, to nod over the flailing Henderson to equalise.

Forest continued to press after that equaliser, but the slowness of the attacking in the final third meant that Palace, with their massed defence were able to snuff out most threats. Wood got on the end of a MGW corner, but his glancing downward header was weak, and easily collected by Henderson. Reyne had a snap shot for the angle brilliantly palmed away by the former Forest favourite, and the game drifted to an inevitable close and Forest had to be content with a single point.

Sangare should not figure in a starting XI again for Forest, until he is prepared to actually put in some effort. At the moment he looks like the single worst acquisition made by any Premier League club in living memory.

Player Ratings:

Sels: 7 – calm, brave and competent, keeping Forest in the game with a string of vital saves;

Williams: 7 – made a poor pass that resulted in the Palace opener, but other than that was confident in defence and aggressive in attack;

Felipe: 3 – fortunate not to receive 2 yellow cards for blatant professional fouls; partially recovered his reputation with a massive tackle on Mateta in the 2nd half, but overall, this was not his finest performance for Forest;

Murillo: 7 – had to cover for Felipe on many occasions;

Aina: 7 – a welcome return for Ola. Sad that it was Toffo that had to make way, but Aina’s attacking threat was a bonus to Forest, particularly after the break;

Sangare: 0 – contributed absolutely nothing, and whatever is going on with him he neither displays the technical ability nor the mental strength to merit a place even on the bench. PSV have robbed our owner of £35m;

Yates: 6 – as always, a committed performance, but he is a wee bit slow of thought at times, which slows our attack;

Hudson-Odoi: 8 – my Forest MOTM today with a battling, hard running, tricky performance;

Gibbs-White: 6 – didn’t really impose himself on the game today, despite occasional nice touches, and a spot-on chipped cross for Wood to score;

Origi: 5 – for a player costing a reported £85k per week in wages, Origi fails to show any confidence in his ability to score goals;

Wood: 7 – 10 Prem goals for a 5th season is a great achievement. With Awoniyi likely to be a sick-note for the next 4-weeks, we need chris Wood to continue to score crucial goals for us.

Substitutions:

Elanga (on for Sangare): 6 – added some pace, but not quite delivering at the moment;

Reyna (on for Origi): 4 – nowhere near ready for the Premier League;

Toffolo (on for Aina): 6 – splendid forceful runs and good link up with CHO.

Conclusion: Today we were fortunate to rescue a point from a game where we really ought to have had enough to take all 3. We have invested in Sangare, and unless he changes attitude and applies himself he will be memorable in Forest’s History books as the most expensive flop in our history.

And for the Foodies out there, we forewent the pre-match fish and chips, and elected for a lavish post-match curry from our favourite restaurant, Haveli.
Click to expand...
Cheers Cap'n much appreciated. 🍻
 
C

Cloughie1975

John Robertson
Captain Sinister said:
My one man destrucion of our most expensive signing appears in today's Match Report!

Saturday 30th March 2024: Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace (Premier League; Kick Off 15:00):

I would like to start this report by stating my solidarity with Steven Reid: Paul Tierney is a f***ing ****! Can I than say that I am still feeling very sad about the loss of a Forest Miracle Man this week, and give my heart-felt condolences to the family of Larry Lloyd.

To the game: I posted in the matchday thread that I considered this the first “Must Win” game of the season. Failure to win it hasn’t spelled the Doom of Forest as other results were in our favour, but it is a said state of affairs to report that the best news of the day was that Forest have climbed out of the bottom 3. The trouble is, of our last 9 games of the season, todays was probably the best opportunity for Forest to secure a win. We welcome Fulham on Tuesday, which now becomes a “Must Win” game, while Luton (realistically, the only real other contender for the final relegation slot) travel to the Emirates stadium to play Arsenal.

In a nutshell, today’s game failed to live up to the “Rebel City: Nottingham until we die” video posted by the Club, with Nuno and the squad all telling us they were giving their all, and we fans were needed to give them our all. It was a poor game with both sides gifting possession to the other on far too many occasions. However, such a poor game was blessed with 2 equally well taken goals before ending in what I will grudgingly describe as a fair draw after the 90 minutes.

Forest started the game like a team on Prozac: listless, lackadaisical, and sluggish. It came as no surprise that Palace took the lead on 10 minutes, when an otherwise decent Neco Williams won the ball on the edge of the Forest box and played an under hit, ill-conceived pass up to Chris Wood. Wood was not able to get to the ball and the Palace defender marking him got there first to put a lovely pass through to the ever-dangerous Eze. Eze took the ball into the Forest box, looked to have a shooting chance, but he squared the ball to the unmarked Mateta who fired home from 14-yards, giving Sels no chance.

Forest did come to life a bit, but found their efforts thwarted by serious time-wasting by Palace, and by continuing to misplace pass after pass. Palace were denied a 2nd goal on 3 occasions by the impressive Sels, while Forest, pressing hard failed to put a single shot worthy of the name for Henderson to deal with.

Felipe escaped with a telling off, having hacked Mateta down on the halfway line, but was yellow-carded late in the half for wrestling his man to the ground. It was not Felipes best game, truth be told. And so the half ended with a chorus of boos for the ineffective referee who should have booked Henderson for his persistent time wasting, and despite all the time-wasting a mere 2-minutes was added on.

I now have to own up to being rather critical of our £35m central midfielder, Ibrahim Sangare. UI watched him closely during the warm up before kick-off, and was appalled by his lack of interest or effort during the loosening sprints, and the tippy-tappy one touch game. He carried this lassiez-faire attitude into the first half, failing to break sweat at any time, making stupid passes and loosing out in 50/50 challenges. Yes, he made the occasional pass but he is so out of touch with the pace of the game I was yelling for him to be taken off well before the half-time whistle.

Obviously, NES had been listening, because Sangare didn’t reappear after the half-time tea and orange: Anthony Elanga coming on to try an inject some pace and urgency into Forest. Seeing Luton 1-0 up at half time, away at Spurs, was a serious worry. We lose and they win, and the mountain to escape relegation would have been terrifying.

The2nd half was rather different to the first, with Palace putting 9 men behind the ball, relying on breakaways to try and nick a 2nd goal. Thankfully, Forest were able to play at a higher tempo, and cope with the threats posed, but once again they had Sels to thank for keeping the ball out of the net. Forest attacked at pace down both flanks, but a combination of poor final passes, and a lack of men in the box meant attacks came to nothing. Hudson-Odoi was in good form, and eventually a mazey run to the by-line and knock back to MGW enabled the Forest No.10 to chip in a delightful cross that Wood was able, with immense skill, to nod over the flailing Henderson to equalise.

Forest continued to press after that equaliser, but the slowness of the attacking in the final third meant that Palace, with their massed defence were able to snuff out most threats. Wood got on the end of a MGW corner, but his glancing downward header was weak, and easily collected by Henderson. Reyne had a snap shot for the angle brilliantly palmed away by the former Forest favourite, and the game drifted to an inevitable close and Forest had to be content with a single point.

Sangare should not figure in a starting XI again for Forest, until he is prepared to actually put in some effort. At the moment he looks like the single worst acquisition made by any Premier League club in living memory.

Player Ratings:

Sels: 7 – calm, brave and competent, keeping Forest in the game with a string of vital saves;

Williams: 7 – made a poor pass that resulted in the Palace opener, but other than that was confident in defence and aggressive in attack;

Felipe: 3 – fortunate not to receive 2 yellow cards for blatant professional fouls; partially recovered his reputation with a massive tackle on Mateta in the 2nd half, but overall, this was not his finest performance for Forest;

Murillo: 7 – had to cover for Felipe on many occasions;

Aina: 7 – a welcome return for Ola. Sad that it was Toffo that had to make way, but Aina’s attacking threat was a bonus to Forest, particularly after the break;

Sangare: 0 – contributed absolutely nothing, and whatever is going on with him he neither displays the technical ability nor the mental strength to merit a place even on the bench. PSV have robbed our owner of £35m;

Yates: 6 – as always, a committed performance, but he is a wee bit slow of thought at times, which slows our attack;

Hudson-Odoi: 8 – my Forest MOTM today with a battling, hard running, tricky performance;

Gibbs-White: 6 – didn’t really impose himself on the game today, despite occasional nice touches, and a spot-on chipped cross for Wood to score;

Origi: 5 – for a player costing a reported £85k per week in wages, Origi fails to show any confidence in his ability to score goals;

Wood: 7 – 10 Prem goals for a 5th season is a great achievement. With Awoniyi likely to be a sick-note for the next 4-weeks, we need chris Wood to continue to score crucial goals for us.

Substitutions:

Elanga (on for Sangare): 6 – added some pace, but not quite delivering at the moment;

Reyna (on for Origi): 4 – nowhere near ready for the Premier League;

Toffolo (on for Aina): 6 – splendid forceful runs and good link up with CHO.

Conclusion: Today we were fortunate to rescue a point from a game where we really ought to have had enough to take all 3. We have invested in Sangare, and unless he changes attitude and applies himself he will be memorable in Forest’s History books as the most expensive flop in our history.

And for the Foodies out there, we forewent the pre-match fish and chips, and elected for a lavish post-match curry from our favourite restaurant, Haveli.
Click to expand...
A great report,Captain-exactly as I saw it.
 
M

MaxiRobriguez

Bob McKinlay
T.B.T. said:
I thought we were markedly better in the second half and felt either team could have snatched a winner.

We were poor in the first but we were not dogshit.
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You're easier to please than I am Di.

I thought that was our worst performance since Hughton got the boot after Middlesbrough.

Edit: disclaimer I didn't go to Fulham away.
 
Des Walker Texas Ranger

Des Walker Texas Ranger

First Team Squad
It’s taken 30 league games but I think the penny has finally dropped for me and I’m willing to admit…we’re just not that good

If…and it’s now a pretty reasonable IF…we do stay up, we’ll have been very very lucky that the likes of Sheff U and Bonleh have set the bar so very low this campaign

Another “on paper” fixture id convinced myself we “should” win and yet ANOTHER game I’ve left the WFCG…and we haven’t. Palace hit the post, forced Sels into a couple of very good saves and almost showed us how to take a creative set piece. On another day they could have scored two or three but a draw was probably about right in the end

Despite the Forza display and “let’s stick together” pre match video the atmosphere turned sour quickly once Palace got themselves ahead. The first half was poor, our record signing was piss poor and so were the fans who’s patience appears to have all but run out in general

The whole season has been a supremely frustrating one. Underperforming in the main, the sad (if inevitable) end to Coopers reign, the points deduction and FFP b*ll*cks, the endless refereeing incompetence….the enjoyable moments have been way too few and far between. Sadly it doesn’t feel like we’re all in this together at the moment and if Nuno had sent out his milkman to stand on the sideline in his place, I don’t think a single fan would have noticed.

Two Americans arrived in the seats next to me just after kick off as they’d misread their tickets. They left at half time. The Premier League eh?!..

Negatives
- All of the above
- If our record signing wasn’t sure about how the majority of fans feel about him, he will be now
- Felipe isn’t the man to save us this time
- Deano being a time wasting bellend

Positive
- Sels - we do at least have an actual keeper now
- Reyna - just glad to see him get more than 20 seconds on the pitch
- Dorothy - 100 not out. Well played Mrs.

Sels (7) important saves and no drama
Aina (6) too lazy for me (STILL haven’t forgiven Fulham) Didn’t think I’d ever miss Tavares but…
Nico (6) not up to his recent high standards
Felipe (5) some good but more bad
Murillo (7) shame we won’t get to enjoy him in a really good Forest side
Yates (5) God love him but way too ponderous on the ball. Not his fault the rest of our midfield can’t force him out the side
Sangaré (4) Even when he won the ball, he gave it straight back. Don’t enjoy seeing any Forest player get the home support on their back but then remembered how much we pay him and got over that quite quickly
CHO (7) Does so much excellent work but then either turns back or chips a ball in to nobody in particular. Some lovely touches mind…
Origi (5) Wouldn’t start for me. Nuno has other ideas.
MGW (7) Good second half. Super assist (almost a second when Wood couldn’t control) Liked him deeper to get other attacking players on the pitch.
Wood (6) Brilliant header. Continues to do his part in the survival mission

I’m sure by Tuesday lunchtime I’ll have convinced myself that Fulham are going to get both barrels
 
Gyros Peter

Gyros Peter

Sauce salad?
Odd game, for about fifteen minutes over two or three periods we looked very decent... and then we didn't again. You could say similar about Sangare's performance - for everything he did right he did something wrong soon after. Him and Yates struggled for dynamism first half. Reyna was very us too, in that he has spells and then looked lost.

MGW cut a frustrated figure - I'm glad he got the assist because it would be another case of him staking a claim to be the best player on the pitch without the returns that his position demands. Might cheer him up a bit.

Thought the move to bring Reyna on and drop Morgan deeper got us the point. If we could actually sustain levels it could have got us all three.

Sels MotM fit me - great save at one nil down that would have killed it.

He was a big unit up top for them - enjoyed Felipe leveling him late second half.

Nice to have Aina back - gave us a bit more linkup down the left. Though Cho did well too.

Decisions wise I prefer us with him and Elanga starting, though sort of understand the Origi thing - think he uses him to go long to as Wood can't really hold up. Proactive subs - not going to moan.

Should we have won? Could we? We looked very easy to play around at times, and think a better palace side would probably have beaten us. Henderson made a couple of smart saves though - CHO and Reyna from memory.

Midfield another puzzle to solve -Sangare looked like he wasn't the answer again today. Danilo hasn't had much time recently. No Dominguez at all today though guess we needed Yates physicality once MGW dropped deeper.

Hmmm, on to Tuesday! Still need a win while glad of a point. Get three v Fulham and I'll be happy. Kind of expect another draw at best unless we solve the puzzle.
 
Bonfy177

Bonfy177

LTLF MORON
Still someone at me door
 
Gyros Peter

Gyros Peter

Sauce salad?
Trents said:
I actually thought Reyna put a tidy little shift in. I wouldn't mind him starting behind Wood v Fulham with MGW deeper. It seemed to work well in that 2nd half.

Dare I say Nuno may have stumbled across a formation that could work there.
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Think he did the same v Newcastle.

Reyna's one of those players who can make things look easy - head up and calm. Not sure he has the physicality or is up to the pace yet though.
 
Doctor Gonzo

Doctor Gonzo

First Team Squad
Trents said:
"Reds" in massive letters :D

Oh at the bottom "We shall fight and we shall overcome"
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The “we shall fight” never got properly unfurled…if that was you in the lower Trent, try harder.

I liked the “REDS” but the rest of the display was not the best. I’ll try and find the forza display thread and bump it with this pic.
 
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