Sunday 1 January 2012

Forest too Good to go Down - Not this time!

In 1992 when the Premiership was a new beginning for the whole of English football, there was a phrase that started being associated with Nottingham Forest. Having finished a creditable 8th in the English top flight not to  mention appearing at Wembley twice in the League Cup and Simod Cup finals in the 1991-92 season, not many predicted that they would finish rock bottom of the Division a year later. Respected pundits from all over the country and various TV channels all were heard uttering those fateful words "Too Good To Go Down!".

Twenty Years later, Forest are facing a similar situation. A team that was so close to a Wembley playoff final last year and arguably boasted some of the Championships best players in McGugan, Camp, Chambers, Gunter Morgan and Blackstock are now three points adrift in the divisions relegation zone. In 1992 the team had many international stars - Roy Keane, Stuart Pearce, Nigel Clough, Neill Webb and Scot Gemmill yet a spate of injuries to key players and loss of confidence and form from the remaining players pushed the team down to what were then considered unimaginable depths.

This year Forest have suffered from a similar spate of injuries. Blackstock, Cohen, Anderson, Morgan, McCleary, Lynch, Maloney and Miller have all been out for lengthy periods and few can argue that 7 games without a goal is irrefutable evidence of a lack of confidence.

Given that Billy Davies' sacking and replacement by Steve McClaren was a bad decision, it still does not explain why a top six team can plummet into the bottom three in a matter of months. The same players that were scoring spectacular goals, keeping clean sheets and at times playing some champagne football are looking less likely to score a goal than a politician admitting they were wrong.

Billy Davies when he took over and rescued the team from a similar predicament called it his best achievement in football. Steve Cotterill has therefore got a gargantuan challenge in front of him to emulate that achievement in light of the fact that he will have much less financial support.

The one thing he does have however still is a strong squad of players most of whom have been through this situation before - Camp, Gunter, Chambers, Morgan, McGugan, and Blackstock. We know what they are capable of and must beileive that they can repeat the feat! For this they will need the support and belief from the fans so they can lift their game and performances.

New year brings new hope and like this time three years ago when Forest when to Man City and beat them 3-1, a new era can begin. I for one am very hopeful that this can start tomorrow at Ipswich. However what is certain is that Forest are NOT too good to go down this time round!