Andy Munro gets heated for the return of a familiar face to St Andrews.
It’s a funny old game. Two weeks ago most bluenoses were in the depths of despair. We couldn’t buy a home win and the club was on the cusp of a Sale of the Century.
Wolves tried to sneak up, as wolves do, to spirit away Marlon King, Chris Hughton tried a cut price bid for Curtis Davies with the ‘lure’ of a cast-off Canary, and the Ginger Judas tried to tear us apart from Chris Burke (By the way, this followed an apparently laughable bid from Leeds for £150,000…. I know Yorkshiremen are supposed to be mean but that’s ridiculous).
Anyway in the end we just lost Jack Butland and even then we’ve got him back on loan. Even better, we also signed Wes Thomas, a 26 year old forward, with an apparent surplus of pace and power which was perhaps a missing link in our forward line although surprisingly (?) he’s been released by Bournemouth.
The atmosphere at the match was a bit of a throwback to better times, helped by the Ginger Judas getting the bird in eagle-sized portions. Forest also added to that atmosphere with a more than decent following and the game ebbed rather than flowed in a frenetic sort of way. Marlon King uncharacteristically skewed wide but Forest also had chances and were foiled on a couple of occasions by excellent saves by Butland helped by woeful finishing.
Part of Blues’ problems were the centre midfield of Wade Elliott and Margot Gomis, which didn’t really work with the two players giving away both too much possession and fouls. Up front, Wes Thomas and King will need time to gel so it was left to Burke to provide the real danger and his bullet-like shot and goal just before halftime must have been a sick one for the Ginger One.
In the second half, Blues had the ascendancy, Reilly coming on for Gomis adding more energy and strength. Lee Clark also took off the misfiring Robert Hall and brought on Nathan Redmond, who again incurred the wrath of the crowd who sometimes forget his comparatively tender age. This happened notably when he failed to play in Burke when almost clean through. Mind you, he had the last laugh with a great run and cross which teed up Burke for a tapped in second goal.
Wes Thomas showed his pace when he burst through powerfully Jerome–like but unfortunately finished in the same way. Enter the highly paid Honey Monster who lumbered around upsetting the Forest defenders without looking particularly dangerous. However , with a two goal cushion it was a mere distraction as we cruised to victory.
Food for thought…
- Did you think that Gomis was sensational like the guy that phoned the Tom Ross Show and gave him Man of the Match?
- Will Jack Butland’s kicking ever improve?
- Would you put a minimum £1.5 million price tag on Chris Burke?
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