lost that loving feeling - The five-year honeymoon

I blame ITV Sport. Firstly, I nearly slept right through this game due to the daft time it was scheduled. Secondly, I had to watch the game on my hand-held TV as I did not have enough time to find a pub showing it. Thirdly, someone set the fire alarm off elsewhere in halls and we had to be evacuated, nearly causing me to miss kick-off. And finally, we lost the match leaving us even further adrift from the play-off chase. Although some of these may not be entirely the fault of ITV Sport, I still blame them. I do not, however, blame Paul Hart.

Despite another defeat, more dropped points and even more between us and the play-off zone, I refuse to lay blame at Paul Hart’s, or anyone’s, door. He has worked wonders so far in his time at Forest on a budget of precisely nothing and just because he hasn’t crowned us World Champions of Everything, yet, there is no reason for knee-jerk reactions.

Two weeks ago feelings were high and people were talking about us being possible contenders for automatic promotion. Now however, after 2 bad results, we’re still in mid-table and the signs of a back-lash are appearing. No-one’s started a ‘Sack Hart’ campaign yet, but the symptoms are worryingly familiar. People are quoting stats about how many points we’ve dropped or how many late goals we’ve given away, usually followed with a comment along the lines of ‘sort it out Hart’. More disturbing, some already seem to have got bored with the passing football. The passing football that we have spent years yearning for and were finally delivered at the beginning of this season resulting is such excitement and delight appears to have lost its novelty and cries of ‘just hoof it’ and ‘get it up there’ show that, presumably, the City Ground crowd would prefer Dave Basset to be manager.

It is fair to say that the passing game has brought mixed results and despite playing the best football in the league we are still struggling to get points. However, I don’t see that as a bad thing and I have a sneaking suspicion Paul Hart feels the same. In fact I believe it to be quite a deliberate consideration in Hart’s tactical thinking. He knows that his team are capable of playing great football and winning games, but he also knows that should Forest be promoted, they would probably get a good hiding and be sent straight back down again. Promotion followed by relegation could well be more damaging then staying put, as we could face losing hot prospects such as Prutton, Jenas and Williams if they have been given a taste of the top flight then had it taken away. Rather, thinks Hart, we play the best football we can for a year but don’t necessarily worry about results, be contented to stay down this year and benefit from the added confidence and experience, then begin to consider thinking about maybe looking into the possibility of speculating over mounting a promotion challenge the next.

Of course he isn’t going to come out and reveal this plan publicly as the knee-jerk brigade would have a field day with this apparent lack of ambition. Lack of short-term ambition maybe, but not lacking in long-term ambition. This is the start of the five-year plan outlined by the club following the failure of the two-year plan (give-David-Platt-lots-of-money-and-hope-for-the-best is about all the two-year plan added up to). The important thing is that the club communicate their intentions to the fans so they do not lose heart. The longer the Reds stay out of the lime-light the harder this will be, but if they fail to get the message across then they could lose the backing of supporters.

I don’t think Hart will be sacked as long as things progress at a nice rate. Platt avoided the chop despite failing to complete the two-year plan and seemingly had the full backing of the board (although I doubt they were too disappointed by his sudden departure). But Platt lost the support of the fans and that was his downfall. In theory, Hart should be fine as the style of play he has brought to Forest should at least keep spectators entertained. In practise however, frustration and impatience has already reared its ugly head our way. Shouts of ‘get it up’ can be directly translated as ‘get us up’, but Hart is constantly telling his players to keep the ball down; keep the team down.

There can be no coincidence that in today’s game the move that brought about West Brom’s goal involved a grand total of 4 players, while most moves Forest put together are generally between at least twice this amount. I know which I’d rather watch and I know which would bring more pride to me if my club were to produce it. Forest are perfectly capable of playing good long-ball if they want, but Hart is stopping them for the reasons I have stated above.

I’m quite happy with this. I enjoy seeing football being played well and I’m not in it for the glory. I also have plenty of time on my hands and have learnt the virtue of patience. Others may not be quite so content with simple eye-candy for a year. Paul Hart’s biggest problem this season is not on the pitch, but it is on the PR front. He needs to keep the fans on-side or he will lose the battle.

In some ways he has given himself plenty of rope to be hanged with. I described the first game of the season against Sheffield United as having “the air of a pre-season friendly about it” and I still think this applies. This whole season is almost a dress rehearsal for the ones that will follow. And while Hart’s Forest have been teasing us with their performances, they have not yet delivered the final product. But as Hart is currently more worried about perfecting the performance he will not be concerned about the result quite as much. He will not be able to unite everyone in this view. You can please all of the people some of the time and you can please some of the people all the time, but you won’t please all the people all the time. Personally I’m delighted with Hart so far, I just hope that enough people will think along the same lines as me for him to be able to complete the job he has started so well without the pointless bad feelings that Platt felt.

I don’t know how long it will take. It could take all five years, it could be sooner than that and it could even be longer. But let’s remember that the reason we’re resigning ourselves to staying down this season is so that players like Williams, Jenas, Westcarr, Bopp etc can be at their best when we hit the Premiership, and with those players in the side (not to mention the numerous other talents waiting in the wings) then we could do very, very well. Surely that’s a treat worth waiting for.