Notts Forest 5 - 0 Burnley

Igor ventured up to Nottingham on Wednesday, but still wasn't too harrowed to avoid writing this report...

By: Igor Wowk

CLARETS FELLED AT FOREST

On a lovely breezy autumn evening the Clarets fielded the same line up as Saturday in a two thirds full City Ground containing a sizeable Clarets following although exactly why this match had been made all ticket was hard to fathom.

The match kicked off with Forest eager to get on the winning trail following their home defeat to Watford on Saturday, defending the goal in front of the Clarets support. In the Forest goal Beasant looked remarkably lean and fit. If he keeps in this sort of shape he could go on until he is fifty. By way of contrast to Saturday where QPR had a giant centre forward and consequently looked like a poor man's Wimbledon, Forest had two nippy mobile forwards in the shape of Blake on loan from Bradford and Lester. Interestingly their top scorer Bart-Williams played in the back three as a play maker sweeper, perhaps reflecting Platt's Italian experiences. The game started at a very high tempo and from an early thrust the Clarets conceded a free kick in the centre of the pitch about 5/10 yards outside the box with the right footed B-W shaping to kick. Nick the Greek lined his wall up to his right and then stood behind his own wall in the middle of the goal. This left a nice juicy patch of net for the kicker to find to his left. Tatt Jr said to me he's going to knock it in the top corner but B-W didn't need to be that accurate, a simple bendy job well inside the post and at quite a nice height for a keeper was enough.

Forest gained confidence from this early strike and their programme notes were littered with references as to how important this was to them, given their record of only two goals at home all season. Nevertheless the Clarets went toe to toe and battled their way back into contention. Towards the end of the half they mounted enough pressure to force a number of corners and free kicks in the Forest half, some near the box. However Beasant was not really tested as the Forest defence was quick to block any strike on goal and the quality of balls in to the box wasn't quite good enough. Very close to half time, a neat move saw Payton head on to Branch and his shot beat Beasant but went inches wide of the post. The next significant action saw the ref blow for what I thought was half time as no offence appeared to be committed anywhere near the ball. After some debate out on the pitch, eventually the free kick was taken on the far side from where the action had stopped and Johnson glanced in a header.

It seemed incomprehensible that the Clarets should be two nil down at half time, but conceding free kicks around the box and then defending them poorly against any side constitutes living dangerously.

The hope was that the Clarets might get an early goal in the second half to get back in contention, but Forest showed no signs of easing off. With the defence inexplicably backing away from a Forest forward on the edge of the box and then failing to subsequently clear their lines, Davis chopped Lester on the edge of the six yard box just as he was about to shoot and probably miss. B-W stepped up and with the half only ten minutes old the game was virtually over. The Clarets had taken off Cook at half time and replaced him with Mullin, but the forwards were now left with the job of scoring three to get a point. To make matters worse, Forest scored two more long range efforts which whizzed past the perplexed Greek in Goal, the second one from Rogers leaving him looking very mortal as he shaped to go to his left when the ball went six feet to his right, on his near post. By contrast the second one went straight across him to his left, at least he dived but he was nowhere near it.

The only bright spot in the second half was at 4 - 0 a good move down the left and shot which forced Beasant into a smart save diving low to his right. The score was kept down single-handedly by Jack Lester contriving to miss 4/5 easy close range chances, a couple of which were saved by NTG. Really the least said about the second half the better as Burnley were awful all over the pitch and at times over-run.

SOME OBSERVATIONS

Firstly its obvious that there are two leagues in this division, like most I guess, and we have seen both ends of the spectrum in the last two days. Clearly QPR's home defeat against indicates that they are one of the weakest sides in the league if not currently the weakest. On the other hand, Forest are going to be among the front runners, however they looked potentially shaky at the back and neither of their forwards scored, the goals all coming from set pieces or midfield. However they played at a very fast pace and moved the ball around a lot more smartly and efficiently, Forest are a top of the range first division side and in Beasant, Bart-Williams, Schimeca, & Rogers they have some quality players.

Moving on to the Clarets, I guess this was a new experience for them tonight playing a decent quality First Division side playing at full throttle for ninety minutes. They held up quite well in the first half but whereas some of the flaws they have perhaps gone unpunished by some of the lesser sides, last night they were exploited ruthlessly. The first has to be the goalkeeper. To be brutal about it I would immediately re-instate Crichton on Saturday, as NTG looked well out of his depth. For a start he needs to learn English and start communicating with his defenders. In fairness it was open season in the second half as the Clarets were cut apart at the back, but the first goal was entirely his fault, and he didn't look too clever on nos 2 4 & 5.

The second thing to be learnt from this encounter was the value of possession. Against QPR the careless loss of possession was not penalised as the opposition wasn't good enough to gain advantage. Last night there were far too many careless sloppy balls, although it s fair to say that Forest pressurised the man on the ball all over the pitch and one or two were found a bit wanting as a result. Stan's tactics of getting it wide and then into the opponents half merely handed the ball back to the oppo on countless occasions and the defence were faced with a wave of attacks in the second half, as the Cookless midfield vanished.

On the bright side I thought that Branchy once again had an excellent game and Weller, Mellon and Coxy all had decent games.

My final comment is that it was on a night like this that we badly missed the presence of Glen Little with his ability to hang on to the ball and create the time for the others to join him in their half. Glen also carries a potential threat even if it is not always realised, although it would have been interesting to see how he would have coped with a game played at such a breakneck speed. Running along the same lines I also wonder if Cooke's strength and holding skills were not missed last night, as the side don't seem able to get the ball into Payton's feet often enough.

Anyway plenty of food for thought for Stan. I doubt if he will alter things radically, but one thing that must change is the ability to convert pressure and possession into chances against some of the better sides. Last night they just needed to many touches to get into a shooting position. As Tatt Snr said they just didn't make Beasant work.

Finally a note on the crowd. Apart from the few quitters who left at three nil and a few more when No 4 went in, most stayed to the end but importantly they got behind the team right to the death. To their credit all of the players came over at the end of the game including the subs, when in the past they have often been quick to lap up the plaudits but scampered down the tunnel a bit sharpish when they have taken a beating.

Anyway, no point sulking, we took a hammering and we have to pick ourselves up for Saturday. Norwich are the visitors, another side I feel that are in a false position having met a lot of the top sides and lost narrowly and produced some decent results lately, most significantly a 3 - 2 tonking of WBA at their place.

Nevertheless hope springs eternal and I have no doubt that we will bounce back., although avoiding two straight defeats has to be the priority.

UTC

Igor

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