A heart attack of a game that summed up our play this season other than the fact that we took another difficult situation… and won. Usual mistakes, panic, self-destructive tendencies, along with some good forward play and set piece goals which Forest could and should have kept out. At least our luck seems to be turning.
A damn good 3 points if you ask me, lets keep them coming.
YNWA
That's all that matters tbh at this stage of the season. Performances less so.
I was back in residence for the game, and after arriving an hour before ko the last time, I didn't want to repeat it again. I also didn't want to arrive in after ko either, but that's exactly what happened. So did many of us, there must have been a couple of thousand Redmen at least, queueing to get in at every block at ko time, and when the rumour went around that the ko was to be delayed 10 minutes, I thought it was a reasonable thing to do. Memories of the events that happened outside Hillsborough before ko all those years ago, came flooding back. Every block had a queue as far back as the gates themselves. With 5 minutes to go though, we heard the teams coming out and just as in 1989, we realised that the game would start on time, with many Redmen stuck outside the ground. Has anything been learned about crowd control in the years since?
Anyway, when I finally took my place in 105 right behind the goal, the game was 5 minutes old, just in the nick of time to see the highlight of the first half, the minute of appreciation when they raised their banner. Grown men shouldn't be told not to chant about football tragedies, but unfortunately these days some need to be reminded. Hillsborough is a terrible part of our history, but we were reminded that it wasn't just our fans there that afternoon, even if their presence often seems to be forgotten about, given what happened.
Back to Block 105, and I'm aware it happens regularly, but you would be forgiven for thinking the standing Kop had never gone away. It was standing room only throughout, bar the halftime penalty shootout. But at least, the best moments of the second half happened just 10 yards away, right in front of me, as we scored the three goals that won us the game. Celebrations for the second one were instantly brought to a halt though, as it looked like the ref had given a free kick against Jota. For what? Handball, offside, well nothing was found, so the goal was confirmed. Then VAR had to check the goal by Mo, in case it was offside. Initially it looked tight, so given all that was stake at both ends of the table, it was right that it should be thoroughly checked. As with the second goal we scored, they threw the ball back to their own box expecting it to be ruled out, but again nothing was found, so the goal was confirmed and it was enough to win us the game.
Three goals were scored, three points were won, and it's Jürgen's 100th home league win, a fabulous achievement in itself. It's our 18th win in the 20 games I've been lucky enough to be at, but with a win rate of 90% when I've been there, everyone usually heads home happy.
