Field Notes

• Another action-packed game saw Forest draw 2-2 with Doncaster at the weekend, which one observer says was one point gained while goalscorer Andy Reid insists it was two points dropped. Nathaniel Chalobah went straight into the team, but it was Donny’s Federico Macheda who stole the headlines on his home debut. Meanwhile Billy Davies wants Chris Cohen to score more goals after he netted Forest’s first equaliser in style. The Doncaster press had to admit that Forest were impressive but with eight goals conceded in the last four matches clearly the Reds need to tighten up the defence as Kenny Burns says.
• The date for Darius Henderson‘s retrial has been set for February next year. The striker is facing an assault charge and earlier this month a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case.

• First and foremost, today is the anniversary of Brian Clough‘s passing nine years ago. Brian’s wife Barbara died in July so this year’s anniversary comes with a little extra poignancy, but September 20 is a day we’re sure most Forest fans always take a moment to remember Cloughie‘s contribution to our club and the game in general.
• The highly-rated teenager Nathaniel Chalobah has joined Forest on loan from Chelsea. Chalobah, 18, was at Watford last season but says speaking to England U21 team mate Henri Lansbury and other former Chelsea-Forest loanees helped make his decision to come to the City Ground easier.
• Chalobah will help shore up the Forest defense who looked uncomfortable at the back against Middlesbrough. Kelvin Wilson is an injury doubt for the trip to Doncaster Rovers tomorrow while the home side have several injuries to contend with.
• Finally, defender Danny Higginbotham, who had six games on loan for the Reds last year, looks set to make his international debut at the age of 34… for Gibraltar! Currently playing for Chester, Higginbotham is elegible to represent UEFA’s latest member through family and has made himself available. His chances of a call-up? Pretty good considering his uncle is the head coach!

• Phil Dowd was the centre of attention as Forest drew with Middlesbrough last night, but Billy Davies refused to risk another reprimand from the FA. In a frantic and strange game, substitutions were once again crucial as Derbyshire and Henderson got Forest on terms. It left Forest in fifth in the table and Tony Mowbray with mixed emotions, but ultimately was a better result for the visitors who are in 16th.
• One Boro match report amusingly describes Davies as a pint-sized Primark Fergie, but a Seat Pitch editorial on the new low of media relations warns that comparisons with the former Manchester United supremo only go so far. You can read an interview with one of the journalists at the center of the controversy, the Guardian’s Daniel Taylor, on LTLF here.

• The surviving Righteous Brother Bill Medley was the club’s special guest on Saturday – what he made of Forest fans’ rendition of a certain song hasn’t been reported yet, but at least he had ample opportunity to hear it as the Reds beat Barnsley 3-2 in an eventful game. Forest dominated but it took impact substitutions to eventually win the contest, Darius Henderson netting the late winner for the second time this season. The award for most ‘loving feeling’ references crammed into an article goes to the Nottingham Post – with no manager and player interviews, they have got to fill those column inches somehow!
• Guardian journalist (and Forest fan) Daniel Taylor has written about the Guardian and Observer newspapers being added to the increasing Forest media blacklist (underneath the stuff about England). The club have apparently barred him from the press box on some tenuous technicality dating back to last March – it’s not the most traumatic mistreatment of a Guardian journalist in recent months, but the club clearly regard hacks who don’t toe the line with the same contempt Western governments reserve for military whistle-blowers. Coicidentally, questions for Taylor are being collected on the forum for a Q&A. LTLF will wait and see whether all 15,000 of our members will also be banned from the City Ground for colluding with such a dangerous agitator.
• Former Forest Financial Director John Pelling has been appointed director of Bristol City’s academy in a big boardroom shake-up. Sean O’Drsicoll’s City side are currently in the relegation zone of League One without a win in their opening six games.

It’s been nearly a week since the last Field Notes update, in which time here’s what exciting Forest news you might have missed…

• Billy Davies has been given a touchline ban for improper conduct after the Wigan game. He’ll now have to watch the Barnsley game from the director’s box and we all know how much he hates it up there!
• Even if he can’t get on with referees, Billy seems to have no problem palling it up with the chairman this time around, releasing a statement of gushing praise for Fawaz Al-Hasawi after the transfer window closed. He even calls the sale of Adlène Guedioura a ‘good bit of business’ – when was the last time you heard a manager say something positive after a star player was sold?!
• The club continue to wind up the Nottingham Post, rushing to refute a fairly innocuous story about Simon Cox having a dead leg. Expect Forest to continue to piss on the Post’s chips next week by publishing the solution to their crossword puzzle…
• Kenny Burns has waded into the Derby ticket debate, renaming their stadium ‘Petty Park’. Derby have now sold out their tiny allocation for the game later this month. Amusingly, while Kenny deliberately misnomers the ground, the Derby Telegraph managed to get the name of the team wrong….
  

With the domestic season resuming this Saturday, LTLF looks forward to reporting on more people falling out with each other (and the occasional love-in between manager and chairman) throughout September…