lost that loving feeling - Scoring in a Brothel

In the same way that 18 years under the management of Brian Clough has given us inflated views of where we should be in the football hierarchy, being treated to the delights of Stan Collymore and Pierre van Hooijdonk has blurred our expectations of what a striker should be.

These two players, although now looked upon with bitterness by the Forest faithful, were blessed with unarguable and exceptional talent. Both were in that different class that few reach and having them at the club was a privilege, even if they did not view us with quite the same respect. But once you’ve tasted custard creams, going back to plain digestives is never easy. That is the problem Forest’s current crop of forwards face.

Having previously had van Hooijdonk and Collymore to score our way out of this league, we are now desperately seeking the next goal scoring hero. The trouble being that we might not find one. You cannot just nip down to the shops and pick up a super-gifted striker, especially when you still have considerable debts left from when you last bought a forward. So for the time being we will have to make do with what we have already got.

While what we’ve already got may be put in the shadows slightly when compared to Stan and Pierre’s genial talents, my humble opinion dictates that they are still up to the job. ‘World Class’ they are not, but neither are Forest or this league we are in. Compared to other forwards in the division however, they are near the top, if not collectively at the top, of the list.

Let’s start with the man of the moment: Stern John. Having completed the first hat-trick of his Forest career on Saturday and adding another last night at Watford, Stern has already made this his best goal-scoring season so far with the Reds. This goes as proof of what he could have achieved in the previous two years had he stayed fit. Further proof can be drawn from his time with Columbus Crew in the Major Leagues, where he broke numerous scoring records. The Major League is probably on a level with the Nationwide League in terms of overall quality, so Stern is certainly up to the job.

However, past scoring records don’t count for everything as David Johnson has so far proved in his time with Forest. But to be fair to DJ, he, like Stern, has rarely been fully fit since joining us last January. He came low on confidence having failed to break the Premiership and carrying a niggling leg injury, which due to David Platt’s desperation to push us into the play-off zone was never allowed to rest. And as her last trick, Lady Luck made sure that he came back from a summer of recovery to suffer another injury at Barnsley which saw more time on the sidelines.

But now David is in the team he is beginning to show the kind of form that prompted Forest to part company with £3.5m for him. However, in order for DJ to be a success with Forest we need to forget how much was paid for him. Instead we should just judge him as another player who has to work for his place in the team along with the rest. Like Riccy Scimeca’s surge of form, DJ might be able to thrive under Paul Hart. Perhaps Platt felt an obligation to persist in playing DJ, having splashed out all that money on him, which not only denied him chance to reach full fitness but might have also added an element of complacency in his play. But Hart will come to the job with less preconception about his players, and will prefer to judge them on their respective talents in training and in matches. Thus, £3.5m doesn’t count; a player is worth bog-all when they are playing badly (e.g. Barthez’s comedy routine last week) but when they are playing well a manager wouldn’t sell them for all the tea in china (e.g. David Beckham at the moment).

At the moment, DJ is somewhere in the middle but working his way slowly up the scale. He gets better with every game, and will therefor be growing in confidence as well. Hopefully, he has reversed the vicious circle normally associated with scoring and confidence and this can only be a good thing. He is also adjusting to Hart’s style play. At the top of his form I can see DJ creating more than he’ll score himself in the way we saw at Millwall as his movement is superb. But if another striker can also find form alongside him then he could be a useful partner.

There is however a danger that unless David continues to produce, the fans will lose their patience waiting for him to fulfil his potential. This could damage his confidence and set him back even further. But last night’s mention on the score-sheet is another step in the right direction.

It is probably fair to say that if Jack Lester had not suffered his hand injury against Burnley, DJ might not have got his extended run in the first team. At the time Jack was also showing signs of previous form. And like our previous two subjects, Jack has suffered badly with injury over the past year. Cut short from the self-confessed best form of his life last season, Jack has come back to the team facing added competition but dealt with it well. A good pre-season has again been followed by impressive league performances. He has so far got 3 goals, which until Saturday was enough to make him joint-top scorer. Lester will also create more than he scores himself with his impressive work rate, but he has a habit of producing brilliant goals when you least expect it. Like all the other candidates for the forwards role, Jack will have to work for his place and prove himself on the pitch as well as worrying about staying fit.

As stringing together form is the key to staying in the first team, Marlon Harewood might well have cause for concern. In his previous 3 seasons with Forest, he has stayed mostly fit yet very rarely showed his full potential. Strangely, his best form so far came at the beginning of the season, but since then he has been conspicuous by his absence. Things have been very quiet from the Forest camp, rumours of ‘migraines’ the only explanation so far given. This might well be the case, so Marlon should in theory have as good a chance to break the team as anyone else. In practise, whether he can apply himself in a way that would justify him being picked over Forest’s other strikers at their best is questionable. But his strength and pace gives him qualities that we don’t have elsewhere.

Well, we don’t have them for a few years anyway. Craig Westcarr recently became the youngest player to represent Forest in a league game at 16 years. He has been much compared to Mr Harewood (5 years his senior) and is certainly a hot prospect for the future. Ironically, he is the only striker in the Forest side that Paul Hart has seen any kind of sustained form from, producing a stunning goal tally for the youth sides. I doubt very much if he can transfer that to the first team at this stage, but he is already hot on the heels of the senior Reds.

The end result is that with at least 4 forwards (possibly more) capable of producing good things for Forest, the odds are that at least two of them will stay fit and string together a good, consistent season, thus gaining the goals that Forest need. There is no-one at the club who we could put in the same bracket as Collymore (although Westcarr looks like he could be heading that way, along with others in our youth set-up) but we still have enough fire-power to bring back results. As is the general feeling at the City Ground these days, the goal scoring front should be all fine and dandy this season.