So I didn't watch Nottingham Forest wreck Manchester City. I didn't watch Bristol City hold Portsmouth, Southend hold Chelsea, or Hull hold Newcastle (maybe the phrasing should be reversed, on that one). I totally missed Hartlepool going all sinners-in-the-hands on Stoke. Instead, thanks to the magical pageantry of a tradition that insists on everything happening simultaneously so you can't actually follow very much of it, I watched Forest Green Rovers lose 3-4 to Derby County. It was a fantastic game. But still.
For a game with seven goals, it was a lot like trench warfare, only played on a harder surface. Forest Green attacked Derby's back line with the pace of Andrew Mangan, and went up 2-0 within 20 minutes. Derby then realized that they were taller, stronger, faster, and better-looking their opponents, and gonged in a couple of semi-deserved headers to equalize. Every goal cost thousands of lives and gained about seven inches of ground. Sentimental music played on crackly Victrolas. The notion of honor was upheld by the dons of Cambridge. Forest Green took the lead again, and Paul Jewell floated down a stream with a straw between his lips. Then Derby equalized again, and menacing shadows flowed over him.
I don't know. Derby are just…they're just terrible. Everything they do is so labored and confused. Watching their historically awful run through the Premier League last season, I assumed it was a talent deficit, but they looked exactly the same against a team fully three leagues beneath them. You can't quite say that Forest Green outplayed them, but at the same time, if the network had been flashing phone numbers at the bottom of the screen, I don't think Derby would have garnered a lot of votes.
Two questions. First, why don't the Forest Green fans have any songs? I thought at first that the ground was just too small for the microphones to pick them up, but you could clearly hear the Derby fans chanting after their last-minute penalty. Is there a famous Cotswolds reticence that I'm not familiar with, or is coordinated rhyming a privilege reserved for League Two teams?
Second, what's the deal with Terry Burton, Forest Green's goalkeeper? He spent most of the second half making horrifying faces and beating himself about the head. What kind of counseling is available in Conference National? I mean, can he talk to someone, or is it all straw and hoses at that level? I worry about the kid. Four goals or no four goals, he had a sensational game.
I think it was posttraumatic stress
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....429463.ece
You know, one of the most lovely and stirring of all English hymn tunes is called, yes, Forest Green. So they ought to have one song anyway.
[...] to get excited about the Derby-Nottingham Forest/irascible-ghost-of-Brian-Clough derby, but after yesterday I'm not sure I can ever get excited about any game involving Derby again. Still, these two [...]
as a supporter of a team in the conference, i can answer your question about the lack of forest green songs: they have no fans.
so far this season they have an average attendance of 927. for the cup game there were 4,836 people there – that's a lot of people moving from foot-to-foot, looking a bit awkward, and hoping no-one notices they're just moving their lips rather than singing.
That makes sense, Matt. Here's hoping the match-day income from those extra 3900 non-singers will be a help going forward.
forest green outsung derby every second of that match. The reason you couldn't hear was because the camera was on the western terrace stand, right above all the derby fans, and the other side of the pitch from the vocal fgr supporters
The trench warfare metaphor is not exactly "spot on"- I think Derby's offensive tactics are more 14th century than 20th century. Think war elephants but without the cool moorish-costumed riders.
I am fascinated by the UK obsession with run, cross, head, as opposed to pass,move,pass.
In chess, even novices intuitively gravitate towards the Italian march opening because the middle is key to any battle. yet the UK approach fears taking any territory and holding it.