People around me were gasping when the ball crashed into the back of the net from 35 yards out. I wasn't even sure if it was an in-direct free kick or not as it was so far out. But McGugan seems to do no wrong at the moment, and this was his seventh goal in eight games – an excellent tally for a striker, let alone a midfielder. And it's not as if any of those goals have been tap-ins. All of them have been worthy of being nominated for Goal of the Month. In fact it will take something very special to beat yesterday's exquisite strike in the Goal of the Season competition. Not that I expect McGugan to win it, being a Championship footballer rather than a Premiership one.
But I wonder how long it will be before McGugan is plying his trade in the top flight. It's almost inevitable that he will attract a lot of attention when the January transfer window opens, and I'm not sure if Forest will be able to stand in his way if a big Premiership club comes knocking. But all these goals he's scored has made him a more valuable asset, and if we let him go for £5 or £6 million, we can buy a couple of very good Championship players with that. I'd sooner keep McGugan, though, because he is making watching Forest quite exciting at the moment. You just never know when he is going to pop up with a brilliant goal, but we have come to expect it every match now!
While McGugan not surprisingly got all the plaudits for his goal, we must not forget the fact that it was David McGoldrick who set us on the way to victory in the 13th minute with his first goal of the season on what was also his first start. He was named in the starting line-up by Billy Davies as Dexter Blackstock, who has been through a bit of a lean spell of late, was rested.
Forest didn't exactly look comfortable defending at the back as Ipswich posed a lot of problems for them, so they were very grateful for McGugan's unexpected goal just before half time, and although Ipswich did their best to break Forest's defence down, they just could not find a way through, and so the Reds were able to claim their second successive clean sheet in a week and more importantly back-to-back home wins, which takes them into the top half of the table.
It has been a very positive few days for Forest both on and off the pitch. Nigel Doughty's announcement on Friday that he would be making changes to the Acquisition Panel's transfer policy, thus making it easier for Davies to sign players, is a welcome one. But we will still have to wait over two months before we can make any permanent signings, so in the meantime we will have to make do with what we've got, but judging by recent results and the rediscovery of McGugan, we seem to be doing just fine for the moment.
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