Football

Only at the FA could a DVD be produced of the greatest ever England players – and they neglect to pick a single black player.

FA apologises for DVD ‘oversight’

From the BBC Football site:

Brighton 0-0 Nottm Forest

Paul Gerrard’s first-half penalty save earned Nottingham Forest a point in their relegation tussle with Brighton.

Gerrard brought down Leon Knight after 10 minutes but pulled off a stunning one-handed stop to deny him a goal.

Brighton created the early chances as Richard Carpenter shot wide and Gerrard saved from Knight and Kerry Mayo.

But Forest improved and Andy Reid twice tested Michel Kuipers, Kris Commons diverted Marlon King’s cross wide and Kuipers saved from King’s snap-shot.

# Brighton boss Mark McGhee:
“It was important not to lose to Forest, regardless of how it looked. I’m happy with the draw.

“If we take a point a game from now on we should stay up. What was really important was that we denied Forest three points which they badly needed.

“This was not our best passing game of our unbeaten sequence of matches, but the pitch was a bit bumpy.”

# Forest boss Gary Megson:
“It gives us something to build on, and this was a slight improvement to get a point.

“It’s a huge task and it doesn’t get any easier. But there are 16 games to go and a lot of points to play for.

“We need to get better technically in both boxes. We made a hesitant start but created chance after chance.”

Brighton: Kuipers (May 85), Mayo, El-Abd, Hinshelwood, Butters, Harding, Reid, Carpenter, Oatway, Knight, Hart (Jones 88).
Subs Not Used: Nicolas, Molango, Hammond.

Booked: Oatway, El-Abd.

Nottm Forest: Gerrard, Louis-Jean, Rogers, Morgan, Doig, Evans, Reid, Commons, Derry, Taylor, King (Johnson 90).
Subs Not Used: Doyle, Thompson, Impey, Folly.

Booked: Gerrard, Reid.

Att: 6,704.

Ref: P Taylor (Hertfordshire).

A tough one today. I understand that Megson is likely to play 3-5-2 again, with Wes Morgan and Andy Reid back from injury: Gerrard; Doig, Morgan, Dawson; Louis-Jean, Derry, Reid, Commons, Rogers; King, Taylor.

Hopefully he won’t be playing David Johnson.

My prediction? 0-1 to Forest. I gotta be optimistic!

Not a great weekend for Forest. A 2-1 home defeat against Millwall leaves us further in the mire. The usual cliche about a new manager bringing with him a few points clearly isn’t a truism as well.

I was disappointed with Megson’s appointment for about 10 minutes. After that time, the plus points made me delighted to have this man in charge.

He’s a born motivator, a man who managed to get West Bromwich Albion (West Bromwich Albion!) promoted to the Premiership twice. Clearly a man who can get the best out of mediocre players. And boy, are the players at Forest mediocre. Sure, he plays (ahem) direct football, but if that’s what it takes to pull ourselves out of the relegation zone then that’s fine too.

Plus he favours 5-3-2 which puts you at an immediate advantage in the Championship. This is because teams in that division hardly ever stray from straight 4-4-2. Being confronted by something different might just make teams a little more wary of us.

But the squad does need strengthening. There’s talk of Baggies’ central defender Darren Moore joining the club. A big and strong (and slow) centre-half, he should add a bit of experience to a dangerously young back line. The other need is for a goalscorer. David Johnson is looking more and more like a crap striker who had one lucky season for us. Marlon King has the look of a player who will never be the finished article. Gareth Taylor is a plucky target man, but no-one in their right minds would rely on him for goals. Neil Harris is yet to prove himself – but I would like to see him given a chance.

There are plenty of players at Premiership clubs who aren’t getting a game. Not just WBA, though Megson’s links makes it difficult to think that players wouldn’t be willing, like Moore, to drop down a division. Geoff Horsfield is a big, uncompromising centre-forward who, unlike Taylor, scores goals. Rob Hulse is another, who hasn’t really had a chance in recent times, but who has proved himself at this level.

On top of a couple of Moore, and a couple of strikers, I’d like to see one more centre-half and a left back or wingback.

Sadly, Brian Clough died yesterday. As a Nottingham Forest fan, he obviously meant a great deal to me from a football perspective, simply for what he achieved with the club. It would appear that 30 years after he first took charge at Forest, they have returned to where they were before him – a bog standard second class team.

It was also his life which has fascinated me. I usually steer well clear of sports biographies, but made an exception for Clough’s two excellent books. The bragging is there, of course, but his achievements were remarkable. He is a candidate for a posthumous knighthood, it is a scandal that he didn’t receive one in his lifetime.

After his disastrous spell at Leeds United (where he told the star studded squad on his first day that all their achievements were meaningless, because they had been won by cheating) many have said that Clough couldn’t handle big stars and that therefore he wouldn’t have been a successful manager of England. Nonsense. If the superstars wouldn’t play his way, he wouldn’t have picked them! He’d have assembled an England squad made of his kind of player, and rather than have a rag-bag of big name players, he would have forged a team from rough diamonds, as he did at Forest and Derby.

Anyway, rest in peace, Cloughie. You’ve earned it.