Twitter
RSS Feed| Forgotten man Wilson comes back strong |
Kelvin Wilson is no stranger to Nottinghamshire football. The Nottingham born defender has turned out for teams either side of the Trent, in Notts County and Nottingham Forest.
He is also a man held in the highest regard by his current boss, Billy Davies, who signed Wilson for Preston North End and then for current club Nottingham Forest.
Wilson, who started his career across the Trent with the Magpies, is finally starting to produce the form that persuaded the Scot to splash out £300,000 to prize him away from Meadow Lane and Deepdale respectively.
Despite suffering an injury in pre-season in a friendly for the Reds against former club Notts County, the former Preston man has come back to form a solid partnership with fans favourite and fellow former Magpie youth player Wes Morgan.
The decision to bring Wilson back into the Forest starting line up against Plymouth back in September showed the confidence that Billy Davies has in the centre half. It is even more striking when you consider that the manager selected Wilson over the impressive Luke Chambers, who is arguably having his most productive spell at the club since being given a chance in his more favoured position of centre back, rather than at right back where he was used regularly under former manager Colin Calderwood.
Both Chambers and Wilson seemed to struggle to get to grips with the demands of Championship football last season, especially in the first half of the season. With Wilson being blamed for being ‘too casual’ at times last season, and Chambers was branded as just not being good enough to cope with more speedier and direct wingers that are around in the second tier of football, whilst playing as a right back.
However, the confidence that Davies installed into Wilson has seemed to pay off. The self confessed Forest fan has proved his capabilities on the pitch with solid performances alongside close friend Wes Morgan.
Wilson and Morgan have shown stand out performances against Newcastle United and Cardiff City, two sides going well at the top of the league and expected to challenge at the top of the table come May. The way Wilson stepped up to the challenge of keeping quiet tough strikers such as Jay Bothroyd and former Forest man Marlon Harewood showed he is up to the challenge required at the City Ground.
With a man in charge backing him all the way, there is no reason why Wilson can’t be part of the furniture at the City Ground- and part of the future.
Sorry to disagree, but surely Calderwood signed Wilson while we were in League One, not Davies. At the end of last season Billy was less than complimentary after Wilson’s silly red at Sheffield Utd and many thought he’d played his last game for the reds after BD sent him totrain with the young lads. He described him at “immature” and “not ready for Championship football”.
His performances recently have been a massive improvement but the whole defence is benefitting from having a more solid midfield infront of them, but for me Wilson has been less impressive than any of the other back 5, and in fact, less so than Chambers when he has played.