'Fingers crossed I'm this optimistic come 3pm Saturday.'
That's how I ended my previous blog. It's safe to say that I am nowhere near that particular emotion following the debacle that took place this afternoon.
As a fan of any team, it is hard to take a defeat.
It is even harder to lose to your local rivals.
But to lose to your rivals who had ten men for 88 minutes? That is simply unforgivable.
So the game that every Forest fan looks forward to has come and gone and it's the red side of the A52 that feels dour this evening.
The worse bit about it is, we didn't even try. Or at least we didn't seem to.
We were beaten by a team who wanted it more, had more team spirit and a fight to win. As much as it's painful, you have to give credit to Derby.
There's a lot of talk about how it's harder to play against ten men, which can be true in many cases. However in this one, it is not.
Eleven players will tire over 90 minutes, let alone ten. So, why have we been taught a fitness level in all areas of the pitch?
Probably because the opposition weren't tired at all. We didn't do anything to make them fatigued. The simple fact is, with a man is sent off, the remaining nine outfield players must work harder than they would in normal circumstances. So, let's exploit that and play football on the floor to get them to run about.
OR in Forest's case, let's lump the ball forward to Miller, who granted, is good in the air and make Derby's afternoon, very, very easy.
There's a bit of controversry over Derby's equaliser. It's bang out of order of them and against anyone else, they would have put the ball out.
But it doesn't excuse us. The defence should have stayed alert and played to the whistle. Another sloppy goal to concede.
The most worrying part is, I can't see a solution. I'm desperate for McClaren to succeed here and I've seem glimpses of his work beginning to pay off, but I'm not even sure transfers and loan signings could fix this mess.
Where has the team unity gone? No desire to win. No desire to fight. A lack of pride to be wearing the shirt which is inexcusable to every fan who paid £33 to go and watch them today.
The problem is, McClaren needs to send a message out, to prove he isn't messing about. But who can he drop? There's no-one there to fill in. It's the same old, vicious circle.
The talk of transfers brings me nicely on to the board. There was quite a clear protest at the end of the game as the fans voiced their opinions.
It appears, that for the first time in a long time, the fans are preferring to back the manager over the board.
I've heard rumours on the grapevine that Doughty is looking to sell.
If true, I hope he keeps the club's best interests at heart and sells to an owner with a complete financial background.
It's all very well selling to a foreign billionaire, but once the City Ground has been renamed after some business that nobody has ever heard of and we've brought big named players in whose wages we can't afford combined with the team now being full of 11 individuals rather than united and it's these players who must get promoted or we face serious financial problems, then I think people will realise that although it's immensely frustrating, it's still better to have a club to be angry with rather than no club at all.
One positive is the result of Reading this afternoon. One win saw them jump nine places. Due to the season still being in it's early stages, the table is still quite tight and a win can change things. But that isn't going to last when October approaches.
As for the future, I'm not really sure. McClaren has got his work cut out. Big time. I just never thought we'd be in a relegation battle this season. For the first time since beginning this blog, I now am contemplating that possibility.
Maybe a nice midweek cup tie can take our minds off things? Ahh, we can dream.
No comments:
Post a Comment