Hello, Hello....
14/08/00 | by Alex Walker for EMSoccer.com

...It's good to be back, it's good to be back.

How good it was to finally get back to the City Ground! No more meaningless friendlies against Port Vale. No more desperately searching the papers for any snippet of transfer news. No more endless debates on how well/badly Forest might/might not do this season. And best of all, no more waiting...

Yes, it starts here folks. Possibly the best thing about the Nationwide is the fact that the season starts a week earlier, meaning that while Roy Keane is busy sending himself off at Wembley, us Reds have already got 3 points on the board. I don't think I could have gone another week without some kind of action: Euro 2000 was a complete waste of time, might as well not even have bothered with that one; And hoping Forest were going to give us any decent transfer activity to ponder over was a lost cause; Add to that, Forest deciding that the US was the best place to hold the season build up, and my bank manager deciding that it wasn't, you can see why I was so keen for the summer break to be over and to get back to some proper action!

I just about got by with a fix of Forest at the friendlies against Bristol, Leeds, and Vale. But having seen the Reds beaten in all three of those games, it was not the best release from my withdrawal symptoms. I even found myself attending Forest's U19 clash with Ajax on Thursday in an attempt to see some football.

But none of it compared to the pure joy I felt as the teams emerged from the tunnel on Saturday. I was at home again - standing amongst thousands of others in the Trent End which was full once again. The volume of support the players heard as they stepped out into the August sun must have been incredible as I was deafened by the noise and I was standing right at the back of it!

All the old habits flooded back to me: The half-time pie...the usual discussions/arguments with our overzealous safety staff....the pride as we treated our West Country visitors to a rendition of "Mist Rollin' in from the Trent" with arms aloft and heads held high.....and the down right ecstasy as the the goal mouth was penetrated by Jon Olav Hjelde's winning goal!

And as the final whistle blew, I knew that once again I was addicted to the drug we know only as football, and that for another 10 months I would suffer the sleepless nights, hot and cold flashes, and unique thrills that only we that call ourselves football fans can ever know.

When they open a "Betty Ford" clinic for football fans, maybe then I'll be cured and will be able to live through a summer without feeling that something is missing. But until then, I'm happy....