Birmingham - Nottingham Forest

[Tricky]

One thing that has crossed my mind is the state of their pitch last night. Grass very short and the pitch was hard, had obviously not been watered and the bounce of the ball much higher than usual. Is this something that Bowyer has done specifically since he came in. Brum have a lot of tall players and the bounce would not be as hard to deal with. Their players would be used to it and could train on it as there would be fewer divots. Reminiscent in the opposite way to Direby's pitch when they won the championship and were used to playing on a mud heap. Could be an explanation of their upturn in form since Bowyer came in although let's face it some of the ball control and passing from Forest was absolutely terrible.

It sounds like an excuse but it was a massive factor in the way the game panned out. It was impossible for us to make even straightforward passes like we would normally like to do. It totally negated Garner's game for us and Mighten was a non existent entity as we couldn't play balls up to him and he couldn't control balls played into him. Players were slipping, it was bobbling away and yet longer passes played on the ground were skipping away too. And as Brum are now playing as a Wimbledon tribute act, it played into their strengths. It wouldn't surprise me if Bowyer was asking for that pitch to be prepared. He will have been looking for every opportunity to gain an advantage, as is his right.

Nice to hear a rational analysis of the game last night, Pap'.  Fair comment.

'Wimbledon tribute act.'  LOL.

Ya think Lee asked for it to be dug up and sanded?  Old school 70s/80s style?

SA.

Pap, wasn't a certain Brian Howard Clough reported to have spent the night at the Baseball Ground watering the pitch to make it as boggy as possible before Derby played Juventus in the European Cup Semi Final, 2nd leg?  :D

[Strawberry Avenger]

The only thing with this result is the effect on Derby. Birmingham would have been safe if won - that are practically safe now but not quite on the beach... their next game is Derby!

:D

Der-rool, der-rool.

Can't.  Wait.

The football gods...tease...taunt us.

SA.

[Strawberry Avenger]

One thing that has crossed my mind is the state of their pitch last night. Grass very short and the pitch was hard, had obviously not been watered and the bounce of the ball much higher than usual. Is this something that Bowyer has done specifically since he came in. Brum have a lot of tall players and the bounce would not be as hard to deal with. Their players would be used to it and could train on it as there would be fewer divots. Reminiscent in the opposite way to Direby's pitch when they won the championship and were used to playing on a mud heap. Could be an explanation of their upturn in form since Bowyer came in although let's face it some of the ball control and passing from Forest was absolutely terrible.

It sounds like an excuse but it was a massive factor in the way the game panned out. It was impossible for us to make even straightforward passes like we would normally like to do. It totally negated Garner's game for us and Mighten was a non existent entity as we couldn't play balls up to him and he couldn't control balls played into him. Players were slipping, it was bobbling away and yet longer passes played on the ground were skipping away too. And as Brum are now playing as a Wimbledon tribute act, it played into their strengths. It wouldn't surprise me if Bowyer was asking for that pitch to be prepared. He will have been looking for every opportunity to gain an advantage, as is his right.

Nice to hear a rational analysis of the game last night, Pap'.  Fair comment.

'Wimbledon tribute act.'  LOL.

Ya think Lee asked for it to be dug up and sanded?  Old school 70s/80s style?

SA.

Pap, wasn't a certain Brian Howard Clough reported to have spent the night at the Baseball Ground watering the pitch to make it as boggy as possible before Derby played Juventus in the European Cup Semi Final, 2nd leg?  :D

Clough trade mark.  Hose the grass.

SA.

[Strawberry Avenger]

Feel irrationally happy after that advert for anti-football, as Brum were the ones laying down the gauntlet by choosing aerial bombardment.

Forest seemed to look at the bone-dry bobbly pitch, realise it wasn't meant for playing intricate passing football, and join in the fun.

Krovinovic tried to play some football; no-one gave Mighten the ball; we were awful, and less solid than expected at the back, but Samba made some crucial saves.

But that late late penalty (good spot by the ref, GBH on McKenna) was so sweet (not least for its effect on Rams fans).

Yep.

Sweet is the night...



SA.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Pap, wasn't a certain Brian Howard Clough reported to have spent the night at the Baseball Ground watering the pitch to make it as boggy as possible before Derby played Juventus in the European Cup Semi Final, 2nd leg?  :D

If I remember the tale from the man himself he dosed off with the hose pipes on and when he woke up the turf was like a swamp. What made it funnier was that I think that like now there was a drought at the time and Clough explained to a bemused referee that whilst the whole country was parched local weather patterns meant the BBG had experienced a monsoon.


Did Boywer do the same last night in reverse? Quite possibly and cant blame him. We didnt cope at all, a lot of nonsense spoken blaming Hughton and picking the wrong team. It was never going to be pretty but too many of our team didnt turn up. Final thought some people wanting us to be more like Brum need to get a sanity check, they will get found out next season playing like that, they certainly wont be top half.

[Strawberry Avenger]

That was a snooze fest..  (My nerves were wrecked after that.  I felt ill.)

Positives:
- we have 50 points.  (YES!)
- It was free. :P
- we robbed a point by keeping going even on a crap day.  (Yes.  Or where we robbed of all 3 by Taylor being thrown down for their goal?)
- this sh1t show of a season is nearly over so we can regroup in preseason and go again.  (*books himself in for some counselling or rehab'...)
- QPR are 8th which shows how bad most of this division is. (Yeah.  We total footballed them.)
- k**b head of a steward got Karma for his time wasting by us scoring so late.

Negatives:
- Such a boring game. I thought that both teams had agreed not to string 2 passes together to make sure we shared the spoils.
- Not one attacking or creative player took responsibility for getting at opposition-CBs ended up charging up instead.
- Full backs reverted to early season form.  (Blackett, who'd been decent had a poor game.)
- Last 2 games raise the question as to whether an inexperienced 20 year old would be the right fit for a 46 game season in that crucial position at base of our midfield. Consistency is key.  (Maybe the one Hughton missed out on, eg Gosling would be the 'leader' he wants in that role?  Young players are inconsistent.  It happens.  The highs.  The lows.)
- We seem to be finishing with anything but a flourish.
- The 'sack the manager' every few months brigade (or know nowts as Cloughie used to term them) will somehow attribute this crappy performance to Chris Hughtons management rather than some of our money grabbing, gutless primadonnas that he was lumbered with.
- It wasn't even warm today.  (Goddamn sun...)

Let's hope for an improvement on Saturday....

:cool:

Thunder and lightning.  It's all around us.

SA.

[Strawberry Avenger]

Pap, wasn't a certain Brian Howard Clough reported to have spent the night at the Baseball Ground watering the pitch to make it as boggy as possible before Derby played Juventus in the European Cup Semi Final, 2nd leg?  :D

If I remember the tale from the man himself he dosed off with the hose pipes on and when he woke up the turf was like a swamp. What made it funnier was that I think that like now there was a drought at the time and Clough explained to a bemused referee that whilst the whole country was parched local weather patterns meant the BBG had experienced a monsoon.


Did Boywer do the same last night in reverse? Quite possibly and cant blame him. We didnt cope at all, a lot of nonsense spoken blaming Hughton and picking the wrong team. It was never going to be pretty but too many of our team didnt turn up. Final thought some people wanting us to be more like Brum need to get a sanity check, they will get found out next season playing like that, they certainly wont be top half.

Yup.  Mick's Cardiff have already been 'found' out.  And their balloon popped accordingly.

SA.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

The Official Forest twitter account just tweeted the video of the Grabban penalty kick with the strap line 'never in doubt'.

I'm not sure I concur.

I fully expected it to be saved at the time, looked so obvious where he was going to place it even if he did strike it pretty well.

[Joe Baker Legend]

The Penalty incident....
https://twitter.com/i/status/1385184638545580034

[Paplane]

One thing that has crossed my mind is the state of their pitch last night. Grass very short and the pitch was hard, had obviously not been watered and the bounce of the ball much higher than usual. Is this something that Bowyer has done specifically since he came in. Brum have a lot of tall players and the bounce would not be as hard to deal with. Their players would be used to it and could train on it as there would be fewer divots. Reminiscent in the opposite way to Direby's pitch when they won the championship and were used to playing on a mud heap. Could be an explanation of their upturn in form since Bowyer came in although let's face it some of the ball control and passing from Forest was absolutely terrible.

It sounds like an excuse but it was a massive factor in the way the game panned out. It was impossible for us to make even straightforward passes like we would normally like to do. It totally negated Garner's game for us and Mighten was a non existent entity as we couldn't play balls up to him and he couldn't control balls played into him. Players were slipping, it was bobbling away and yet longer passes played on the ground were skipping away too. And as Brum are now playing as a Wimbledon tribute act, it played into their strengths. It wouldn't surprise me if Bowyer was asking for that pitch to be prepared. He will have been looking for every opportunity to gain an advantage, as is his right.

Nice to hear a rational analysis of the game last night, Pap'.  Fair comment.

'Wimbledon tribute act.'  LOL.

Ya think Lee asked for it to be dug up and sanded?  Old school 70s/80s style?

SA.

Pap, wasn't a certain Brian Howard Clough reported to have spent the night at the Baseball Ground watering the pitch to make it as boggy as possible before Derby played Juventus in the European Cup Semi Final, 2nd leg?  :D

Yep, isn't the story that he fell asleep though and ended up absolutely flooding the pitch? I must get his autobiography off the shelf and give it another read.

[Tricky]

One thing that has crossed my mind is the state of their pitch last night. Grass very short and the pitch was hard, had obviously not been watered and the bounce of the ball much higher than usual. Is this something that Bowyer has done specifically since he came in. Brum have a lot of tall players and the bounce would not be as hard to deal with. Their players would be used to it and could train on it as there would be fewer divots. Reminiscent in the opposite way to Direby's pitch when they won the championship and were used to playing on a mud heap. Could be an explanation of their upturn in form since Bowyer came in although let's face it some of the ball control and passing from Forest was absolutely terrible.

It sounds like an excuse but it was a massive factor in the way the game panned out. It was impossible for us to make even straightforward passes like we would normally like to do. It totally negated Garner's game for us and Mighten was a non existent entity as we couldn't play balls up to him and he couldn't control balls played into him. Players were slipping, it was bobbling away and yet longer passes played on the ground were skipping away too. And as Brum are now playing as a Wimbledon tribute act, it played into their strengths. It wouldn't surprise me if Bowyer was asking for that pitch to be prepared. He will have been looking for every opportunity to gain an advantage, as is his right.

Nice to hear a rational analysis of the game last night, Pap'.  Fair comment.

'Wimbledon tribute act.'  LOL.

Ya think Lee asked for it to be dug up and sanded?  Old school 70s/80s style?

SA.

Pap, wasn't a certain Brian Howard Clough reported to have spent the night at the Baseball Ground watering the pitch to make it as boggy as possible before Derby played Juventus in the European Cup Semi Final, 2nd leg?  :D

Yep, isn't the story that he fell asleep though and ended up absolutely flooding the pitch? I must get his autobiography off the shelf and give it another read.

:D :D :D

[Paplane]

The Official Forest twitter account just tweeted the video of the Grabban penalty kick with the strap line 'never in doubt'.

I'm not sure I concur.

I fully expected it to be saved at the time, looked so obvious where he was going to place it even if he did strike it pretty well.

It's probably unfair to suggest that it was only the accuracy and the pace of the strike that meant the keeper didnt save it. I've got this theory that he's got a poor record at penalties because keepers can read his run up and not being a natural finisher, half the time he cant achieve the quality like he did last night. 

I noticed he was adamant he was taking it though. I thought I saw Murray asking him the question.