Thursday 30 December 2010

Such stuff as dreams are made on

When I woke up this morning I wasn't sure if I had actually dreamt that we had thrashed Derby 5-2. I had a really poor night's sleep because after such an exciting occasion, it's very hard to come back down to earth, so as I write this, I might struggle to make sense.

Last season's encounter at the City Ground is memorable for the goal in the first minute that came courtesy of a stunning strike from Raddy Majewski. And Majewski was once again involved as his corner in the second minute was met with perfection by the head of Luke Chambers, who powered the ball into the back of the net for his second goal in successive games, and it gave Forest the perfect start to what was to turn out to be a highly entertaining match which saw a total of seven goals, five of them thankfully scored by us.

Although Derby hauled themselves level only 12 minutes later when Luke Moore cut through the Forest defence before unleashing a shot which just crossed the line after bouncing off the crossbar, Forest were in control for pretty much the whole half. At half time they looked to be well in control at 3-1 thanks to two headed goals from Marcus Tudgay, a former Rams player.

Unlike the second half of the match last season when Derby clawed their way back to 3-2 after trailing by three goals, Forest looked fairly comfortable defending their lead after the break. The fans really started to believe that the three points belonged to Forest when Robbie Earnshaw made it 4-1. But one or two alarms started ringing when Kris Commons, who was loudly booed throughout the game, immediately hit back with a free kick. And then Derby enjoyed their best spell of the game as they sought a way back into it.

Sensing danger, Billy Davies brought Kelvin Wilson on to shore up the defence, and thankfully Forest were able to weather the Derby pressure and they came through it unscathed. Earnshaw's second goal of the evening, in stoppage time, was a fitting way to end a magical misty night and a superb unbeaten year at the City Ground in 2010. This was the 30th League match that Forest had not tasted defeat in a row. The script probably said that Derby would be the team to end that record, so thank god nobody read it!

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