2 Leagues apart – but who was really the Premier side?

Forest second goalscorer - Grant HoltWhat a brilliant day yesterday was. I met up with a couple of mates from PlusNet and we went to the City ground to watch the FA Cup Third Round tie between Nottingham Forest and Charlton Athletic.

Was a strange occasion for me as I have always attended Forest games and been in the Trent End… but this time I was sat with the away fans (trying desperately to bite my tongue every time forest touched the ball!)

The first 20 minutes of the match were not too hot, to put it politely, although Forest did seem to already have control of the match but you still couldn’t have guessed who would score first – simply because you felt the first goal would be more down to who got the luck.

Not the case though as Charlton just never picked up their game, and in fact went downhill as the 90+ minutes progressed, whilst Forest seemed to pick up and keep the pace and pressure on at all times.

TV replays showed that a crossbar bounced goal should have been awarded, but regardless of that it was still a 2-0 victory to Forest after a difficult few weeks in League 1.

The Charlton fans (including one of the guys I was with – the other was totally neutral in the matter) were very quickly becoming disillusioned by the dire performance of a team that struggled to put together more than 3 or 4 passes in a row and who seemed to be scared of the forest goal mouth for most of the match, choosing instead to pass the ball from one side of the pitch to the other until a Forest player would intercept. Pretty soon the away fans were joining in with the chants from the forest fans, decrying their teams shoddy efforts and sitting with heads in hands.

With 20 minutes to go – Charlton seemed to settle in as if they were winning the game and although they did have one shot come close (but for a cracking save!) they didn’t really pressurise the forest defence or the keeper much.

Forest showed some real skill and pace, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that they deserve to get out of league 1 – will they progress further in the cup, I don’t know as it really does depend who they play next… but I know that they will give it a damn good try!

Nice one lads 😀 And thanks for the great day Ian!!!

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