Huddersfield Town 1 Forest 1

So we dropped our first league points of the season, but to come away from the Galpharm Stadium with anything makes a nice change for Forest!.

According to Stu (Mist Rolling in's unofficial away day reporter!) we didn't play well, & ended up hanging on for the draw, but we got the all important point (our 13th of the season) - we still haven't lost in the league & thanks to Yeovil...

We are Top of the league!!.

Grant Holt got our goal (his 4th of the season), he's going to have a new striking buddy next week if reports are confirmed, Junior Agogo will finally be unveiled as a Forest player on Tuesday!.

August's been a great month for Forest (with one minor slip up), here's hoping September & the rest of the season can match it! - Chesterfield at home on Saturday - bring it on!

Accrington Stanley 1 Forest 0

So then Sky, & the Tabloids, & no doubt the neutrals get what they want - Forest "Former Champions of Europe" beaten by a team who've been out of the League for 40 odd years.

Our history - you can't get enough of it can you, so go ahead & use it to take the piss all you want, keep mentioning it at every chance you get, it's a spent joke (which is really on you, if you think about it!), the crux of the matter is the same as it always has been - Jealousy.

Accrington Stanley - Who are they?.

I've had that texted to me twice since full-time, so here's the answer; a football team one division below us, labeled underdogs, so everyone loves them (meaning that even if we had won, we wouldn't be portrayed as winners), a team playing at home with added determination due to ahem! our "History" & the camera's being there, manage to win a scrappy game of football with a deflected shot.

We didn't play well, but I wouldn't say we deserved to lose.

Dunblavin made some great saves to keep us out in the last 20 minutes or so, especially from Grant Holt. The arrival of Holt, Lester, & Southall from the bench finally gave us some quality - replacing Clingan & Morgan who had both had poor games & Weir-Daley who I felt should have stayed on.

Why? should Weir-Daley have stayed on, because once again Neil Harris had failed to do anything of any use, how many chances are we going to give him? (he's Millwall's second highest goalscorer of all-time - how?), I really have no confidence that he could find the back of the net if he was two yards out & facing no keeper!.

This game has left me again with a very confused view on how capable we really are, in the two home games so far we have been poor - but won. However in the away league games I'm told we cruised to victory!. I saw no evidence of that tonight. Huddersfield will provide a much tougher test on Saturday lunchtime - but I can't honestly predict what we'll do there.

On the back page of that wonderful source of unreliability the Nottingham Evening Post tonight they had an article suggesting Calderwood may not follow up our interest in Agogo - I can only hope they've got it wrong again.

Forest 2 Brighton & Hove Albion 1

Well that makes it 4 out of 4 & our great start to the season continues. Grant Holt had a Man Of The Match performance - breaking our penalty curse to equalise & then heading in at the far post from another quality delivery from Nicky Southall (who was a close second for the MOTM Award himself).

It was fairly similar to the Bradford game in that they had the larger amount of possession - they didn't manage as many chances though, the only two of any note involved our keeper making a blunder & then more than rectifying it, the first a cross Smith let slip through his hands leading to their goal, & the second a brilliant save with his legs to prevent Brighton getting a share of the spoils in the last minute.

More later (I Promise!!)

Brighton Preview

First I've got to mention the saga that has become our move for Junior Agogo. We made a bid & it was rejected, rumours came back suggesting they wanted Harris or Spencer Weir-Daley in return.

We refused to up our offer, & then in the latest twist, with his heart set on joining Forest, Agogo has handed in his notice at Bristol City - citing a breach of his contract.

The breach being Bristol Rovers refusing to comply with his minimum fee release clause. He will become a free agent on September 1st & may end up joining us on a free - the PFA are backing his claim.

In other news Scott Dobie will appear for the reserves this week as he heads back from the injury that could have ended his career, Calderwood is hailing his return as like signing a new striker. Paul Smith is "loving it" at Forest so far & is confident that we can go all the way this season.

As for today we could be boosted with the return of Kris Commons - I think he'll probably only make the bench though, we'll be hoping that Sammy Clingan can pick up on the good performance he had for Northern Ireland in the week (I think he's due a goal).

It remains to be seen whether Harris's 2 goals for the reserves will see him start ahead of Jack, personally I'd keep Jack & Grant upfront so far so good. The other Holt, Gary is set to return to the starting line-up with Thompson likely to be dropped.

Brighton are not going to be pushovers & have yet to lose themselves so far this season so we're going to be in for a tough game this afternoon, however I'm confident that Calderwood has got us on the right track, the 3-5-2 seems to be working a lot better for him than it ever did for Megson & I know we've got the players who can revert to 4-4-2 with no problem.

I'm not to fussed about who takes the penalty's from now on, mainly because I think we could have used up our seasons quota in the first 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to the game & seeing whether we have really improved since the opening day victory or have just looked good against easier opposition.

All systems Agogo?

Well according to the forums, Vital Forest, & now the BBC, Calderwood is about to make his second signing.
Bristol Rovers striker Junior Agogo, who is 26 & a Ghanaian international, is due to join Forest for £250k (the amount of his release clause), he scored 19 goals last season in league two & Bristol Rovers turned down an offer from Southend for him in July.

The side are playing well & Jack & Grant are defnitely deserving of their places at the moment, but with Tyson out until December, I think it's a sensible move to bring in a striker with a bit of pace & who should score a fair few goals.

We'll have to wait & see just how done a deal it is, because both Southend & Plymouth are apparently still interested.

Northampton Town 0 Forest 1

A Chris Doig own goal keeps our 100% start to the season going.

Lester managed to miss another penalty, Wes had a goal disallowed, & we picked up 3 bookings.

However we're second in the league, we still haven't conceded, & even though Tyson's out for four months, & we've given David Pleat a job (God knows why) as our "Football Consultant", I'm a happy Forest supporter @ the moment!.

Official website Match report here

Blackpool 0 Forest 2

Woo Hoo!

Lester & Grant Holt got our goals + Lester managed to miss our second penalty of the season, but 6 points out of 6 can't be grumbled at can it?.

edit.

Seen the goals now - looks like aside from the Penalty miss the one decent Lester had & good game, & is linking well with Grant Holt upfront - which should bode well for the length of Tyson's injury.

Forest 1 Bradford City 0

Well we accomplished both aims, keeping Windass off the Score sheet & gaining our first 3 points of the season - thanks to Julian Bennett's 10th minute strike.

However it was a poor performance from Forest & if Bradford had found the finishing touch to go with their superior amount of possession they could of come away winners. Paul Smith was largely to thank for our clean sheet he pulled out some great saves to deny Windass in particular & looked a lot better than he did last week against Leeds.

Of course my predicted starting line-up was wrong, Calderwood sending us out in a 3-5-2 formation which worked in patches, but for the majority saw the midfield vanish to form a back 6 - which left us without a link between them & the front two.


Full thoughts later

It's here...

Nottingham Forest Squad 2006-07

3 O'clock this afternoon & another season of ups & downs begins - throwing away 2 goal leads, scoring last minute winners, losing to minnows in the cup, promotion, champions? - no one really knows & that's the beauty of it!.

Calderwood has come across well again in the recent slew of interviews he's had in the press this week, largely due once again with everyone outside the club predicting us to win the league.

Promotion does seem achievable, if we continue in the vein of Charlie & Frank & avoid following examples from the Megson era(error), with only a new goalkeeper coming in so far & no sign of any other imminent arrivals (despite rumors floating about on the forums), it's largely going to be down to last seasons team to push us onwards.

Not that I don't think they're capable - I still think we need a genuine creative midfielder, but we have options in the squad - maybe Clingan can develop into this?, maybe we could stick Lester in there & bring back Paul Hart's diamond, I'm sure Calderwood is aware of such thoughts, that's why I think he will wait until either the last week of August(if it's blatantly obvious we need knew blood in midfield), or the January transfer window to bring anyone new in.

As for today & the visit of Bradford I think that we'll line-up as follows(we'll see just how wrong I was later!):- Smith, Curtis, Morgan, Breckin, Bennett, Southall, Gary Holt, Clingan, Commons, Tyson, Grant Holt. Though this is relying on Commons, Clingan, & Curtis being 100% fit. I think it's a strong team, & one that if they find form early on can be up there all season, the major lesson they should have learned from last season is that no team in this league is a pushover, & it promises to be a tougher league with the teams who've come down from the Championship (Millwall, Crewe, & Brighton).

We have two aims today - 1. To come away with a win, & 2. To stop Dean Windass from scoring!

Stay tuned for a report on our first game later.

COME ON YOU REDS

Obligatory Predictions.

Prem: Arsenal
Champ: Birmingham
Lge 1: Forest
Lge 2: MK Dons

FA Cup: Chelsea
Lge Cup: Villa

Scot Prem: Celtic

Champions Lge: Chelsea