Smash-and-grab Reds break Pompey's hearts

How on earth did we win yesterday's match against Portsmouth? We were playing really poorly and I was convinced that our long unbeaten home record was finally about to come to an end, and consequently it would be the first match that I had attended in almost a year, believe it or not, which I had seen Forest lose (well, apart from the play-offs – but, er, they don't count).

I wasn't feeling particularly well, having suffered from a nasty cough for the past week or so, and so having to experience that horrible sick feeling you get when your team loses, would have left me really down in the dumps, especially with there being nothing good on the telly to cheer me up when I got home. So thank god that we got the equaliser, deservedly or not, three minutes from time. The fact that it was an own goal summed up Forest's poor performance, but I was more than happy to accept it and just have the match finished there and then. A point in the circumstances was very welcome, even if we had been strong favourites to win the game with Portsmouth lying low in the bottom half of the table. But we Forest fans have got used to being incredibly spoilt lately, and right in the last minute of four minutes of injury time, Lewis McGugan, who had earlier come on as a substitute, crossed the ball in and new permanent signing Marcus Tudgay tucked the ball into the net to leave Portsmouth well and truly gutted. It's not as if Forest had been putting a lot of pressure on them, so to lose two goals in the last three minutes was quite shocking from their point of view.

The Reds had found themselves behind after 26 minutes when Chris Gunter slipped over in midfield, and lost the ball to David Nugent, who after a good run fed Kanu, who then beat Lee Camp before firing the ball home despite Forest's best efforts to scramble the ball clear. Neither side had been playing particularly well, although they did have the excuse of the strong wind making playing conditions quite difficult. Portsmouth, though, looked comfortable once they had their lead and seemed quite content to sit back as they didn't really feel Forest were much of a threat. But they took their eye off the ball in the last few minutes as Forest, acutely aware that their proud home record was about to be broken, finally upped their game and Ibrahima Sonko's own goal which came as a result of a McGugan cross got Forest an equaliser out of seemingly nothing, and then deep in injury time up popped Tudgay to net his fourth goal since joining the Club. It's a pity that some fans had left the game and missed both Forest's goals. I can never understand why people do that. It's like going to the cinema and walking out of a good film ten minutes from the end. Granted, this match was no thriller, but the exciting ending somehow made the boring bits worth it.