I was bowled over at times by the quality of football we were playing in the first half. We kept the ball so well and really dominated possession. Newcastle weren't a bad team, but they simply couldn't handle our abundance of pace. I was particularly impressed with Guy Moussi, who was playing in a three-man central midfield. He was excellent at winning the ball and distributing it. It was the best I'd seen him play in a long time. Paul Anderson, too, was looking very dangerous on the wing, and he was the orchestrator of a sublime bit of skill when he somehow kept the ball in play when it looked to be going out, before running with it and then dispatching a shot from a tight angle, which the goalkeeper just got his hands to. It would surely have been one of the finest goals ever scored at the City Ground had it gone in. Billy Davies got his tactics spot on by playing five in midfield and Dexter Blackstock up front on his own. It might have seemed a bit negative on paper, but Blackstock got plenty of chances, and when he gave us the lead on the stroke of full time when he latched on to a through ball from Radoslaw Majewski, it was all he and his team mates deserved.
For a lot of the second half, it was a backs-to-the-wall job as we soaked up a lot of Newcastle pressure. But luckily our defence was on top form, and the closest Newcastle got to equalising was when Kevin Nolan put the ball in the net only for it to be ruled offisde. That was sweet justice for those Forest fans who had read his comments earlier saying that we'd celebrate victory over them as if we'd won the European Cup (again). As if! I must admit, my celebrations were a bit more passionate than usual when we win, but no, it didn't feel as if we'd won the European Cup. At least Forest do know what that feels like, eh Kevin? It's not a feeling he's likely to ever experience in his lifetime.
So now that we have beaten supposedly the biggest club in the League, I think we can safely say that Forest mean business this season. There's no way that we will be sucked into a relegation battle. We are far too strong for that. Therefore, to keep the season going, we've got to target those play-off places, and who knows, maybe even automatic promotion. We are only five points away from first place after all. But, I agree with Davies. We're just not ready for the Premiership yet. We need another season or two down here first of all. We do not want to repeat Derby's awful experience. Davies is as yet unproven as a manager at that level, although I think he'd be up for the challenge given the right circumstances. If we can flirt with the play-offs but not actually reach them, then it will be a great season. We're currently seventh, and our odds on winning promotion are being shortened all the time, so people obviously like the look of us. We got off to a slow and uninspiring start, but it's all coming together very nicely now, and for the first time in what seems like eons, I can't think of a bad word to say about the Club!
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