I’ve struggled to get excited about the supposed rivalry between Forest and Palace. You can’t manufacture these mutual hatreds, just because you’ve got a crap Chairman who doesn’t understand how to open up his emails.
I think the rivalry said more about the provincial ambitions of Palace, than it does about where Forest plan to be in the next three to five years.
Having said that, I did find myself singing along to the Marinakis chants shortly after KO. I don’t think that the Big Fat Greek was actually in the ground. But that’s not the point.
It was a lively start from both teams. Brennan was a worry for the first ten minutes or so. He then seemed to sack off the rest of the match and looked an imposter to the player who sold on to Spurs for £50M. I’d rather have Ryan Yates, any day.
It was nice to see Hendo again, this time in goal for Palace. He served Forest under very testing circumstances. Making the ‘keeper your Captain tells you all you need to know about the situation Place currently find themselves in.
Elsewhere on the pitch, and Hughes was living up to his Pantomime villain persona. To be fair to the D***y reject, he’s done rather well for himself managing to earn a Premier League wedge on very limited talent.
Standing out for Forest in the first half was MGW. He saw his chance in the box and took it. We need more goals from midfield. Harry Hodge made a career out of this. With all the current Forest talk currently fixated on forwards, we tend to forget the value of a box to box goalscorer.
It was at this point that I started to obsessively refresh the BBC live PL table. Blimey - that looks a lot better. We’ll be in touching distance of Europe soon.
Oh hang on - Neco was in touching distance of the ball whilst defending the goal line. WHAT A SAVE! To be fair, it’s the one mistake that he has made wearing the Garibaldi Red. Backs against the wall time, fellas. The second half is going to be a HORRID watch.
Morato Time came about 45 minutes too early for my liking. I was also surprised with the appearance of Ndyoe, instead of, y’know, the two recognised strikers that we have on the bench. It makes me think that Lucca isn’t match fit, and poor old Taiwo can’t be exposed to any injury ahead of a possible shipping out in the morning.
And so what looked like a cruising to three home points after the first five minutes, then became a well-deserved point. It makes the Chelsea win over West Ham all the more important.
Never a dull day down at the World Famous.