Col's season review 21/05/03 | by Peter Collison (Issue 6)

At long last the season has finished, but we’re still in the first division. There’s going to be no day out at Cardiff, no play-off trophy, just trips to the Upton Park and the JJB stadium to look forward to. After all the hype, we were beaten by a couple of lucky goals and the dream of the Premiership will have to be put on hold for another year.

After a build-up like no other (partially thanks to the Nottingham Evening Post), I was ready for the United v Forest decider. The game at the City Ground left me feeling anxious for the team to get up to Brammall Lane and finish the job. After playing out the draw following Michael Dawson’s red card, I felt that we could still easily win the tie, despite it being in Sheffield United's favour.

The pressure had shifted from us and now it was the Blades that needed to make sure that they used their advantage. We had nothing to lose as the bookies and countless football pundits had predicted a Sheffield United v Wolves final right from the start, so most people expected the Blades to do us over once we got to Sheffield, so all we could do was to try our hardest.

After the intense build-up to the first leg, I thought I’d calm myself down a bit before watching the game on TV but, upon thinking how massive this game could be, I quickly turned into a nervous wreck! Of course nervousness turned into relief when David Johnson popped up to put us in front and relief turned to elation when Andy Reid made the scoreline 2-0.

After having a fair share of bad luck against these teams, for us to win the game would have been just what we deserved. Of course this wouldn’t be Forest without something going wrong, so cue the customary conceded goal, an unfortunately deflected free-kick that was soon followed by a goal of some class by Steve Kabba. As the game started to wind down, it seemed obvious to me that we would be going into extra time…

A lot of games that I’ve seen go into extra time usually go into penalties (with the exception of Doncaster’s golden goal promotion), the players being too tired to really make a go of anything, preferring to wait until the ultimate lottery of a penalty shoot out to resolve the game. So it was a big surprise to me when Paul Peschisolido scored to seemingly give the game to Sheffield United.

Then was the moment I had kind of dreaded, a headed own goal that was scored by none other than... Des Walker! After having previously given the FA Cup to Tottenham it was an unfortunate moment for Des and not a very nice way to end the evening. There was some hope for Forest when Robert Page put the ball into his own net to make it 4-3, but at the end of the day it wasn’t to be; no trip to Cardiff, just a short, sad trip back down the M1.

It’s a shame that a season as good as this has been, should have been decided by this one game. Not really a reflection on either side's season, just the form side winning the game that they were expected to win. After witnessing the coming of age of a lot of our players, it’s a shame that they had got so close to the Premiership only for it to be taken away from them. If nothing else its experience for the players but defeat in such a big game for the club is always hard to take.

Keeping the team together and maybe adding to it is the main priority, and then it wouldn’t be out the realms of possibility to challenge for promotion. With the likes of West Ham, West Brom, Sunderland and Sheffield United/Wolves all going for it next season it would make it a bit harder than what’s gone before, but a team like Forest can only go from strength to strength.

The five-year plan was to build up the team, give them the experience of playing in the first division and then go for promotion. With the promotion push coming a couple of seasons earlier than expected, it was easy to get over excited at the prospect of playing at Old Trafford and Highbury but after seeing some of the football played down at the City Ground, I don’t think it would be too long before we’ll be welcoming the likes of Beckham & co to Nottingham.