Opposition Fans Comments

[Simon]

surprised how much support the cowleys are getting given their situation...

[Username]

They call us dirty but Chalobah clearly stamped on Sow's forehead in the reverse fixture and got away with it.

[zicorice]

Cheers Joe, be interesting to see whether they are just awful or we were actually any good. Less confident after reading these. Still youve got to put away the bad teams

They've had a woeful season and are in the bottom 3 for a reason. But they needed beating and we did that, comfortably in the end.

Just the sort of game we have slipped up in on numerous occasions. Any 3 points in this league is hard earned.

[PsychoStanleyStone]

despite all the above lamentations in sackcloth and ashes

Huddersfield played well, Samba was busy and they covered every blade of grass several times in our penalty area

We just looked more confident and Worrals cross was pure class along with the other assists, the sort of things that don't happen when your down at the bottom

[Joe Baker Legend]

Reds v Bristol City
Only a few Pre Match comments available....

What will he do, play Nahki and Benik down the middle with Kasey Palmer just behind. A start for Zak Vyner and Eliasson. Marley Watkins on the bench in case it goes wrong. PLay a 5,4,1 and try and hang on for a point, which would be an improvement.Will we have two players on the post when defending corners. After 7 changes on Sunday my guess is he will play the same starting line stating "as we played well up to their two goals." I will give the players my trust in them to do a job.See you all on Wednesday night.

Right now I could not care less!...

Marley Watkins’s on the bench in case it goes wrong .... give me strength

3-4 changes again, who those will be is anybody’s guess,.

Forest didn’t break sweat yesterday could be a long night.

Johnson has had 3 months to work out his best team. And we see 7 changes from his first game. Heaven knows how many changes there will be for the next game. He is truly pathetic.

5 or 6 changes has every week. just pull 11 out of the hat. be better than the way johnson and his coaches are doing it.

I’m hoping for 14 injuries which forces LJs team selection...and that we end up winning. Could be the start of another good run.

The only nailed on player should be Maenpaa. Did nothing wrong and commanded his box

Let`s just ******* go for it. A draw`s no good but I`d rather we went down guns blazing than just surrender without a whimper.

I`d sooner lose 4-2 but put up a fight than grind out a 0-0 which is no use to man nor beast.

There's only one change needed. I'll leave it there.

Draw numbers from a bag. Can't do any f'kin worse. Shower of shite

Back to the team, if he changes formation yet again I will be convinced he's lost the plot. 3 months to consider options, 7 changes for his second game and you already know there will be at least 3 more for Forest. I have a feeling he will go 3-5-2 as he want Wells central and he wanted better hold up play, which Benik would give him. That , I would hope, would signal to the Owner and board that he has lost his way and should be released.
Not sure who is available, I've seen Hughton mentioned and I think he would be a good fit but more importantly a change now would give the new man a good chance to assess the squad.

Anyone else think it's nailed on we'll win? LJ does tend to get a result when he is under pressure. Or is it wishful thinking?!

Nope, be absolutely amazed if we did.

Who knows the side or formation. With 20 players used . Players playing out of position . Certain player who IMO is very poor and seems undroppable must have something written in his contract. Not confident at all and expect a 3-0 drubbing unfortunately. Will struggle to watch it especially if I see what I saw on Sunday regarding players and positions.

Let's be honest. The body language, disinterest and lack of application from the players in the last two games suggest they probably dread being selected for the Forest game.

Johnson should ask Tim Sherwood to help him with this game.

As an aside: Irene was probably miffed when Robin Hood maid Marian

Horrible thing to admit but I'm beyond caring - as our play off ambitions are over, in one sense hoping we get a few thrashings, means to an end sadly..!

I was at the Senior Reds dinner when you asked LJ about our identity and style. I, along with everyone in the room, didnt understand his answer then, and I dont understand his thinking now.  Im pretty sure he still hasnt decided his team for Forest and is probably worried more about their squad than ours.

Yep, he's already picked their team.

[PsychoStanleyStone]

that's a good read Joe

Johnson the Bristol Manager has gone from Hero to Zero to Hero back to Zero in less than 2 seasons, seems they have eventually made their mind up about him

[Joe Baker Legend]

Reds v Bristol City Pre Match Comments.....

So City head to Robin Hood and Brian Clough territory for this evening’s crunch match.  Defeat will surely end any faint hopes of playoffs, whilst a win will raise hopes exponentially.  Already fans are jumping ahead with comments like “if we win tonight and Saturday we will be level with Cardiff”.  This is Bristol City folks!!

Forest drew their first game back versus Wednesday, before comprehensively beating Huddersfield at the weekend, and sit in 5th place on 64 points (9 above us in 12th).  They played some good stuff in the process.

The Players:

Although Lamouchi might change the odd player with the heavy schedule, this team contains 10 of the 11 starters from when they played us earlier this season.

GK - Brice Samba (26) - Congo born, French (u19) stopper, signed from Caen in the summer for £1.9m.  A big old unit, who’s impressed me when I’ve seen him on Sky / Quest highlights.  Got the knack of keeping the ball out the bet, if sometimes looking a bit cumbersome. 4 clean sheets in 11 starts.  Super distribution with his left peg, appears to effortlessly stroke the ball about.

RB: Matty Cash (22) - Forest youngster who’s progressed through the ranks.  Lamouchi has converted him to RB, and in the modern game his experience as an attacking midfielder means he is a threat in the opponent’s final third.  Got an eye for a goal too, often long distance shots.

LB: Yuri Ribeiro (23) - Portugese u21 full-back, signed from Benfica in the summer for an undisclosed fee.  Primarily a Benfica B player having not made a league appearance for the A side.  Likes to get forward, and has a competitive streak to him.  Nice left peg too.

CB: Tobias Figuereido (26) - ex-Portugese u21 CB and B international, signed from Sporting in the summer of 2018 for £2m.  Only just forced his way back into the team when we played them at Ashton Gate, and prefers to be the cover rather than the attacking CB alongside Worrall.

CB: Joe Worrall (23) - local lad who’s had loans at Dagenham and G.Rangers before becoming first choice this season.  Big, strong lad, who looks a leader, and is the one who likes to attack the ball on the deck and in the air.  Good player.

CM: Ben Watson (34) - very experienced midfielder who won an FA Cup winners medal with Wigan (scoring the winner too).  Palace, Wigan, QPR and Watford on his CV, with close to 150 apps in the Premier League.  Important to Forest in winning the ball back, and always available for the simple pass.  The kind of player every team needs.

CM: Ryan Yates (22) - another Nottingham lad in the squad.  Started to become a regular this season and a big lad, who doesn’t seem afraid to leave his mark.  Likes to get forward.  Got a red card at Ashton Gate and will be a choice between him....

or

AM: Brennan Johnson (19) - son of David Johnson, ex-Forest and Ipswich striker, who’s just broken into the team.  Not seen anything of him, but ripped our u23s apart in August.

CM: Tiago Silva (27) - and now another Portugese player!  Signed from Feirense in the summer for an undisclosed fee.  Featured in most games this season and has 2 goals and four assists.  A very talented technician who plays in a similar vain to Ruben Neves. A lot of Portugese top flight experience, and his goals record there suggests there is more to come.

RW: Joe Lolley (27) - not the usual route into pro football for this player, having been released by Brum and embarked on further education, eventually finding himself at Kidderminster, before hitting the bigger time at Huddersfield, where he was linked with City.  Got a very good left foot, and not afraid to shoot, often cutting in from the right.  Works well with Cash, and not just from a pun point of view!

LW: Sammy Ameobi (28) - younger brother of Carl Cort (old Bobby Robson joke re Shola!!) who also started at Newcastle. Probably had his best form at Bolton, before arriving in Notts on a free in the summer. Can be a bit ungainly looking, but a player who has a lot of skill and long stride to nick the ball away from defenders. Got a good left foot on him, as some of you may remember. My Dangerman tomorrow. The kind of player City fans would turn their nose up at, but is very effective, with 3 goals and 9 assists.

CF: Lewis Grabban (32) - the oldest player is a young team, who appeared to have the life of a journeyman in Lg1/2, before his career took off, and big money moves from Bournemouth, Norwich and loans to Sunderland and Villa, before arriving at Forest in the summer for £6m. Top scorer with 19 goals this season, and a real threat inside the box, as well as a good link man outside it.

Other Players of Note:

Costos Pantillimon - giant, but erratic keeper

Tyler Walker - son of Des, a player I really like who had productive scoring loans at Mansfield and Lincoln (with Morrell)

Joao Carvalho - tricky Portugese forward

and....

Albert Adomah - must loved by City fans, who’s maybe at the back-end of his career, but loves City back. Been on loan at Cardiff, but Forest have not allowed him to extend it. He won’t be available tonight.

Jamie Paterson goes back to his old club too.

Key Match-ups:

With City’s line-up impossible to pick, it’s tough to look at the key mini-battles. But expecting Dasilva to start, so he will undoubtedly be facing either Lolley or Ameobi and different stages together with back-up from Cash. A strong performance from Jay may be a factor in us getting a result.

I expect Ashley Williams to keep his place too, and him and Grabban will be two experienced players battling it out. Grabban not one to run off the shoulder in general play, so Williams can deal with that, but he comes alive around the box.

Whoever plays up top, will need to be mobile, there will be gaps where Cash and Ribeiro have got forward. Much as I’d like to see Afobe, I think I’d start with Wells and Weimann.

My City Line-up:

Surely Lee must persist with 433 with little prep time from Sunday.

Maenpaa / Hunt, Kalas, Williams, Dasilva / Nagy, Smith, Massengo / Weimann, Wells, Eliasson (or Afobe)

LJ could bring Vyner in at RB or DM. I think DM is a massive ask for him, but at RB I’d be comfortable, he’s done it at this level for Rotherham.

The front three have got to play closer together too.

Prediction:

2-1 to Forest.

3-0 Forest.

They will blow us away.

Yet another great report by Dave F. My prediction is a 3-3 entertaining encounter.

comfortable 2-0 home win

Cannot see past anything but an absolute drubbing tonight 0-4 and less than 2 shots on target.
It's taking all of my willpower not to include Forest in my acca for tonight, it would feel like the ultimate betrayal but my word if there was ever a home banker...

Much as I would love us to win, I can't see beyond a drubbing by Forest.

And to be honest I really don't give a F anymore, I don't care if Johnson stays or goes.

Grabban to pull our pants down.

Fascinated to know how LJ approaches this.
His usual instinct would be keep it tight and try to nick something on the counter.
But normally a draw at Forest would be a good result. Not tonight!
Our cautious creature needs to go against his nature, and how does he do that?!

While this muppet is at the helm anything is possible.

Well I fully expect team changes , and Bentley to start. Up front.

Hard one to call, Forest are on a good run , want to cement that play off position, and may just prove hard to break down. We will also be more resolute in defence which will mean one shot on goal each half for us. We may sneak a 1-0 to keep the Bristol red flag flying, but if they get an early goal I expect heads to drop as the season will be practically over. You need more or less 70/67 points for play offs, I cannot see 5/4 wins from the last 6 games. But I doubt there will be a battering as NF will be wanting any points at this stage of the season so will settle for that.

So 1 nil either way.

5-0 to Florist and after the match Steve gives Lee a 3 year contract extension to "steady the ship and silence the chattering classes!"

It's hard to say how it might go.

We'll likely lose in any case but bear in mind the following- and this is thinking pre injury, or other enforced changes or whatever so my view might change when we get a better idea of team news!

Nottingham Forest, rarely for a home side in the top third/top half say, aren't a side who focus overly on possession. Cardiff. at times Millwall and one other- can we guess who the other is? No prizes however!If we force them to come out a bit and I don't mean park the bus, I mean a positive counter pressing game, this can open u[ space and opportunity to exploit their errors- or at least force them out of a comfort zone. See Middlesbrough and Millwall away from last year as two notable examples. Less ball, vs sides we'd often expect to have more against and we win. I'm all for the progressive, possession based game in general btw.They appear to be better without the ball. Forcing sides without the ball to have more of it can as above, force them out of a comfort zone. At home as well, this onus can increase on a side to push even if comfortable with less of the ball but the lack of a home crowd may negate this factor.Where they diverge from us is that they have reasonable shot dominance but not so much in terms of possession- we have neither!

I'd either go with my favoured 4-3-3 (whatever variant) and look to outmanouvere or I'd look to capitalise on their style and counter press them into issues.

[PsychoStanleyStone]

the respect and talking us up and drooling over all our players what is happening Joe?

[Joe Baker Legend]

the respect and talking us up and drooling over all our players what is happening Joe?

PSS, I think they are pissed off with the manager, one of their supporters is predicting a 5-0 smashing, taking a leaf out of your book, hope he is correct! coyrs

[PsychoStanleyStone]

the respect and talking us up and drooling over all our players what is happening Joe?

PSS, I think they are pissed off with the manager, one of their supporters is predicting a 5-0 smashing, taking a leaf out of your book, hope he is correct! coyrs

the smashing bit was right but not in a good way

[Joe Baker Legend]

Forest v Bristol City Comments...

Unfortunately the Fans Site I was monitoring is closed for maintenance, so I had to pinch these off Mr Plummer, thank you!

I suspect a fair number of us over 45ers can remember the day we got a result in the cup at the City ground. I am saying this from pure memory. The most vivid part of the trip north was when we scored, someone help me out and say who - Barnard?, I was at the front of the long stand. I jumped for joy ripping a 6' gash in my new green cords. Plus a bit of blood later I recovered my sense of balance and thought for a while we were invincible.

Paul Mardon if you mean the League cup semi 89.

And John Pender but at the wrong end.

A fantastic night. I can still recall to this very day the Forest fans giving it large. When Mardon scored, it was awesome. I have to say that night we were brilliant and you had to feel for John Pender. All in all, it was brilliant.

Looks like it’s hoofball time with that lineup.

I bet O'Dowda will open the score with a bicycle kick and Williams will make it 0-2 with a header from midfield. Then Grabban will score a hat-trick and celebrate by dancing with Samba.

I think the bench would beat the starting eleven.

Cmon Forest. I want him gone.

Bristol City TV is educational as ever. It turns out that Nottingham Forest used to managed by retired sports commentator Barry Davies...

Matty Cash not booked for that is quite incredible.

Shocking decision.

Amazing decision, borderline red.

It was a red!

In the Prem with VAR could easily been red.

Own up who paid Cash to take out Odowda...

Who are Florest showing the game on the main screen for?

Suspect the honest answer is the money from running the sponsorship ads...

Excellent start so far.

Come on you reds.

Forest are in red.

We need to score before half time. Nottingham will be better second half.

Forest aren't pressing at all, feels like they want us to attack.

City have played well, but Forest are also used to not having the ball and countering. Don't think they'll be too upset with how the game has gone so far - we need to make our possession count and get a goal.

Excellent first half, even if we only created half chances, nothing from them.

We are playing well, but i fear this has got 1-0 Forest written all over it. Worth noting they have scored 2/3 of their goals in the second half of games.

That's the spirit.

Forest giving surprisingly lots of space and time, and we are using it well. Lots of running and movement. Forest look poor today, we look better than the last 2 games.

Forest are so boring to watch. Sit back with their big centre backs and try and hit on break. And they look dangerous on corners. Very systematic in how they play.

Forest have swapped what wing Ameobi is on. Expect quite a few high diagonal balls to him to try and take advantage of his height advantage over Jay.

Free kick somewhere we really don't want to concede one.

1 - 0 Forest.

Stupid challenge from Weimann, hard work undone like that.

A good FK but can't help feel it was gifted.

Harsh on us.

Was very good free kick but we don't deserve it.

Stupid challenge by Weimann when they had lost possession

Ridiculous, he’d lost the ball and he’s on a yellow. No need at all.

And that’s why you have to score when you’re on top. Always always always. Better first half and look what it got us, one shot on target.

Fail to capitalise on multiple chances...
They get one.....

Not really multiple chances, just decent build up play.

This thread gets infinitely busier when we’re losing. Sad really.

It's not as if we have been creating chances and Samba has been pulling worldies out of his arse, or desparste defending is saving goals, we have created half chances and nothing more.

People saying we don't deserve to be losing are wrong, teams of quality like Forest are always going to have opportunities to score and they were always likely to take one, we have played well but as always this not reflected in chances created, we create very little opportunities and as result don't and haven't scored enough.

Ah yes, Williams. The professional older cool head.

What an idiot.

Ashley Williams. Please **** off out of our club. Second stupid red this season.

Williams is a **** but a push in the chest is not a red.

Unfortunate that he elbowed him in the face then really.

Williams gets a Red but the Forest lad who kicked COD in the face didn’t even get spoken to

Dry your eyes. That's football.

First half was very good but didnt look like scoring. Second half alot poorer but didnt look like scoring.

Did we really play well during the first half No goals and no good chances.

Forest sat back first half. We dominated but didn't really have a chance. Second half Forest seemed to press a bit more and caused us more problems. Afobe sitter though. Has to score that.

Radio Nottingham : "that was a match of mediocrity"

Undeserved loss.

There are games where you do everything but score, keep is pulling saves out all over the place, you hit the post, bar and then you get done. That is an undeserved loss, a game where you barely create any chances despite playing OK, and then you conceded a goal is really not.

Did their keeper make a save?

Their Keeper didn’t make a save. Typical Forest performance. They let us have the ball in midfield.

He made some sandwiches and a pot of tea during the match.

I dont think you can judge on 45 minutes, especially against a very defensive side who also happen to be one of the best sides in the league.

Quite funny to hear the BBC Notts commentators endlessly talking about what a poor game it was and I was thinking this is one of the more interesting city games I've watched recently. We really have become accustomed to a terrible standard of football.

We may have only had one chance but Forest are a decent outfit and City restricted them to one shot on target - the sublime free kick that won them the game.

That’s their style , playing on the counter. They played a waiting game and didn’t need to get into top gear to win it.

Forest look like a team on the up, well organised and put away their only free kick in a dangerous area, it is a skill gaining a result when you are not playing well.

Lamouchi is great at letting you have it and then squeezing you into half of the pitch when you go past the halfway line. He suffocates you.

[Tricky]

Some decent comments in amongst that lot.

Thanks once again for posting Joe