One Day in ‘79 was the strap line Forest used for the marketing push ahead of Malmo at home in the Europa League.

One Evening in ‘25 turned out to be half decent as well.

Forest do these grand occasions VERY well. As soon as the draw was made in August pairing us up with Malmo once again, I just knew that the Big Fat Greek would embrace it.

It was a magnificent gesture to invite - and pay for - both teams from One Day in ‘79 to be guest of honours at the World Famous City Ground.

Not everyone could sadly make it. Up until very recently I thought that the Miracle Men were just that. As players from other great clubs passed on, somehow the Forest team were all still amongst us.

Tricky Trev’s departure hurt hard. He was the £1M Man. He wouldn’t be the first to go.

I watched the Forest YT stream from the red carpet from 5pm. David Prutton did a decent job of door stepping old men - who probably wanted to tuck in to the freebie food and booze.

There were some lovely moments though. Colin Barrett and Bomber Bowyer both brought the humour. I confess to a Pavlovian shout of “TINA! TINA! TINA!” when Shilts appeared on screen.

He bloody loves it.

The stream finished an hour later. The final word went to Brian. The final word should always go to Brian.

What a club. What a legacy.

Now then. Down to business and One Night in ‘25.

The team news shortly dropped. SEVEN team changes. Blimey.

I wasn’t sure about John in goal. It was great to see Zak starting. I was looking forward to seeing what McAtee can do. Ditto Kalimuendo.

The old fellas from One Day in ‘79 came out to meet the crowd shortly ahead of KO. Some muppets in the Malmo end got a little over enthusiastic.

I hope we bloody stuff you now.

The sight of Ryan Yates leading out Forest at the World Famous in a European fixture was something to savour. The Skipper rose to the occasion with one of his best games in the Garibaldi.

And it wasn’t just the tops, either. I bloody love it when we wear red shorts. I think it’s an emotional attachment going all the way back to Munich ‘79.

The teams lined up, the game kicked off.

Hang on. Murillo is playing at left back? Blimey.

Yates and Abbot both linked up well. It was genuinely lovely seeing the two Forest Academy boys playing together on the European stage.

A Captain’s goal soon followed.

GEDDIN the Trent, etc.

This was an incredibly one sided contest. Malmo looked like a team that had come to enjoy the occasion, rather than win the game. They were the most passive team we have seen on Trentside in years.

What was the point in travelling all the way over from Sweden, and then not being arsed to even leave the halfway line?

Forest sensed this and tried to kill the game off within the first thirty minutes. I lost count of the number of chances we had.

A goal from Kalimuendo followed. That will do wonders for his confidence.

The third goal after the break from the Serbinator sealed the game. I bloody love VAR, me.

Time to get Murillo and CHO off. Feet up lads, ahead of the Premier League.

But wait! What’s this?

ATTACK! ATTACK!

ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK!

Attacking subs were brought on. Whatever happened to Dyche the dinosaur with his defensive style of play?

The game then had the feel of an international friendly. Substitutions broke up the pace of the game.

Yates was brilliant from start to finish. Write him off at your peril.

And so One Day in ‘79 became One Night in ‘25. The 3-0 win won’t be as significant as the magic of Munich, but it will do wonders for our Europa League standing.

Another great European night on Trentside.

This is a very classy - albeit slightly bonkers - club.

The team news dropped. No changes from the DIRTY Leeds match, two weeks ago.

OK…

This was more out of necessity than any sign of strength. We’re working with what we’ve got available.

Remember when Roy Keane made his debut up at Anfield?

It was good to see CHO back on the bench as he comes back to full fitness. You get the impression that he rather likes making a late impact when playing Liverpool.

Meanwhile, Liverpool made five changes. Isak always scores against Forest, right?

It was a nervy first fifteen minutes or so. You feared that if Forest went a goal down, four more might follow. They don’t call me Mr Optimist for nothing. I was shaking my fist at the telly when we couldn’t score an eighth against Brighton last season.

And then something remarkable started to happen. The game settled down. Forest returned to a Nuno masterclass of DEFEND, DEFEND.

DEFEND! DEFEND! DEFEND!

…and then occasionally spring a break if you get the chance.

Yeah yeah - we’ve seen it all before under Nuno. But this one was down to Dyche.

He’s had to pick the players up after they’ve had all confidence coached out of them by the Comedy Clown. GOOD EFFORT with the Back to the Future approach.

It was clear what was happening here:

“A tenner to mind yer car, Mister?”

Fuck off, you cheeky little Scouse. We’ve brought the bus, thank you very much. We have no shame in parking it right in front of your Kop.

A goal from Murillo.

Blimey.

It’s happening again, Arne, etc.

OH WHAT? Jesus as well.

Fuck VAR.

Still, a 1-0 lead to take in at the break is bloody brilliant. Silence the Anfield crowd, regroup and… DEFEND DEFEND DEFEND.

Easy stuff this, isn’t it?

After a patchy first half down the right for Savona, I was hoping that Ola would be back in contention once again.

Two minutes into the second half and nope, he’ll do.

GEDDIN.

No one told us we were buying an Italian goal machine. I still have sleepless nights over Solenzi.

And so two goals up at Anfield, two goals from defenders.

On the other side of the pitch and Neco was all over Salah. I know which player I’d rather have in my team right now.

I was all set to take a walk outside for the final fifteen minutes when up popped Morgan.

[hands in ears as I slide across the lounge carpet, etc]

That’s four goals in six for MGW. He should get dropped by England more often.

Murillo was bloody magnificent all afternoon. I was only thinking this week how those £100M Real or Barcelona stories have gone a little quiet. I suspect they might spark up again.

Plus the Boy from Brazil was brilliant in his BBC Interview with Sir Colin of West Bridgford. His English is almost as rounded as his backside.

One of the lasting images coming out of this match was the sight of Van Dijk continually shaking his head. He looked like a string puppet that had gone a little wrong.

I started watching the game thinking that a point away at Anfield would have been amazing. Three didn’t even enter into my mind.

In the run in to Christmas back in 1977, Forest gave Man Utd a lesson in the perfect away hit and run display, with a 4-0 away win at Old Trafford.

Just to be clear, I’m not making any claims that we will be lifting silverware come May, but this was a similar performance.

Big boys Vs underdogs, away from home and hitting them on the break.

BC would have been proud - especially with the clean sheet. The only downer was that it wasn’t four goals this afternoon.

Like I said: FUCK VAR.

Shame about D***y as well.

Forest always do Remembrance Sunday very well. It’s respectful without being OTT.

The fella on the trumpet was note perfect, both sets of fans reacted in the right way.

This wasn’t always given in a Forest Vs Leeds match. We’ve heard all the scabs chants, and in return, we’re rather fond of DIRTY, DIRTY Leeds in return.

But for Remembrance Sunday, the occasion rises above this. Credit has to go to Forest as a club for managing the occasion with deference it deserves.

I was surprised not to see Yates in the starting eleven. This game had his name all over it - especially in a team picked by Dyche. Sangaré didn’t disappoint.

The game started decent for Forest.

Hey! Betcha Leeds are going to score.

Oh bollocks.

Some Championship level defending led to us going 1-0 down. Please don’t collapse. It would be such a Forest thing to do in front of the live telly cameras.

Oh hang on. Blimey. An instant equaliser. I wasn’t expecting that. Or maybe it’s just that we aren’t use to this with a Nuno or Cooper team.

It was a fantastic recovery and comeback. I always had faith in Sangaré. Yep. Never doubted it.

The Big Fat Greek looked happy for once. I prefer his Miami Vice look compared to the recent airings of the You Are the Manager jacket.

MGW was much improved. Neco continued with his impossibly high consistency levels. Our best left back since The Skipper back in the day?

We do miss Wood up front though.

HT came and went.

Oh hello - TAIWO!

He always raises a smile.

Considering he was pretty much out the door with twelve hours or so to go on Deadline Day, it’s quite a turnaround to see him getting regular minutes of late.

Hutchinson was part of the same substitution bundle. Now there’s a fella who needs to perform.

Yates was Yates.

The MGW goal was bloody great. Two headers in the space of a week, both glancing.

#MoratoTime

Hutchinson was actually very encouraging as the second half played out. Rumours of his demise, etc. He’s the player we always thought we had bought, albeit with some reservations over the price.

And then came the pen. Thank chuff MGW was already off the pitch.

Andersons TWATTED it.

3-1, Forest All Over the World, Eva’s Grill fireworks.

On and off the pitch, etc.

Time for some BOOZE.

Let’s talk about squad depth. Let’s talk about spending £200M to improve the squad over the summer, and still finding yourself travelling out to Austria with six kids on the bench.

Whoops.

I know there’s a bit more going on behind the scenes - plus injuries which we didn’t suffer from last season - but still.

Having said that, it was a reasonably strong starting eleven, showing that if needed, we can still put out a half decent team.

5:45pm KO’s are WEIRD. I was hungry and thirsty, but this was no time to eat or BOOZE. The game - the dodgy modern interweb stream - needed by full attention.

I liked the Graz all black kits. With Forest playing in the off colour white, this game had the look of a game of chess.

It wasn’t really played out that way though.

Forest clearly wanted the checkmate within the first fifteen minutes. It was a very strong start, but with no obvious openings.

It still feels odd to be starting an away game in Europe as favourites. I use to get the heebeegeebees for Blackburn away not too long ago.

D***y who?

Kalimuendo looked strong. The end product might have been missing tonight, but he does give us other options compared to Wood, Jesus and Taiwo.

I was longing for a Yates goal on the European stage. He seems to have put the Swansea shitshow behind him.

Never write the Forest Captain off. I make that seven consecutive Head Coaches who have all felt the same.

Number one is Ryan Yates, Number two is Ryan Yates…

The Gaffer looked proud to be wearing the Forest badge on the touchline in Europe. Even with our BONKERS start to the season, not many managers in the history of the club can get to feel this way.

John looked dodgy in goal. It was an experiment that we just about got away with. Premier League strikers won’t be as forgiving as the Graz forward line.

Neco was unplayable. I’m going early and calling him Player of the Season.

MGW meanwhile should be nowhere near the next England squad. That’s harsh, but he looks like he needs some headspace. It was a poor, poor pen.

And yep - Yates was deffo fowled for the follow up.

The second half was all a little meh. Forest had run out of ideas, and Graz wanted to play for the point.

Dominguez was lively, and deserves a PL start; possibly McAtee as well if he’s not injured after tonight. I’m not sure where you would slot him into the PL starting eleven though.

The game drifted for the final thirty minutes or so. As ever, subs for both teams got in the way and clogged up the flow of the game.

It was an incredibly frustrating watch. My highlight of the half was when the cameras zoomed on the Generation Chaos banner in the home end. It looked cool as fuck with the custom Crass font.

And so a point away from home in Europe. BC would have taken that. The PL is more pressing.

DIRTY, DIRTY Leeds, etc.

I felt the Forest fans. It’s long way to travel away from home, and not to see any goals.

A quick look at some of the other Europa League scores, and OH MY DAYS.

Bloody Midget Land.

If we are to progress in the knock out phase of this competition, then I fear that we will have to face them once again.

And so farewell Garibaldi Red podcast. Your sporadic appearances over the past season or so were welcome, even if the frequency of the pod appearances suggested a mothball.

Young Max has done a half decent job over the past couple of years. He had a mighty tough act to follow with the breakaway Forest Focus going solo with Matt Davies.

I wouldn’t go as far as calling it Podcast Wars, but as we know with Brixton Buzz, when you have a similar platform publishing independently, there is always going to be some rivalry.

The professionalism, contacts and daily dose of FF meant that Garibaldi was always going lose out in any Forest Podcast Wars.

But that’s not to downplay what Max has his team has achieved over the past couple of seasons. Max has really grown into his hosting role. It’s no great secret that he is a legacy media personality in the making.

The final sign off hinted at some political developments behind the scenes. That’s no surprise when you are dealing with a corporate beast such as Reach PLC.

The agile, one man band of FF has no such restrictions. It shows in the truly independent nature of the podcasts.

Tell It Like It Is - with no one hovering over your shoulder.

I’ll mist the odd diversion into Garibaldi Red. It has become something of a time drain though, trying to soak up as much online Forest content as possible. My new music explorations have suffered.

There was always an honest and respectful analysis of Forest coming out of Garibaldi Red. I just wish we had that same approach off the pitch right now.

Ah, so back to the “Forest bubble will burst” bollocks.

Cheers, Bob.

Back in the day and Bob Wilson on a now unrecognisable Football Focus claimed that the bubble would burst for BC’s Forest.

How did that one work out, Bob?

A league Championship and two European Cups later, etc.

Whaddyamean we’re dining out on past glories?

And then last season, the bubble bollocks came back to bite us on the bum. The same claims were made against Nuno’s Forest as we scored an early goal, and then shut up shop.

Repeat.

All the way through until around mid-March, and then whoops. Oh dear. We’ve failed to get over the line. We would have got BATTERED in the Champions League, anyway.

What is so disappointing about proving the mainstream pundits right this time round is that it is all self-inflicted.

Forest have done a Forest and fucked it up without too much help from the outside.

We’re not Spursy, whatever that might mean. But we are a bonkers, bonkers club where some very strange things have happened over the years.

If only Nuno had kept his mouth shut at the start of the season. Two crazy press conferences later, and we are where we are.

We had such optimism and expectation at the start of this season. The Europa Conference upgrade to the Europa League was an added bonus.

And then Forest go and balls it all up, with only the club itself to blame.

Or perhaps that should be #BlameEdu - who seems to be getting somethng of a free pass right now, with little evidence to show what he actually brings to the club.

Speaking of Bob Wilson and That Championship Feeling - I’m going off on a tangent here, but the Peter Shilton biog is proving to be a bloody good read.

Sure, skip through all the L******er nonsense, and the chapter or two on the Miracle Men manages to uncover some new stories that seem genuinely new.

Even the most obsessive of Forest fans [HELLO!] can get a little jaded when the old pro’s trot out the tired old Clough tropes on the podcast circuit.

Shitls in particular has a cracking ghost written chapter on the swift decline of the Miracle Men. I love reading these stories in general about the fall of empires, football teams, bands etc.

It’s no fun reading about their rise. The dark appeal to me is seeing how it all fell apart.

And coming full circle, Forest have managed to even outdo Forest and the 70’s Miracle Men, imploding in the space of two crazy, crazy press conferences.

Bubble well and truly burst.

”We go into Europe, all the money is spent and we’re back in the same situation we were when we got promoted,”

Tell It Like It Is Forest Focus.

My matchday routine now starts with the early post on the Forest Insta feed. What clues will be given away?

My reasoning is that any player featured in the Matchday post is likely to be in the starting eleven.

Oh look: there’s Douglas Luiz. He’s wearing that shitty Forest cream kit that looks like a dirty white.

A big thumbs up for Luiz, who I thought would be rested. The cream kit can go back in the City Ground washing machine, and preferably at a high temperature.

The team news dropped shortly after 12:30pm. And yep, there he was, Douglas Luiz. Goodo.

I do worry about James McAtee, absent once again from even the bench. Online rumours hinted at a possible bug. I fear that his face doesn’t fit at Forest.

#BlameEdu etc.

Still, it was an attacking team, suggesting that Dyche was after a win with another positive performance. A cursory glance at the league table and OH MY DAYS, yes we deffo could do with three points here.

KO came. Bournemouth were relentless from the start. The plan seemed to be to put the willies up Forest, knowing that they don’t like it up them.

It didn’t take long for the first goal. I’m not giving away any spoilers here when I speculate that Matt Selz is unlikely to trouble the Golden Glove shortlist this season.

A second soon followed.

How the chuff do you score from so far out with a daisy cutter? I thought only Collymore in all his pomp was capable of that.

Bloody Bournemouth. Go away. Don’t come back. Never again, etc - which was another fond Trent End ditty from back in the day.

Oh we had FUN in the old Trent End.

HT couldn’t come quick enough. Time to regroup. The next goal was going to be MASSIVE - which is exactly what I said to my mate Johnno at HT in the Simmod Cup Final, surely the greatest Forest game ever.

The big surprise - and a very welcome one - was the appearance of Taiwo out of the tunnel.

TAIWO!

Shit the bed.

His role these days is as a Chris Wood not so Mini Me. Which doesn’t bode well for Jesus who was hooked.

Christ, etc.

The second half was a little better, but only marginally. It was like switching from an Aldi microwave curry to a more upmarket Lidl equivalent.

Whaddya mean you can’t taste the difference?

This was one game too many for Anderson. Sure, he’s far from shot. But the poor lad desperately needs a breather.

It all felt very Cooper-esque with plenty of puffing, but not much end product. It was the kind of performance that might make the Big Fat Greek kick another telly ahead of an incoming P45.

But we’re not there. Not yet, anyway.

Hutchinson shouldn’t be anywhere near corners. MGW still isn’t the MGW model of seasons one, two and three in the PL. I found myself wanting Sangaré. It was that kinda match.

THIRTEEN summer signings, and we still had limited options coming off the bench.

Like I said, #BlameEdu.

This was an off day for the whole team - something you simply can’t accept in the PL. No one was able to raise their game above five out of ten.

Training ground set pieces need to be drilled home throughout all of next week. Everyday is a GAFFER DAY, right?

It’s probably time for Dyche to introduce them to those training ground nettles.

Forest have scored a solitary goal in the past seven PL matches. It was this weekend last year when the CL dream first started to stir.

LIVE the dream.

How did that one work out?

Still - the PL bottom three has a nice Nuno feel to it.

Hey hoe.

We’re in deep shit. We’re in a relegation battle.

The team selection was a slight surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see Zinchenko in there. Disclaimer: in there can mean absolutely bloody anywhere on the left hand side of the pitch, given previous performances.

It was good to see the balance on the wings. Forest always play better with width; Brenan, Franz Carr, Robbo - you can trace the lineage.

The reception for Woan and Stone for the warm up alone was a little emotional. Bloody hell - it’s good to see those two Forest boys back at the World Famous wearing the badge.

Dyche’s introduction was rightly downplayed. He did what he had to - which was to make the short walk from the home dressing room to the home dugout. Not as easy as you might think. Ask Big Ron.

Welcome to the World Famous, Gaffer.

It was a rare occasion for me where I unmuted the telly and turned off Sir Colin of West Bridgford on BBC Radio Nottingham. You have to make the most of Fletch calling the shots in the telly gallery.

He didn’t let us down, although I had slight panic attacks each time he mentioned the name Rosario.

The Zinchenko early injury was a worry. Not so much for the game itself, but the nature in which it leaves the full back cupboard a little bare over the coming weeks.

The ref was bloody awful. How difficult can it be to avoid being hit by the ball on a pitch that size? Booking an attacking player and giving a free kick, to then being reversed for a home team penalty is one hell of a reverse ferret, fella.

The MGW pen itself was a little nervy. Don’t fanny about, mate.

POW. Right in the kisser. And thank chuff for that. It was good to see MGW starting to find his puppet master strings once again.

2-0 up and…

Defend! Defend!

Defend! Defend! Defend!

…as we use to sing back in the old Trent End days. We knew how to amuse ourselves each time Wimbledon rocked up in town.

The clean sheet was a bonus. I had forgotten how precious these are.

SHOUT OUT to Big Wily at FT for being the official Forest Cheerleader. Likewise for Ola celebrating in the tunnel. Pretty in pink, etc.

The Premier Grill fireworks were a welcome return. It’s been a while. Forest All Over the World had me singing after my three pints of Bank’s Bitter.

Chin chin.

As for Dyche?

P1 W1

I’ll take that.

There’s a slight concern about McAtee, Kalimuendo, Bakwa (injured?) and the Europa AWOL Hutchinson. This could be the most expensive set of Forest flops since Hartford, Wallace and Fashanu.

Onwards. To Bournemouth.

Oh Lordy.

I bloody LOVE this from Dyche. As the comments suggest, he’s probably rehearsed the line in the mirror beforehand. But it works.

The legacy media wet dreams over Guardiola go right over my head. Unlike the ball, etc.

#AgainstModernFootball is a hashtag I can get behind.

It’s not that I want Forest to play a BC old school style 4-4-2. Nuno tried that once at home to Fulham and was found out.

But please don’t hold up Guardiola as some GOD of evolving football tactics. Forest - and others - were doing this decades ago. It was just called football back in the day.

I’ve not watched the full presser. It was over an hour long. I don’t think he mentioned Burnley or Everton once.

Et tu, Mad Ange?

As I type, Dyche has yet to even take his heated seat in the Forest dug out. He’s won me over with this short clip alone.

Let’s see how I feel at FT following the Porto match.