2010 So Far

It's been a good start to the New Year. We've carried on where we left off last year, and in some ways we have grown even stronger. Outplaying the Premiership's form team having made seven changes from what we could now reasonably call our 'first eleven' was particularly impressive - and that was the only game we lost!

Apart from that, the obvious highlight has been the West Brom game. It was a fiercely cold evening, one of those nights where you really need a good performance to warm you up (and a few pints, and possibly some Bovril). Forest didn't disappoint. Incredible stuff in the first half, and even when we faded slightly in the second (which we seem to be making a habit of just recently), we still looked far too good for them. Before the game, my friends and I went for a drink with an acquaintance of ours in the West Bromwich Dartmouth Cricket Club, which I'm told is a gathering place for some of the more hardened Baggies supporters. I was torn between whether I should just keep my mouth shut, or attempt my finest Stan Collymore impersonation to fit in with the West Midlanders. Thankfully, I was spared the chance to roll out my finest Cannock dialect (thank God, I'm no Rory Bremner, it would have caused far more problems than it solved) as we were identified as Forest fans from the outset. Everyone was lovely, and it was great to hear opposition fans speak in reverent tones about the team we have at the moment, and the way we're playing. Everyone was in high spirits, and when we left we all wished each other all the best for the game, and the season. It should be noted, however, that they didn't answer the phone when we tried calling them after each of our goals went in. I'm sure that three answer phone choruses of 'We're Nottingham Forest, Unbeaten Away' cheered them up no end.

I didn't get to the Reading game, but it sounded like a similar case of battering them for half of the game, and then being under the cosh somewhat during the second half. Highlights from the coverage on Radio Nottingham were:

- Discovering that Mick Gooding, the former Reading manager, says 'afternoon' in a really funny way.

- Peter Trembling starting a conversation with Robin Chipperfield by calling him David. He did at least have the grace to apologise, saying he was miles away, reading about the day's postponed games.

- Peter Trembling ending the conversation with Robin Chipperfield by calling him David again. No apology this time.

- Robin Chipperfield and Colin Fray giving constant banter to Derby County, this week because of their decision to release a DVD of their victory (on penalties) against (League One) Milwall in the FA Cup. Highlights of the digs at them were Fray saying there would be commemorative mugs on the way as they'd just gone two nil up (against nine man, bottom of the league Peterborough), and Chipperfield speculating on whether there would be an open-top bus ride around the city when it reached 3-0.

And staying with Radio Nottingham, the first in an occasional series: John McGovern 'Literally' Watch, in which I note my favourite quotes from the former Reds captain where he incorrectly uses the word 'literally'. My favourite from Saturday was after a Reading chance, when he told us that Forest 'literally went to sleep a little bit'. Leaving aside the difficulty of sleeping 'a little bit', it seems extremely unlikely to me that the entire club decided to get forty winks at exactly the same time. I reckon he's been watching Channel 5's FlashForward.