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Forest have had something of a strange season after reaching the play offs last season and it just shows how important goalscorers are. When they came to the Turf in September and won 3-0 they went 3rd in the league.
But three days earlier David Johnson had broken his leg and shortly afterwards his striker partner Marlon Harewood was sold to West Ham. These two scored 45 league goals between them last season out of a Forest total of 82 and how their goals have been missed.
New forward signings in former Claret Gareth Taylor and Marlon King from Gillingham scored just three times between them in a dreadful run hat saw them win just two more games until just before the end of February, and these against the bottom two clubs. It resulted in them slipping from that lofty position in the league to a place in the bottom three.
That cost manager Paul Hart his job, that would have been considered anything but likely last August, and he has recently been replaced by Joe Kinnear who had been looking for another club since losing his job at Luton in somewhat amazing circumstances last summer.
Kinnear made a good start with two wins (again against the bottom two) and three draws in his first five games. That included a stoppage time winner and two stoppage time equalisers as fortune started to favour them.
The former Wimbledon boss has been able to strengthen his squad with three experienced loan signings from the Premiership. Even before the first game he went to neighbours Leicester and signed both Andy Impey and Alan Rogers and has since taken Nick Barmby from Leeds.
To add to that he had further good news on Saturday when, besides beating Crystal Palace, he was able to include David Johnson in his squad. He had scored twice early in the season in six games before breaking his leg in the home game against Sheffield United.
That will be a further boost up front, just before Kinnear’s arrival they failed to score in seven successive league games.
The win on Saturday took them to 16th in the table before last night’s games, their highest placing since mid-December and they will certainly be looking to make the most of their games this week against us and then away to Derby. They do still face a series of tough fixtures.
It was an unexpected win against a Palace side who have hardly looked back since Iain Dowie took over as manager.
Forest were two up inside the first thirteen minutes through midfielders Gareth Williams and Andy Reid. Palace pulled one back but Williams restored the two goal advantage until a second Palace goal fourteen minutes from the end left Forest hanging on.
The Forest team was: Barry Roche, Matthieu Louis-Jean, Wes Morgan, Michael Dawson, Alan Rogers (Des Walker 53), Danny Sonner, Gareth Williams (John Thompson 89), Eoin Jess, Andy Reid, Gareth Taylor, Nick Barmby (David Johnson 85). Subs not used: Pascal Formann, Craig Westcarr.
There is no doubt it will be a vital game for both sides and we will be hoping to emulate the Towers/Irvine inspired side of 1964 or even the team that won a point with a Frank Casper goal six seasons later.
Click HERE to see all Forest's results this season.
Past Results in the last 20 years
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
a | |||||
1990/91 | LC | a | 1-4 | 17,897 | Mumby |
h | 0-1 | 11,399 | |||
2000/01 | 1 | a | 0-5 | 17,195 | |
h | 1-0 | 17,876 | Payton(pen) | ||
2001/02 | 1 | a | 0-1 | 24,016 | |
h | 1-1 | 15,085 | Gnohere | ||
2002/03 | 1 | h | 1-0 | 13,869 | Briscoe |
a | 0-2 | 25,403 | |||
2003/04 | 1 | h | 0-3 | 12,530 |
Click HERE
to see more results against Forest since we first met in 1892.