Despite going a goal down, Nottingham Forest hit four past Leeds United to take them within a point of the play-off spots. Jack McCarthy offers a fan’s eye view from the City Ground.
I started to write this as I heard that Sean O’Driscoll has been sacked as the manager of Nottingham Forest. I’m pretty speechless to be perfectly honest and feel incredibly bad for Sean. I can only thank him for his hard work rebuilding our club in what has been a darker period of our history. There has been an incredible amount of negativity in recent weeks and it is quite possible that this has been a factor in O’Driscoll losing his job. Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day and I know there are many fans that share this view.
To those who expect to be top of the league, think back to this time last year: we went all the way through December without scoring a goal. We have come such a long way and are still in a position to challenge for promotion from an incredibly competitive Championship. Please back your team — negativity will get you nowhere in life, let alone a football match. The clue is in the word supporter. Support your team.
As for the game there was every reason to be happy as Forest ran out 4-2 winners in a great game for the neutral and even better for the home fans. On a pitch which was in poor condition, given the amount of rain, Forest played some superb passing football in front of the Sky cameras and blew Leeds away early in the second-half.
However, things started badly. Forest were behind early on after the defence failed to clear a cross into the box, the ball rolled slowly towards the goal and Paul Green was on hand to put Leeds 1-0 ahead. I don’t think I was the only one that thought ‘here we go again’.
But Forest upped their tempo and, more importantly, the City Ground responded and got behind their team, raising the volume and urging their team on. Forest had two very strong penalty shouts turned down before Premier League referee Lee Probert gave a penalty for a foul on Billy Sharp. He cooly dispatched the penalty to put Forest level just before the half-time whistle.
What happened next sent Forest fans into dreamland, three unanswered goals in the space of seven, crazy second-half minutes had Forest 4-1 up. First Blackstock’s flick-on put Sharp through, he rounded Kenny, paused and picked his spot past the two defenders rushing back.
Leeds then failed to deal with a Forest corner and the ball fell to Elliott Ward on the edge of the six-yard box. He smashed it back low and hard into the goalmouth, and Rodolph Austin comically turned the ball into his own net.
Sharp was then denied a perfect left-foot, right-foot, header hat-trick by an offside flag. Undeterred, Forest pressed forward and grabbed another goal, a beautiful floated left-foot cross from Andy Reid was met with a thumping header from Blackstock and Forest had the three points in the bag.
Forest still came forward and had more chances but Paddy Kenny kept the score at four and saved Leeds’ blushes. The game slowed down towards the end and Leeds scored a consolation goal. It didn’t dampen spirits and Forest fans went home happy and with plenty of festive cheer after recording a long-awaited home victory over Leeds.
You can follow Jack on Twitter: @jackmccarthy94
Image courtesy of nuttakit/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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