As the dust has settled on a somewhat bizarre end to the season now would be a good time to reflect on Nottingham Forest’s 2009/2010 season.
“Shaky start”
After a busy pre season which saw Billy Davies bring in 9 new players spending £6million in the process, one could be forgiven for taking a little time to gel as a team. However I don’t think anyone expected to wait till the end of August to achieve our first win.
“Derby day brawl”
Forest/Derby games always have talking points, controversy and plenty of goals and the home encounter at the City Ground did not disappoint. Having gone 3-0 up by half time, many fans thought the game would be dead and buried. But Derby caused a nail biting finish by scoring 2 quick goals. Thankfully that’s how it finished and Nathan Tyson was given temporary hero status for his flag flying incident which ended up in a brawl.
“Unbeaten away”
Many thought the Derby game would be our turning point, getting that first elusive win that would help the team kick on. However it wasn’t meant to be and it wasn’t till the end of September that we gained our second home win of the season. We did have some consistency which was our away form. Amazing to think we were the only team in the country to have not lost away.
“Top of the league - Almost”
This run helped us climb the table and with our home form picking up, we managed to get ourselves 1 goal short of top spot in January. I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed with a 5-0 win before.
“Away woes”
If one team was to end our away record, it would have to be Derby County. I have never felt gone into a Derby game with such confidence, and was looking forward to watching us win for the first time ever at Pride Park. It wasn’t meant to be. On January 30th our unbeaten record ended. We were to find out that this was our turning point for the season. Having gone so long without losing away from home, we went on a 7 (away) match losing streak. This handed the title to Newcastle and with West Brom continually winning second spot was rapidly slipping away.
“Formidable home record”
Fortunately our home record was Formidable. We went 19 games unbeaten and this kept us firmly in third place for the rest of the season.
“Play Off misery”
Unfortunately Forest’s well known curse of the play offs came back to haunt us as we lost both legs to Blackpool who eventually went on to gain promotion to the Premier League. If we had of scraped passed Blackpool I’m almost certain we’d have beat Cardiff in the final. If we finished 9 points clear of Blackpool how did they gain promotion ahead of us? Simple – they beat us 4 times in one season.
In conclusion, we have to take last season as a positive and not reflect on what might have been. In terms of points gained, Forest must have been the most progressed teams in the country. Billy Davies has done a great job in turning our fortunes. To have gone from probable relegation to possible Premier League, everyone connected with Nottingham Forest need to be proud with what they’ve achieved. Where do we go from here? With great success, comes great expectation. Let’s hope Billy is the man to take us forward and let’s hope he gets enough time to finish the job.