It’s all over
07/04/05 | by Anthony Cooper

Forest are sitting in the last chance saloon and are about to be chucked out. What has happened to the football club I have loved dear? I didn’t welcome the appointment of Megson by Doughty, but I backed him as he is the Forest manager and since coming in Megson has done a good job. But what have the club I have followed since the mid nineties done wrong this season?

We had a promotion challenging squad and we were backed for an automatic place by many pundits. We had the good players. A team of

Gerrard

Louis-Jean     Dawson       Morgan     Rogers

Bopp              Evans       Reid       Commons

Johnson           King

                                                                             should be in the top half of the championship, especially with the additions of Adam Nowland and Jack Lester and with other squad members such as Doig, Thompson, Jess, Gardner, Beaumont, Perch, James, Roche and Taylor.

Many more new faces have been bought in – do we really have a small squad? Well, compared to most teams, no, and I feel we are lucky on that count – look at many clubs who struggle to field a side when they have several injuries, compared to us against Leeds. We had seen all the players in action before and I feel we do have a big squad and lack of players not being a problem. Perhaps we have too many players at the club, too much deadwood?

I think Forest's main problem this season has been fitness levels and that has been evident since the poorly organised pre-season trip to America. We have had a lot of fitness problems, but whose fault is that? Joe Kinnears? The board? We can't point a finger at either, but I think Kinnear is more to blame for poor fitness levels as he’s the one whose meant to make sure the players are match fit

As I sit writing this Forest are losing 2-0 to fellow strugglers Coventry and I am explaining to someone how Forest won two European Cups back-to-back. And then I see Forest in 23rd position of the Championship now surely relegated with the prospect of away trips to clubs like Bournemouth and Swindon. It reminds me of the saying, “It's only when they are gone that you realise how great they were.” 

The club I love dearly needs a massive change around. The club needs restructuring. All the deadwood, the no-hopers who are not deserving of their place at the club need moving out and refreshed with some fresh blood who will be proud to wear the Garibaldi Red of Nottingham Forest. Only then we can look at the future.

There are positives: we have a good, young manager, we have some good, young players, we are a club with a proud history and we have to look to the future.

The Coventry match was a disaster. As Colin Fray has just said, it looked like a top v. bottom clash, and that hurts me that our players just can’t raise their game and be committed to this fight for the safety of this club. Why do they seem unable to fight with the passion the fans would display?

Let’s just hope the club we all love so much sorts itself out and we can do something to get out of this mire. There’s no point blaming anyone. We have to accept that we can’t use scapegoats as an excuse – that’s gone on too long now. We have to accept we are down and we fans who have shown their fantastic commitment to the club have got to keep showing all at the club we care about. Let’s hope the future for NFFC is a good one.