Match Preview – Nottingham Forest v Brighton
Nottingham Forest – the team
Forest are another one of those teams with a long and proud tradition who are being thoroughly screwed over by some pretty rubbish owners. In this case, it is the Al-Hasawi family who took over the club in 2012 and promised big things such as a return to the Premier League. They didn’t seem to realise this thing called Financial Fair Play excisted however. Or if they did, then they take the sort of gamble we are prone to in the Grosvenor after 10 pints of Guinness (£30 on zero) in attempting to buy their way to promotion. This didn’t work, sanctions followed and now Forest are stuck with owners who seemingly have no interest in the club and are only slightly better off than that other great Championship basketcase Blackburn in the sense that they aren’t in the relegation zone. Yet. What a cock up.
Nottingham – the place
Nottingham is most famous for its links with the legend of Robin Hood, that great man who stole from the rich to give to the poor who Walt Disney bizarely decided to portay as a fox. The city has an award winning public transport system which should provide a breath of fresh air for those of us who are used to having to put up with Southern Rail. That is of course providing you don’t get shot using it given that Nottingham was also the gun crime capital of the country in 2007. If you do however get shot, you can always relax in one of the many brilliant pubs on offer such as the Canal House (with a canal running through it), Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem which claims to be the oldest pub in England and, er, Hooters if you like overpriced and warm Carling served by woman wearing very little.
Nottingham – the people
Perhaps the most famous resident of the city is Robin Hood’s great adversary, the Sheriff of Nottingham who shared a quite remarkable resemblance to Alan Rickman. We haven’t been able to find any written confirmation that he was a Forest fan, but even without him they have quite a formidable line up including fashion desginer Paul Smith, Dean from Torvill and Dean and Richard Bacon who became the first Blue Peter presenter to have his contract terminated mid-series for being a bit too fond of the old Colombian Marching Powder.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Forest away
That goal from Leonardo Ulloa the other year wasn’t too shabby.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Forest away
The 2007-08 game under Dean Wilkins wasn’t exactly ideal. On the pitch we ground out a pretty dull 0-0 to just about remain in League One play off contention. Off the pitch, one member of the WeAreBrighton.com team got punched in the face leaving Hooters causing the loss of the train tickets home. We managed to stay hidden in the kitchen carriage all of 30 miles until Leicester before being discovered and chucked off. An expensive day out for a scoreless draw.
Familiar names
Blink and you’ll have missed him, but Forest midfielder Mustapha Carayol played five times on loan towards the end of the 2014-15 season. He was one of the 656 loan players signed over the course of that campaign by both Chris Hughton and his predecessor Sami Hyypia as the club hunted down the world record for number of loans used in a season. They also have a Joao Teixeira among their ranks on-loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers. He received a warm round of applause when appearing at the Amex earlier in the season for Wolves which must have confused him as he has never played for the Albion in his life.
Dangermen
Britt Assombalonga has a remarkable scoring record at this level and should give Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy a real test. Forest can also count upon Ross McCormack who always seemed to net against us prior to him turning into an overpaid slob when he joined Aston Villa in the summer.
Betting
It’s good to bet when the bonus is straight forward and there could be a real bonus on offer in the shape of Sam Baldock’s price of 12/5 to score anytime. It’s a bit of a toss up whether Chris Hughton will go with Glenn Murray or Tomer Hemed whereas Baldock is pretty much guaranteed to start and he has been in good form in recent away games, most notably with that brace last time out in a similarly tough encounter at Barnsley.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.