The team news dropped.
OH HAI Ola!
That was a decent way to start Saturday lunchtime. Oh how we’ve missed his ability to defend and attack; oh how we’ve missed his humour.
Villa away is usually an entertaining fixture. I’ve always liked our Midland neighbours. I think it’s something to do with sharing the same European pedigree.
It wasn’t a great opening for Forest. Big John started as meant to carry on. Somehow we survived twenty minutes or so, playing what can at best be described as Cooper Ball.
Last season was clearly an outlier, with talk of the Champions League and attracting the best talent in Europe. We’re no better off now than we were under Cooper, struggling to find a plan in the PL, with players that are borderline up to the standard.
This was characterised by one of the crappest corners you will ever see at the top level. We took it short, Hutchinson managed to lose possession and Villa were away on the break. It’s the kind of attack that took us so far last season.
I lost count of the number of penalty appeals made by Villa in the first half. None of them were worthy shouts, but it showed how clumsy and nervous we are when it comes to defending.
The Villa goal when it finally arrived came as no surprise. The shot from Watkins was sweet. The defending was a little sour.
Bakwa struggled to clear for Villa’s second shortly after the break. He’s another name to add to the growing list of summer transfer misfits.
I couldn’t but help think that we’re no better than Wolves. But then later in the day, Wolves managed to smash West Ham 3-0. Maybe Wolves are actually a better team than Forest right now?
And then came the MGW goal on the break. Where did that come from? This was NO WAY a 2-1 game. But I’ll take anything right now. It led to Forest finally waking up and threatening to make a game of it.
No one told Big John it seems. I’ve watched Villa’s third goal more than a dozen times now. That’s the kind of thing you do when you’re BALLS DEEP in a relegation scrap. I still can’t work out what the chuff he was trying to do, coming rushing out from his goal.
Bye bye, Big John.
And so 3-1 away at Villa. I’m struggling for positives. At least Ola was back. McAtee doesn’t appear to have been completely written off just yet. Thankfully Taiwo remained a bench warmer.
West Ham away is going to be bloody HORRID. Don’t even think about what a Forest Vs Villa Europa League Final might look like.