Contenders for Promotion to the EPL, Part Two: Nottingham Forest
This is the second part in a series looking at the Sky Bet Championship sides competing for promotion into the Premier League. The two teams with the highest point total on May 3rd will automatically ensure their bids, while the next four highest teams will enter a two-round knock-out playoff for the third and final spot. Todayās subject, Nottingham Forest, is a team with a proud and winning history, but one that has spent much of their recent past playing beneath the Premier League. For sixteen games this season, the Nottingham Forest Football Club was unbeatable. From December 3rd to February 11th, Forest won seven and drew six in league play. Led by manager Billy Davies, the side accumulated points in the league, established a foothold in the play-off zone, and advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup before succumbing to League Oneās Sheffield United. This, their first loss of the winter (against a mid-table, third division side no less) left Forest injured and reeling. The fine form that had carried them near the top of the twenty-four team table would soon disappear. Now in his second stint with the club, Billy Davies will likely take the heat if Forest is on the outside looking in during the playoffs this May. However, this fall from grace didnāt necessarily start with Davies. Four days after their FA Cup knockout, in a marquee match-up against Championship leaders Leicester City, Davies assaulted the match referee inside the playersā tunnel at half-time. The game would end in a 2-2 draw, but Daviesā rash actions would force the FAās hand, resulting in a five match ban from the touchline. Before the FA could enforce their verdict on the hot tempered Scot, Forest had already dropped three straightātheir worst streak of the season. Davies was witness to two drubbings from fellow contenders Burnley and Wigan, and a humiliating 1-0 defeat to relegation candidates Barnsley, before accepting the FAās punishment for his āabusive words [and] behaviour.ā After sitting out a pair of listless draws, Davies has appealed the decision, in order to, one assumes, get back on the touchline and inspire his side to some better results. Whatever comes of Daviesās latest sturm und drang with the FA, itās unlikely to affect Forestās play on the pitch. After setting the lineup, the football manager has just three substitutes at his disposal and a fifteen minute break with which to rail against the football gods or adjust his squadās tactics. Then again, and perhaps more importantly to Nottingham Forest and their fans, thereās not much a manager can do with less than a calendar year at the helm either. Since 2004, Forest has had 13 clubhouse regimes and two owners. Thereās little to be said for the shelf life of a career in professional athletics, but patience, consistencyāand as it follows, winningāhave not been hallmarks for this club in the recent past. *** Yet, it wasnāt always like this at Forest. Along this narrow section of the River Trent in Nottingham, lies a hotbed of English football history. On the north bank of the river youāll find Meadow Lane, home of the oldest professional football club in the country, Notts County, who currently ply their trade in League One. On the south side of the river, just three hundred yards away, is the City Ground, Forestās home since 1898. While not as old as their neighbors, Forest has been playing organized football since 1865 and was one of the very first clubs to don the color red. Their earlier exploits include a pair of FA Cup wins, but the teamās true glory came much later.
In 1975, after a tumultuous forty-four days at Leeds United, Brian Clough was appointed the teamās manager, a position he would hold for eighteen years. Before that, he was a spectacular footballer himself, scoring 251 goals for his Middlesbrough and Sunderland teams. Before his managerial debuts at Leeds and Nottingham, Cough led an underachieving Derby County squad into the first division and then on to a league title. Yet it is his tenure at Forest that stands alone. Clough is the longest serving and winningest of any Forest skipper and his greatest triumphs came with the club on Trent. Together, they won the Football League title in 1978, the Football League Cup in ā78, ā79, ā89, and ā90, and back-to-back European Cups in ā79 and ā80. Few managers compare to the man they call the āBritish Muhammed Ali.ā In fact, Clough was so effortlessly quotable and charismatic that they had to write a book about him, and then make a movie out of it. Although neither even involves his accomplishments at Forest.
*** This Saturday, Forest will be looking for a result against their longtime rivals Derby County. If they manage to win the second leg of this yearās East Midlands derby, and hold onto the Brian Clough Trophy in the process, Forest can pull within three points of the equally stagnant Rams. However, they must do so severely shorthanded. At times this season, as many as seven first team players have been injured at once. Currently, the back line is missing the American, Eric Lichaj, out indefinitely recovering from a hernia, and Hull City loanee Jack Hobbs, who is sidelined for the rest of the season. Forest will also need to replace its proven goal scorers Henri Lansbury, and the oft-injured attacking midfielder (and modern day club legend) Andy Reid. Poised to continue its tumble down the table, Forestās bench must prove themselves if the team hopes to stay in the playoff hunt and win promotion for the first time since 1999. If you think the Premier Leagueās ten-month campaign is grueling, the Championshipās absurdly packed, forty-six game schedule (with a significant number of midweek matches to fulfill all of its home and away fixtures) makes its superior look like nothing but some bourgeois, dive-happy, over-televised pastime. A team with any hope of winning promotion must have grit and depth in spades. If theyāre lucky enough to get there, they must also have a front office capable of infusing new, quality players that still match the teamās identity. Forestās instability there doesnāt bode them well. But for now, Forest must focus on their own league. They have recorded just three points from their last six matches (for a total of 57 on the season), theyāve been pole-vaulted by a resurgent Wigan Athletic and will need a victory to fend off the lurking Reading and Brighton Hove Albion, who sit in 7th and 8th with 56 points apiece. Billy Davies, meanwhile, will be back on the touchline for the foreseeable future until he settles his troubles with the FA and serves out the remainder of his ban. If Forest has any hope of reclaiming its glory days in the top flight, Davies must lead the club out from the doldrums and inspire his players to win. What they really need is Brian Clough, but thatās the kind of thinking that got them into this mess in the first place.
Update:Ā Derby County defeated Forest 5-0, and Billy Davies got sacked the next day.
Next week, weāll take a look at Queens Park Rangers (66 points). Start your homework here:Ā The Four Year Plan. This series is being brought to you by Justin Hargett. He lives in NYC and can be found on Twitter.
