Nottingham Forest – Villa; A fixture missed

So it’s been 23 years since Forest were last in the top flight.
That’s a long time and while I can think of bigger clubs that ought to be at the party (Sunderland, for example) I do feel their history is sufficient for me to quite miss them.

Indeed, one of my best footy memories was when we played them away in the league cup as was, around 1979. I don’t remember the final score, but we were 3 down at half time and I think it ended 1-5 or similar.
What sticks in my mind most was the probably 10,000 fans we took and seriously taking the proverbial out of their rustic away stand, where we were completing chants by banging on the corrugated roof that covered it. Yes, it was that low.
How times change and what Cloughie did for that club was truly fantastic. The stand that his achievements built is still probably their best, I would imagine.

After gambling and spending money like a western government in the summer, I think Forest have had something like 22 players come in to the club and unsurprisingly they haven’t really jelled yet, meaning they’re currently looking absolute favourites for bottom place come the end of the season.
In fact they’ve been so poor that Steve Cooper was looking a cert for the chop on Monday.
Imagine my pleasant surprise then, to find that the club have instead given him a new contract until 2025.
I found that really refreshing, but wonder if I would have felt the same if I was a Forest fan? Do they want him gone?

Whatever, I wonder if we’re going to do our usual charity act and give them the points, as we usually do against any club that needs a change from their usual results.
The strange part is that if Forest had sacked Cooper, they’d have probably got a new manager bounce against us, because that’s usual too, isn’t it?
It’s probably more like we’re really not that difficult to beat.

Squad news is that Leon Bailey has tweaked a muscle behind his knee and is therefore doubtful.
Augustinsson is out for around three weeks because of a hammy issue and they haven’t even worked out Digne’s heel problem yet, so he’s likely out for weeks too.
Jed steer and Diego Carlos are long term problems but Boubacar Kamara might make it back in time for the world cup.

Forest have a full squad to pick from.

So Forest have lost five games on the trot and we’re unbeaten in our last three.
It ought to be pretty straight forward then, eh?

Except we’re the Villa and our last three results haven’t convinced me we’re going anywhere soon.
We still look short of creativity and even on the odd chances we create something, we look toothless up front. Watkins, who I really like, would have been dropped a few weeks back to give another striker a go because he’s just been miles off it.
Which only tells me that Gerrard doesn’t rate Ings in the slightest.
Which is okay, because neither do I. He is often blowing early in the second half and is not the man to lead the Villa line on his own given the way we play, in my opinion.

Archer though, is another question. I’d even stomach say, 70 minutes of Ings on his own up front if it meant the lad would replace him for the last twenty minutes.
I made a jokey comment the other day that I thought Gerrard was under orders to not play Archer just so he couldn’t ruin him, the same as he seems to have many other Villa players.
If he doesn’t get a decent run out soon, I might begin to think that I was actually right.

Why we persist with the same lack of goalscoring without even giving Archer a go is beyond me and I keep going back to that recent press conference, where Gerrard was incredibly rude and asked if the Birmingham Mail reporter was an Archer fan or something, when he queried his lack of playing time.
How ignorant, or more likely just arrogant, of Gerrard to seemingly not understand the fact that many Villa fans are wondering why he won’t give the kid a go.

As much as I think we’re rubbish as a team, I’m hoping that we should just have too much for Forest, so am going to say we’ll win 1-0.

But I have as much conviction as some criminal who’s just got off scot free.
Which will probably describe Forest perfectly. Ie, they should have lost, but didn’t, same as Leeds last week.
It’s the Villa way and has been for years.