Match report Cardiff v Nottm Forest 20/11/10

The Ninian pub was buzzing as the forum members met up again and we were joined by new faces. Loved the face Claire gave Annis when he asked her why she had not sold all the Fanzine mags. It was a shame that the determination features of Claires face could not have been passed on to the team we all came to support. It was the coldest day of the season and it was about to get alot colder.

Over 1300 Forest fans made the trip down from the Midlands. I overtook most of them on the way as I was eager to get to the ground. Now as I write I wonder why I rushed. As away fans go this Forest lot seems alot more subdued than most visiting fans we have had this season. Perhaps they expected a hard afternoon as their own team has not travelled well. Adding to this the home fans were still recovering from the disasterous local derby game a fortnight before and the last game played at the CCS. The grey skies did not help much either. Even more so the players did not seem to want ot liven the place up as they came onto the pitch. It all pointed to a bad day at the office.

The Cardiff lineup saw the return of Gyepes who replaced Blake in central defence. However Blake retained his starting lineup place at full back. With Heaton in goal Hudson and MacNaughton made up the defence. In midfield Oli and Whitts took central place with Koumas making a start in place of the injured Burke. Bellamy as captain took the other wing while Bothroyd from his England callup partners Chopra up front. A fairly strong team or so we thought.

The game KO at three and for the first 15 minutes it was a none event. Neither team looked interested as the game was mainly played around the midfield. Then out of the blue a Bellamy pass from the centre circle split the Forest defence open and left Bothroyd with only their keeper to beat. Jay managed to round the approaching goalie but could only scooper his effort on goal wide of the near post.

Moments later Cardiff were awarded a free kick just outside the Forest area. A Whittingham effort saw the ball float just over the bar.

So what looked like a weak Forest team they then took the lead. From perhaps their first chance of the game their striker McGugan collected the ball from 25 yards and being unmarked placed his shot high into the Cardiff net leaving Heaton no chance. This totally stunned the home side as the visitors took the game by the scuff of its neck. Once again the home supporters had to watch their team midfielders struggle as they gave pass after pass away. Forest gained momentum and nearly got a second goal from a 18 yard effort from their golascorer who shot just wide. Then ex Cardiff legend Rob Earnshaw forced a save from Heaton. Moments later Earnie slotted the ball into the Cardiff net only to be judged offisde. Cardiff only reply to all of this was another free kick effort from Whitts that once again floated over the bar.

Half time came and it must be said the atmosphere in the ground was the worst I have witnessed at the new stadium.

The second half saw Drinkwater replace Chopra which surprised alot of people. It did not effect the play much as it was Forest who took the initiative and came very close to increrasing their lead. From a corner a Forest head sent the ball just over the Cardiff goal. This however kicked Cardiff into life for a moment as another chance fell to Bothroyd. Bellamy found space down the wing and sent a delightful cross into the area. Bothroyd met it head on but headed directly to the Forest stopper. That turned out to be the only effort on goal from the home side.

As the second half went on the Cardiff midfield got worse and worse. Their passing was shocking as they kept giving the ball away to often with Oli being the main culprit. This allowed the Forest to take control of the game. Even so it was the Cardiff who created the better chances with Oli heading wide with one attack. It was a frustrating game to watch for the home set of fans as ball was given away too much and what chances came were being dealt with comfortable by what was an average Championship side in the colours of Forest.

Darcy Blake was replaced by Adam Matthews which resulted in the second Forest goal. Adam was left standing by the Forest winger who picked out the Forest striker Blackstock who easily put the ball pass Heaton and into the net. This was with 8 minutes to go and spelt the end of the game for the Cardiff. Just before the end though Blackstock was stretchered off. The last moment worth mentioning of the game was an effort from Bellamy that went over. The ref brought the game to an end for what was yet another home disaster for the Cardiff.

Summing up. That really was a weak Forest side. Our players once again looked like they had not bothered to turn up. Now I for one dont believe our players dont care. So why does it look like they dont care? Well today there seemed to be a lack of leadership, a lack of communication and a severe lack of basic football skills. Forest although a weak side were organised and I believe that won them the game. Now lately I have seen us play very much like this in the last few games. Exclude the first 20 minutes of the Scunny game and we have seen similar performaces against the Jacks and Reading. Thats nearly a whole month of this.In fact most of our performances have been like this or near enough. Yes we have won most of those games but I just wonder how lucky we have been. Would we beat Derby today or perhaps Pompey? I just feel we have been lucky with the fixtures so far. Of course there have been the exceptions like at Leeds and at home to Donny but that 2 games out of 18. You know the more I see us play the more I see what is happening. We have premiership players who are being brought down to Championship level. It should be the other way round. We have quality players in our squad but we are producing a mediocre chapionship side and that is where our problem lies.

As usual Ian an Excellent Match Report and a Great Forum meet up

Just Shame Our Team/manager let us down so badly today.

As usual Ian an Excellent Match Report and a Great Forum meet up

Just Shame Our Team/manager let us down so badly today.

Yeah and to add to it all on the way back I stopped off at Hopwood services, just North of Birmingham, and guess what I bumped into, the bloody Jack team coach. Their whole team was in the services plus their suport staff wearing their track suits like and theres me with my Cardiff top on. I reckon if I recognised Alan Tate I would have head butted him.

As usual Ian an Excellent Match Report and a Great Forum meet up

Just Shame Our Team/manager let us down so badly today.

Yeah and to add to it all on the way back I stopped off at Hopwood services, just North of Birmingham, and guess what I bumped into, the bloody Jack team coach. Their whole team was in the services plus their suport staff wearing their track suits like and theres me with my Cardiff top on. I reckon if I recognised Alan Tate I would have head butted him.

Now now Ian

Good report, & the latter bit of "the more i see us play" i totaly agree with. Season after season under DJ, & you can almost predict how things will pan out, on a monthly basis [same old, same old]. I expect us to drop out of the top two, probably replaced by Swansea, by the end of this year. I will revisit this post on Jan 01/11. I hope im wrong.

Good report Ian

Didn't have time to pop in the Ninian yesterday.

I felt we were really off the pace yesterday until the last 5 mins. I think the problem was there was no tempo, no movement off the ball, no width, everything just played at a slow pace which led to sloppy passing. We really missed Burke today as I felt the wingers kept drifting inside leaving us very narrow trying to play passes through tight spaces or the long ball to Jay who always had one or two players on him.

Hopefully it will give them a kick up the backside, and they come out all guns blazing saturday.

To be fair to Oli , he was looking up but both Koumas and Bellamy kept coming in leaving no width then when McNaughton got wide he would cut back onto his right foot.

When DJ made the switch at half time, I thought he was going to go 4-3-3/4-5-1 with Koumas and Bellamy staying wide but he stayed 4-4-2 which failed to work dismally as other than Bothroyd's header which was straight at Camp I cannot remember him having to make a save.

What is it about November and are we really going to do it again and bottle it ? Where are the leaders out on the pitch ?

If we don't win next week , we will be 5 points behind QPR, with the Jacks level and Derby only 3 points off !!

Please hurry up December!

The Ninian pub was buzzing as the forum members met up again and we were joined by new faces. Loved the face Claire gave Annis when he asked her why she had not sold all the Fanzine mags. It was a shame that the determination features of Claires face could not have been passed on to the team we all came to support. It was the coldest day of the season and it was about to get alot colder.

Over 1300 Forest fans made the trip down from the Midlands. I overtook most of them on the way as I was eager to get to the ground. Now as I write I wonder why I rushed. As away fans go this Forest lot seems alot more subdued than most visiting fans we have had this season. Perhaps they expected a hard afternoon as their own team has not travelled well. Adding to this the home fans were still recovering from the disasterous local derby game a fortnight before and the last game played at the CCS. The grey skies did not help much either. Even more so the players did not seem to want ot liven the place up as they came onto the pitch. It all pointed to a bad day at the office.

The Cardiff lineup saw the return of Gyepes who replaced Blake in central defence. However Blake retained his starting lineup place at full back. With Heaton in goal Hudson and MacNaughton made up the defence. In midfield Oli and Whitts took central place with Koumas making a start in place of the injured Burke. Bellamy as captain took the other wing while Bothroyd from his England callup partners Chopra up front. A fairly strong team or so we thought.

The game KO at three and for the first 15 minutes it was a none event. Neither team looked interested as the game was mainly played around the midfield. Then out of the blue a Bellamy pass from the centre circle split the Forest defence open and left Bothroyd with only their keeper to beat. Jay managed to round the approaching goalie but could only scooper his effort on goal wide of the near post.

Moments later Cardiff were awarded a free kick just outside the Forest area. A Whittingham effort saw the ball float just over the bar.

So what looked like a weak Forest team they then took the lead. From perhaps their first chance of the game their striker McGugan collected the ball from 25 yards and being unmarked placed his shot high into the Cardiff net leaving Heaton no chance. This totally stunned the home side as the visitors took the game by the scuff of its neck. Once again the home supporters had to watch their team midfielders struggle as they gave pass after pass away. Forest gained momentum and nearly got a second goal from a 18 yard effort from their golascorer who shot just wide. Then ex Cardiff legend Rob Earnshaw forced a save from Heaton. Moments later Earnie slotted the ball into the Cardiff net only to be judged offisde. Cardiff only reply to all of this was another free kick effort from Whitts that once again floated over the bar.

Half time came and it must be said the atmosphere in the ground was the worst I have witnessed at the new stadium.

The second half saw Drinkwater replace Chopra which surprised alot of people. It did not effect the play much as it was Forest who took the initiative and came very close to increrasing their lead. From a corner a Forest head sent the ball just over the Cardiff goal. This however kicked Cardiff into life for a moment as another chance fell to Bothroyd. Bellamy found space down the wing and sent a delightful cross into the area. Bothroyd met it head on but headed directly to the Forest stopper. That turned out to be the only effort on goal from the home side.

As the second half went on the Cardiff midfield got worse and worse. Their passing was shocking as they kept giving the ball away to often with Oli being the main culprit. This allowed the Forest to take control of the game. Even so it was the Cardiff who created the better chances with Oli heading wide with one attack. It was a frustrating game to watch for the home set of fans as ball was given away too much and what chances came were being dealt with comfortable by what was an average Championship side in the colours of Forest.

Darcy Blake was replaced by Adam Matthews which resulted in the second Forest goal. Adam was left standing by the Forest winger who picked out the Forest striker Blackstock who easily put the ball pass Heaton and into the net. This was with 8 minutes to go and spelt the end of the game for the Cardiff. Just before the end though Blackstock was stretchered off. The last moment worth mentioning of the game was an effort from Bellamy that went over. The ref brought the game to an end for what was yet another home disaster for the Cardiff.

Summing up. That really was a weak Forest side. Our players once again looked like they had not bothered to turn up. Now I for one dont believe our players dont care. So why does it look like they dont care? Well today there seemed to be a lack of leadership, a lack of communication and a severe lack of basic football skills. Forest although a weak side were organised and I believe that won them the game. Now lately I have seen us play very much like this in the last few games. Exclude the first 20 minutes of the Scunny game and we have seen similar performaces against the Jacks and Reading. Thats nearly a whole month of this.In fact most of our performances have been like this or near enough. Yes we have won most of those games but I just wonder how lucky we have been. Would we beat Derby today or perhaps Pompey? I just feel we have been lucky with the fixtures so far. Of course there have been the exceptions like at Leeds and at home to Donny but that 2 games out of 18. You know the more I see us play the more I see what is happening. We have premiership players who are being brought down to Championship level. It should be the other way round. We have quality players in our squad but we are producing a mediocre chapionship side and that is where our problem lies.

Another good match report which I think goes straight to the core of the issues with our team or the way our team is sent out to play. Yesterday Forest were sent out to stop us playing by any means possible and this is something your will find in every team Billy Davies sends out, organised, always committed and determined to slow play down and break up and attempts by Cardiff to play flowing football.

Forest committed 22 fouls yesterday against Cardiff 9, and 5 free kicks Cardiff gave away were from corner kicks where the referee took what I call the cowards way out by giving a free kick against the attacking side. Whatever the cause of the jostling at corner kicks most if not all was caused by the way Forest and the way they defend, but it takes a strong referee to deal with it and that is something Mr Webster is not sadly like many of his fellow referees. Why is it that an offense outside the box is a freekick but as soon as the same thing happens inside the box the referee gives the freekick the other way?

The level of time wasting by Forest was also staggering especially by Camp who after every Cardiff attack which resulted in a goal kick walked to the edge of the area shouting at thin air before returning to the 6 yard box, taking the ball to the opposite end of the box from where the ball went out, then stepping back and bending over to pull his socks up (both legs) before kicking the ball out. Where was Mr Webster?

But putting the negative approach of Forest and the weakness of Mr Webster to one side yet again a team has come to CCS and set out the stall to stop us from playing and taken points from us. Sheffield Utd, Swansea, Crystal Palace and now Forest have a taken points back home with them.

Why is it that our manager consistently fails to deal with this type of challenge afterall it's not important to beat teams who come to CCS and look to play an open game of football, Doncaster and Norwich paid the price for that. The measure of our team, including the manager has to be how they deal with the sort of challenge they were presented with yesterday and why we fail repeatedly.

If we were at home to QPR next week I don't think we would have a hope of winning because Warnock would set his team out in much the same way as Davies did yesterday and we would struggle. Away from home QPR will have to play a more open game and there in lies our chance and it wouldn't surprise me to see us get a result next week.

DJ has said that this season he has the best squad in his time at the club which allows him options to change things to cope with different situations. If that is truely the case why are we still such an easy touch and that's what we were yesterday a easy touch.

The Ninian pub was buzzing as the forum members met up again and we were joined by new faces. Loved the face Claire gave Annis when he asked her why she had not sold all the Fanzine mags. It was a shame that the determination features of Claires face could not have been passed on to the team we all came to support. It was the coldest day of the season and it was about to get alot colder.

Over 1300 Forest fans made the trip down from the Midlands. I overtook most of them on the way as I was eager to get to the ground. Now as I write I wonder why I rushed. As away fans go this Forest lot seems alot more subdued than most visiting fans we have had this season. Perhaps they expected a hard afternoon as their own team has not travelled well. Adding to this the home fans were still recovering from the disasterous local derby game a fortnight before and the last game played at the CCS. The grey skies did not help much either. Even more so the players did not seem to want ot liven the place up as they came onto the pitch. It all pointed to a bad day at the office.

The Cardiff lineup saw the return of Gyepes who replaced Blake in central defence. However Blake retained his starting lineup place at full back. With Heaton in goal Hudson and MacNaughton made up the defence. In midfield Oli and Whitts took central place with Koumas making a start in place of the injured Burke. Bellamy as captain took the other wing while Bothroyd from his England callup partners Chopra up front. A fairly strong team or so we thought.

The game KO at three and for the first 15 minutes it was a none event. Neither team looked interested as the game was mainly played around the midfield. Then out of the blue a Bellamy pass from the centre circle split the Forest defence open and left Bothroyd with only their keeper to beat. Jay managed to round the approaching goalie but could only scooper his effort on goal wide of the near post.

Moments later Cardiff were awarded a free kick just outside the Forest area. A Whittingham effort saw the ball float just over the bar.

So what looked like a weak Forest team they then took the lead. From perhaps their first chance of the game their striker McGugan collected the ball from 25 yards and being unmarked placed his shot high into the Cardiff net leaving Heaton no chance. This totally stunned the home side as the visitors took the game by the scuff of its neck. Once again the home supporters had to watch their team midfielders struggle as they gave pass after pass away. Forest gained momentum and nearly got a second goal from a 18 yard effort from their golascorer who shot just wide. Then ex Cardiff legend Rob Earnshaw forced a save from Heaton. Moments later Earnie slotted the ball into the Cardiff net only to be judged offisde. Cardiff only reply to all of this was another free kick effort from Whitts that once again floated over the bar.

Half time came and it must be said the atmosphere in the ground was the worst I have witnessed at the new stadium.

The second half saw Drinkwater replace Chopra which surprised alot of people. It did not effect the play much as it was Forest who took the initiative and came very close to increrasing their lead. From a corner a Forest head sent the ball just over the Cardiff goal. This however kicked Cardiff into life for a moment as another chance fell to Bothroyd. Bellamy found space down the wing and sent a delightful cross into the area. Bothroyd met it head on but headed directly to the Forest stopper. That turned out to be the only effort on goal from the home side.

As the second half went on the Cardiff midfield got worse and worse. Their passing was shocking as they kept giving the ball away to often with Oli being the main culprit. This allowed the Forest to take control of the game. Even so it was the Cardiff who created the better chances with Oli heading wide with one attack. It was a frustrating game to watch for the home set of fans as ball was given away too much and what chances came were being dealt with comfortable by what was an average Championship side in the colours of Forest.

Darcy Blake was replaced by Adam Matthews which resulted in the second Forest goal. Adam was left standing by the Forest winger who picked out the Forest striker Blackstock who easily put the ball pass Heaton and into the net. This was with 8 minutes to go and spelt the end of the game for the Cardiff. Just before the end though Blackstock was stretchered off. The last moment worth mentioning of the game was an effort from Bellamy that went over. The ref brought the game to an end for what was yet another home disaster for the Cardiff.

Summing up. That really was a weak Forest side. Our players once again looked like they had not bothered to turn up. Now I for one dont believe our players dont care. So why does it look like they dont care? Well today there seemed to be a lack of leadership, a lack of communication and a severe lack of basic football skills. Forest although a weak side were organised and I believe that won them the game. Now lately I have seen us play very much like this in the last few games. Exclude the first 20 minutes of the Scunny game and we have seen similar performaces against the Jacks and Reading. Thats nearly a whole month of this.In fact most of our performances have been like this or near enough. Yes we have won most of those games but I just wonder how lucky we have been. Would we beat Derby today or perhaps Pompey? I just feel we have been lucky with the fixtures so far. Of course there have been the exceptions like at Leeds and at home to Donny but that 2 games out of 18. You know the more I see us play the more I see what is happening. We have premiership players who are being brought down to Championship level. It should be the other way round. We have quality players in our squad but we are producing a mediocre chapionship side and that is where our problem lies.

Another good match report which I think goes straight to the core of the issues with our team or the way our team is sent out to play. Yesterday Forest were sent out to stop us playing by any means possible and this is something your will find in every team Billy Davies sends out, organised, always committed and determined to slow play down and break up and attempts by Cardiff to play flowing football.

Forest committed 22 fouls yesterday against Cardiff 9, and 5 free kicks Cardiff gave away were from corner kicks where the referee took what I call the cowards way out by giving a free kick against the attacking side. Whatever the cause of the jostling at corner kicks most if not all was caused by the way Forest and the way they defend, but it takes a strong referee to deal with it and that is something Mr Webster is not sadly like many of his fellow referees. Why is it that an offense outside the box is a freekick but as soon as the same thing happens inside the box the referee gives the freekick the other way?

The level of time wasting by Forest was also staggering especially by Camp who after every Cardiff attack which resulted in a goal kick walked to the edge of the area shouting at thin air before returning to the 6 yard box, taking the ball to the opposite end of the box from where the ball went out, then stepping back and bending over to pull his socks up (both legs) before kicking the ball out. Where was Mr Webster?

But putting the negative approach of Forest and the weakness of Mr Webster to one side yet again a team has come to CCS and set out the stall to stop us from playing and taken points from us. Sheffield Utd, Swansea, Crystal Palace and now Forest have a taken points back home with them.

Why is it that our manager consistently fails to deal with this type of challenge afterall it's not important to beat teams who come to CCS and look to play an open game of football, Doncaster and Norwich paid the price for that. The measure of our team, including the manager has to be how they deal with the sort of challenge they were presented with yesterday and why we fail repeatedly.

If we were at home to QPR next week I don't think we would have a hope of winning because Warnock would set his team out in much the same way as Davies did yesterday and we would struggle. Away from home QPR will have to play a more open game and there in lies our chance and it wouldn't surprise me to see us get a result next week.

DJ has said that this season he has the best squad in his time at the club which allows him options to change things to cope with different situations. If that is truely the case why are we still such an easy touch and that's what we were yesterday a easy touch.

I totally agree Forest were a Dirty team and in My Opinion got away with a lot as well.

Good report fair doos. If we are to kick on we must strengthen in January. Central defence ( we have a great spine to our team in Heaton, Oli and Bothroyd but a bit of a slipped disc in Hudson and Gyepes) is an absolute must, no question about that. We could do with cover for Burke as there was no width at all in our game yesterday and we also need cover for Jay. Without a doubt we need at least 4 players if we are going to continue to challenge at the very top of the table. I hope Dave Jones has got his list ready and has the backing of the board financially otherwise I can see us missing out on promotion again. As has been said previously by many posters this is the weakest Championship for many a year and if we don't do it this season then I fear we will have a long time to wait.

Thanks for the report Ian. A shame I was not able to attend, see you at QPR

I was surprised how dirty Forest were. We don't like it up us and I felt that we did improve in that Dept when Drinkwater came on.
It will be interesting v QPR if Jones starts with Drinkwater.
If we accept that Burke is a shoe in, does this mean that Chops will be on bench and we will play 4 5 1, a system that I think favours us and gives Bellers the best chance to show his worth??

I thought it was a typical "Billy Davies" team, the likes of which he got PNE & Derby playing a few seasons ago. In your face tactics, & very mobile.

I didn't think that Forest were dirty. You can't really count the no. of fouls - it's just the ref's interpretation. Adebola was often penalised for simple challenges in the air - it wasn't as though we were ripping you down every time you tried to play football. I think you'll agree that we played some good stuff ourselves. What should worry you more is that the stats show we had more possession than you and more shots on target than you.
Some of your 'stars' didn't perform. Our good play or poor form from them?
Best wishes for the rest of the season.

Cheers Ian, Looking Forward to Your QPR Match Report