Trentside Tales - Nottingham Forest F.C & Notts CCC
- Neil Harrison
The Football League Play Offs
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Introduced to the Football League for the 1st time in the 1986/87 season, the play offs to date, are not something that Nottm Forest fans can recall any happy memories from. They have largely been a 'nightmare'. That said, they have been good for football overall keeping many team's seasons alive for much longer than they normally might have been.
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Our nightmare began at the end of the 2002/3 season. We had finished a comfortable 6th place and so would play Sheffield Utd, 1st leg at the CG. It all started well with a David Johnson screamer on 55 mins at the Trent End, only for them to level from the penalty spot 3 mins later. 7 mins from time, disaster as Michael Dawson is somewhat unluckily sent off. The game ends 1-1 in front of 29,064 and we are off to Sheffield 5 days later for the 2nd leg.
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Just ahead of kick off at Bramall Lane, Michael Dawson takes his seat in the away end, a reminder that we have not got the talented youngster on the pitch. 58 mins in and it doesn't seem to matter as Andy Reid adds to David Johnson's 1st half goal & 6,000 Forest fans go wild. Then it all started to go wrong... on the hour they get one back and 8 mins later it's 2-2.
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112 mins on the clock and Paul Peschisolido weaves his way past numerous Forest defenders and it's 3-2, 5 mins later it's 4-2 as Des Walker (not for the 1st time) puts through his own net. There is still a cruel twist of the knife to come as Forest bring it back to 4-3 on 119 mins and still then almost level it in stoppage time to take the tie to penalties, but it is not to be. we lose 4-3 and 5-4 on aggregate. The players are out on their knees, the fans are too, everyone has given it everything and you can ask no more as tears flow.
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My daughter Natalie (then aged 14) can't face school the next day and I sanction that. I have to face work much to the delight of all the Derby fans I work with, a couple of whom worked for me in my team.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-csp0YNtW4 Play off semi-final 2nd leg - Sheff Utd 4 v 3 Forest (Agg 5-4) ... Jonno's Tears
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So, 4 years on and we find ourselves in the League One play off semi-final. I drove down to Yeovil on a Friday night in some dreadful weather, on the M5 and the journey takes nearly 5 hours! We don't really play all that well but win 2-0. The journey back only takes 3 hours and we are in high spirits. Wembley here we come... surely?
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The 2nd leg at the CG on 18th May is surely a formality but we are nervous and go in at half time trailing 1-0. 2 mins into the 2nd half we are level on the night 1-1 & it remains that way with just 8 mins to go. Then inexplicably we conspire to concede 2 late goals and get Prutton sent off as the game goes into extra time. Within 2 mins it's 1-4, the CG crowd is shell shocked. A minute later it's 2-4 ... all level again but we are down to 10; effectively 9 as Alan Wright can barely walk. The final killer blow on 109 mins - an Aaron Davies goal, who had run us ragged all night, and who we would sign for the following season, along with Chris Cohen, who had also played well for Yeovil that night. Davies would later prove useless for Forest; Chris Cohen is one of the best players at our club to this day.
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And so, in unbelievable circumstances, it would be another season in League One. It was a bad night to be a Forest fan... that is putting it mildly.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI-RO51QMf8 If you can bare to watch ... Forest 2 v 5 Yeovil in front of a shell shocked CG crowd of 27,819
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2009/10 was a season where much more was achieved than was expected as Billy Davies guided the Reds to 3rd spot. The only slight disappointment being that after a wonderful 3-1 win at West Brom on the 8th Jan we overtook them and went 2nd, then 2 games later we hammered QPR 5-0 at the CG. Had it been 6 we would have gone top!
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We fell away a little after that and in the end were 12 points outside the automatic 2 spaces and so we would meet 6th place Blackpool. The worrying things were that they had already beaten us twice during the season & they had only secured a play off spot with a fairly late run securing it on the last day, despite only drawing their game at home to Bistol City, and Swansea who finished 1 point behind them, only drawing with Doncaster.
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At Blackpool, on a shocking pitch, a Chris Cohen gave us an early lead but we ended up losing 2-1, but confidence was still quite high as the sides met 3 day later at the CG.
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Again, all started well with an Earnshaw goal on 7 mins to level the tie on aggregate & that was the way it stayed until half time. In the 2nd half Campbell levelled for Blackpool on 56 mins before Robbie Earnshaw scored again on 66 to restore parity overall. On 72 mins Dobbie equalised for Blackpool with a lucky deflection and within 7 mins DJ Campell had gone on to complete his hat trick. Adebola scored on 90 mins to make it 3-4 on the night and the Reds were out 4-6 on aggregate. Overall, we could not complain as the majority of the 28,358 drifted away with more play off misery to bear... but it had been a good season.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=raBdAP2lH7Q Forest 3-4 Blackpool (Play off Semi-Final 2nd leg ... Agg 4-6) ... watch if you can bear it
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2010/11 - Another good season under Billy including a double over Derby: a 5-2 win at the CG on the 29th Dec (my eldest daughter Sarah's birthday) and at last, a win at Pride Park 1-0 in January. Whilst we finished in 6th - 3 pts ahead of Leeds, we had finished relatively comfortably although it technically went to the last game. Swansea, a good side awaited us in the semi-final.
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A goaless draw at the CG, and in all honesty despite them being down to 10 men from 2 mins they were the better side.
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For the 2nd leg, we decided to travel to Swansea by coach from the Ground. I will advise you of the relevance of that shortly. We were poor in the 1st half and went in 2-0 down at the interval. 79 mins and Earnshaw who had only been on the pitch 2 mins makes it 2-1, shortly after it's almost 2-2 but only almost. 2 mins into stoppage time Pratley, who we had tried to sign, finishes the tie and we are out again.
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The Swansea fans invade the pitch to celebrate, - you couldn't blame them, but Billy battled his way through to thank the 2,000 or so (our full allocation) Forest fans, amidst more tears. Everyone had given their all but once again it was not to be.
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About 4 hours later (2AM) as the coaches pulled nto the BC car park, Billy was already there greeting the fans off the coaches and shaking everyone's hand. Little did we know what was around the corner!
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Our Play Off record to date ... P8 W1 D2 L5 F13 A19 ... not the best and a whole lot of heartache. When we do eventually succeed in the play offs it will be extra special having had to endure all the pain & heartache - that is the way of football!
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