Next Game – Nottingham Forest (away)

Jim Brennan

This game will be played against the background of the tragic events in Burnley last December that saw Forest fan Nathan Shaw lose his life. Burnley skipper Steve Davis will present a floral tribute to Forest prior to kick off.

Forest sometimes resemble a youth team with so many of their home grown players having come through in the last few years. This is through the work of Paul Hart who having been in charge of the youth set up has now been manager for two seasons.

This policy has also helped the financial situation at the club with them able to sell on a couple of their outstanding young players. Last season Jermaine Jenas signed for Newcastle for £5 million and in January of this year Southampton paid them £2.5 million for David Prutton.

None of this seems to have had much effect on the performances and Forest have improved steadily. Last season was nothing other than average and they ended with one point less than the Clarets have now but this season they have been up there in the play off area just about all season.

It is fair to say that the form of the strikers has been responsible for the difference. Last season Stern John was their leading scorer with 13 and Marlon Harewood had 11. This time around Harewood has reached the magical figure of 20 league goals and still trails David Johnson who has netted a total of 23 league goals.

When your two main strikers can net 43 league goals between them with three games still to go it gives you more than a decent chance of getting somewhere near the top.

Johnno, so nearly a Claret, has had a slight dip in form since the New Year and has scored just four times but Hart moved quickly to give the goals for column a boost by signing Darren Huckerby on loan and he has already contributed with 5 goals.

They went goal crazy recently, hitting 11 goals in 3 wins against Derby (3-0), Norwich (4-0) and then the amazing comeback that saw them win 4-3 at Ipswich. But since then they have had a bit of a hiccup with just one point from four games, three blanks and only Johnson of the three forwards having scored.

Andy Reid

Their home form is good though and they have been beaten only twice this season at the City Ground. The first was a surprise 1-0 defeat to Watford early in the season when Watford were playing well and the other was a 2-1 reverse against Portsmouth on the last Saturday of 2002.

Since then it has been eight games unbeaten at home although four of them have been drawn with three of those draws against teams in the bottom six in Walsall, Coventry and Grimsby.

Having lost 1-0 at Sheffield United last Tuesday they were hoping very much to get back to winning ways on Friday at Reading’s Madejski Stadium. They dominated the first half and did just about everything but score and Reading were thankful to American goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann for keeping them level.

But it was a different story in the second half and Reading fully deserved the win that came courtesy of a goal from Andy Hughes on 74 minutes.

Forest line up: Darren Ward, Mathieu Louis-Jean, Jim Brennan, Michael Dawson, John Thompson, Eugen Bopp, Riccardo Scimeca, Andy Reid, Eoin Jess (David Johnson 76), Marlon Harewood, Darren Huckerby (Jack Lester 85). Subs not used: Barry Roche, Chris Doig, Des Walker.

It will be a tough game for the Clarets but a game we can win if we show the same sort of commitment as at Portsmouth last Tuesday.

Click HERE to see our preview for the home game and HERE to see Forest’s results this season.

He played for both

Steve Blatherwick at Forest

The signing of Blatherwick, for a reported £150,000, was announced on the same day as the signing of Mark Ford from Leeds and were Chris Waddle’s first two transfer fees paid.

The news was warmly received by the Burnley fans as two players with Premiership experience joined a squad expected to push for promotion. It didn’t quite work out that way though.

Blatherwick had played just ten league games for Forest but had added a few more appearances in loan spells with Wycombe, Hereford and Reading. He had served his apprenticeship on the other side of the River Trent with Notts County although never made the first team there.

It all started well and although we weren’t winning and certainly weren’t scoring goals he was part of a defence that was giving precious little away. He was playing well until he lost his place to injury after a 4-0 thrashing against Stoke in the League Cup and he was out of the side for two months.

On his return he struggled to find the form he had shown in the early part of the season and was in and out of the side. There had apparently been a bust up with the Sinister One Glenn Roeder and after a 2-1 home defeat to Wrexham towards the end of February he was left out for the remainder of the season.

Waddle then relied on Gerry Harrison and the less than impressive Neil Moore at the back and somehow we just about escaped relegation.

Blatherwick was in the starting line up when the following season started by now under new management with Stan Ternent and Sam Ellis in charge. He was back alongside Lee Howey and that lasted for just two and a half league games. At half time in the third game they were replaced by debutants Chris Scott and Matty Heywood and just forty-five minutes later Stan announced that neither (along with Winstanley and Williams) would play for the club again.

He had a two month loan spell at Chesterfield and was in fact the first of the four to leave Turf Moor when he signed for the Derbyshire club on a permanent basis just before Christmas 1998 for £50,000.

Now 29 he has been a regular in the Chesterfield side and yesterday came up against an old team mate in David Eyres. It was Eyresy who came out on top, scoring in a match won 4-0 by Oldham.

Click HERE to see all our league results against Forest that date back to two draws in 1892.

Nottingham Forest 1 (Bart-Williams 79) Burnley 0 – Nationwide League Division 1, Saturday 13^th October 2001

Without Glen Little and Alan Moore we were looking a pale shadow of the side that had taken the First Division by storm and this was to be yet another dismal ninety minutes and another defeat although Forest were hardly any better and didn’t really deserve to win it.

When the winner came it was something of a fluke as Chris Bart-Williams’ effort got a deflection off Ian Cox that left Nik Michopoulos with no chance whatsoever. Having said that the goal was the result of a superb counter attack by Forest.

It came from a Burnley corner that was half cleared only to David Johnson on the edge of his own box but the striker run fully seventy yards with the ball once and then slipped it to Gareth Williams. The midfielder found his captain Bart-Williams with a superb cross field ball and he scored via the deflection having made a run from his own goal line.

The game had looked every bit a 0-0 draw until this time but there was to be no comeback for Burnley. Despite bringing on Andy Payton we didn’t trouble Forest keeper Darren Ward and in fact Forest did come close twice to doubling their lead.

There were positives though, new signing Tony Grant made his debut as a substitute and did well and Greek Under-21 international Dimitri Papadopoulos also made his first long awaited appearance from the bench.

The teams were,

Nottingham Forest: Darren Ward, Mathieu Louis-Jean, Jim Brennan, Jon-Olav Hjelde, Riccardo Scimeca, Gareth Williams, David Prutton, Alan Rogers (Eugen Bopp 69), Chris Bart-Williams, Jack Lester (Stern John 45), David Johnson (Craig Westcarr 79). Subs not used: Barry Roche, Tony Vaughan.

Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West, Steve Davis, Ian Cox, Arthur Gnohere (Tony Grant 27), Paul Weller, Kevin Ball, Paul Cook (Andy Payton 80), Lee Briscoe, Ian Moore (Dimitri Papadopoulos 74), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Luigi Cennamo, Mark McGregor.

Referee: Bill. Jordan (Tring).