The Clarets lined up as expected with Dean Marney the only absentee, replaced by David Edgar as was the case at Doncaster. Forest had a few absentees but managed to get two centre halves on the field despite being down to their last one- a typically see-through attempt at mind games from Billy Davies prior to kick-off. I loved Sean Dyche’s quip about Forest being down to their last 32 players.
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| Michael Duff edged out Kieran Trippier for the man of the match |
I wasn’t at the Millwall game but the Bournemouth performance certainly wasn’t as dominant as in previous weeks and that form continued into the first twenty minutes as Forest dominated and went close a couple of times through a Lansbury free kick which clattered the bar, the rebound toe poked wide, and a couple of chances for lively striker Cox which he failed to get on target (a recurring theme for Forest’s attackers).
It was the Clarets who took the lead against the run of play, however, with an incisive breakaway culminating in a handball in the Forest penalty area by Jara from Trippier’s cross. Forest fans were bleating about the spot kick, as was Steve Claridge on last night’s Football League Show, but how anyone could expect any other decision is beyond me, it was a nailed on penalty even from our crap view in the away end. Vokes dispatched the penalty really well, as he did at Doncaster, and we had a lead to protect. A minute earlier, Forest fans had been singing “Top of the league, you’re having a laugh”, and a rousing return of “Top of the league and we’re having a laugh” was very enjoyable.
Forest came back, roared on by an impressively vocal crowd still smarting from their perceived injustice, and unfortunately we weren’t able to hold out till half time as Jamie Paterson avoided the half-hearted attentions of David Jones and scooped a marvellous ball to the far post where Simon Cox literally couldn’t miss. 1-1 at half time and both sides seemed content with that at the break.
The second half started with some really excellent and pulsating football, end to end stuff and there looked to be a good few goals in the game yet. Arfield had a shot well blocked, Ings had a drive deflected just wide, and was also stopped by a terrific last ditch tackle from Forest’s Chris Cohen when clean through on goal. At the other end, Forest had plenty of pressure and won a few corners but didn’t put Heaton under pressure, Lascelles heading their best chance wide.
The fairly ineffectual Kightly was replaced by the woeful Treacy (why Stanislas isn’t our first option from the bench, I will never understand) and the Forest pressure was ramped up as Dyche seemingly decided to settle for a point going into the last 15 minutes, with Vokes unable to hold the ball up against the excellent Lascelles. Trippier was fantastic on the right but Arfield and Mee struggled to contain the pressure on the left, although Forest huffed and puffed without seriously threatening our goal thanks to a combination of excellent defending (one Ben Mee series of blocks in particular was superb) and wasteful Forest shooting.
The consensus afterwards was that it was a good point and it was a game we might have lost a year ago, and it’s a fair one. We didn’t play anything like as well as we can going forward, but defensively we were excellent again and it has to be a member of the back four who earns man of the match. Michael Duff just edges out Kieran Trippier for me.
QPR and Leicester winning was a shame but we’re still top and that 7 point gap between 3rd and 4th is really nice to see. Hopefully we can extend it next week at ‘Uddersfield with an improved attacking performance.