The Rambling Red - Issue 10 28/01/03 | by TrickyMatt

When a door is open, to walk right on through would appear to be a relatively easy task to undertake. However, our beloved boys in Red seem to contradict the above statement. The fact that we are still right up there in the play-off shake up despite enduring a prolonged period of poor results says much about where we could and should be in the table. Furthermore, what also grinds me is the form of Sheffield United. Rising to third and at the time of writing, 8 points with a game in hand above us. Cast your minds back to when we destroyed them at the City Ground and it surely leaves you feeling a little uneasy. With a trip to the steel city imminent, it’s time to redress the balance.

As I usually seem to digress on to matters such as what’s on the telly, I feel it only fair to mention the delightful ITV (none of this ITV1 nonsense!) series, Footballers Wives. With some of the antics of Jason Turner and others, maybe we should be looking to the box in order to reason Forest’s dip in form! Certainly, I have it on good authority that the lads were banned from some bar they used to frequent after destroying the toilets! In addition, David Johnson is apparently very eager to blow his £4,000 a week pay packet on the devil’s water, allegedly! (Let's hope he doesn't have any money left to pay his lawyers, eh? - Ed)

With our attractive style of attacking football under the tutelage of the Godfather (Paul Hart), we seem to have become the darlings of Sky Sports. Nothing wrong with that you may express, but why on earth have they chosen to show the home encounter with Grimsby on telly, and furthermore, why move it to a Monday night? Ridiculous. Understandably, the game at Les-der is going to arouse some interest, but the mighty Grimsby? Do me a favour.

The subject of building a new Main Stand has once again come up in recent months. Whilst acknowledging that the extra capacity would bring in more revenue and once more render the City Ground the biggest stadium in the East Midlands, surely this talk is premature. If we do win promotion, I feel we would need to spend every last penny to improve the squad and additionally keep the more prized assets we already have at the club. I resent the fact that we have become a yo-yo club and it pains me to see rubbish like Sunderland, Fulham, West Brom, Bolton, Southampton, West Ham, Birmingham and Charlton in the top division. When I first started making my pilgrimages to the home of football, only two of these teams were in the top flight and we would beat them! Stability for me is essential, and must take precedence over ground improvements.

It was encouraging to hear that none of our rising stars will be sold before the summer at least. This is promising as it would appear the power men at the City Ground appear to have recognised that promotion would bring in the revenue to assist the clearing of the debt as well as staving off the attentions of other clubs with regard players like Michael Dawson. It was rumoured Newcastle were after our Geordie stopper, but it seems we have him for a bit longer at least. To me it’s a joke and an embarrassment that we have to sell our best players to the likes of Newcastle. Ask yourself this. When did Newcastle last win anything? Exactly. Also, it’s worth noting that the Magpies aren’t as well supported as younger fans may think. As recently as the early nineties, Newcastle attracted a bumper crowd of just over 10,000 for a league game. Am I clutching at straws here?!

This is my first article since the death of Forest fan Nathan Shaw who as I am sure you are aware, tragically died in Burnley before our game at Turf Moor. I would like to offer my somewhat belated condolences to his family. I was appalled at the lack of recognition this awful event received. Remember when Princess Diana died and we had a minute silence at every match all over the country for about three weeks. Not wishing to be disrespectful to the aforementioned deceased, but I wish to make a few observations. What does the average football fan have in common with Princess Diana? Absolutely nothing. In contrast, we all shared with Nathan the love of football, that compelling desire to attend matches all over the country, scraping together the money to see your team play, however well they are playing.

Accordingly, I would like to dedicate this article to Nathan Shaw.