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| The City Ground at 2:30PM |
SkyBet EFL Championship
at the City Ground
Nottingham Forest (2) 2
Lewis Grabban 10, 38
Ipswich Town (0) 0
Attendance: 27,873 (1,493 away)
Nottingham Forest: Costel Pantilimon, Tendayi Darikwa, Michael Dawson (C) (Ben Osborn 79), Michael Hefele, Jack Robinson, Adlene Guedioura, Jack Colback, Gil Dias (Matty Cash 90), Joao Carvalho, Joe Lolley, Lewis Grabban (Karin Ansarifard 87)
Unused subs - Luke Steele, Daryl Murphy, Saidy Janko, Claudio Yacob
Ipswich Town: Bartosz Bialkowski, Jordan Spence, Luke Chambers (C), Matt Pennington, Jonas Knudsen, Cole Skuse, Grant Ward (Trevoh Chalobah 59), Teddy Bishop (Jon Nolan 71), Jack Lankester, Freddie Sears, Kayden Jackson (Roberts 59)
Unused subs - Dean Gerken, Janoi Donacien, Danny Rowe, Andre Dozzell
Fresh from netting himself two goals in Forest's high scoring draw at Aston Villa in midweek, Lewis Grabban also claimed another brace of goals against the division's bottom side: Ipswich Town this afternoon, to seal a comfortable win for Aitor Karanka's side, who moved up to fifth, as a consequence of their three point haul.
And though the refreshingly competitive Championship pecking order seems to be in a perpetual state of flux, Forest are demonstrating their credentials as serious promotion challengers, who might just stay the course, as they nudged their way past both Sheffield United and Derby County in the table, on goal difference, as the season careers headlong towards its midway point at breakneck speed.
And though the refreshingly competitive Championship pecking order seems to be in a perpetual state of flux, Forest are demonstrating their credentials as serious promotion challengers, who might just stay the course, as they nudged their way past both Sheffield United and Derby County in the table, on goal difference, as the season careers headlong towards its midway point at breakneck speed.
Incidentally, I'm told by a reliable source (AKA an old bloke on the bus I was traveling over to Nottingham on, who seemed to know his stuff), that the 5-5 draw at Villa Park on Wednesday night, is the highest scoring draw that Nottingham Forest have ever been involved in, since their inception in 1865, when a group of Bandy, Shinty and even Baseball players, based at the Clinton Arms, decided to take up the sporting pastime of Association Football as well.
Should you ever wish to visit the said public house, to wallow in some sporting nostalgia while taking a few scoops on board, it stands at number 38 Shakespeare Street, and is currently called the Orange Tree.
If you're not familiar with the game of Banty, it is a variation of Shinty, but played on ice... and if you don't know what Shinty is, you'll have to Google it! I'm here for the football.
That bizarre midweek result, against Dean Smith's 'Villans', forms part of what became a seven game unbeaten run at the City Ground this afternoon, in front of a large appreciative, and dare I say, expectant crowd.
They weren't to be disappointed, as the hosts convincingly and comfortably turned over their Suffolk based opposition and came close to winning by a much bigger margin, when they hit the woodwork three times and had another goal-bound effort cleared off of the visitors line.
Should you ever wish to visit the said public house, to wallow in some sporting nostalgia while taking a few scoops on board, it stands at number 38 Shakespeare Street, and is currently called the Orange Tree.
That bizarre midweek result, against Dean Smith's 'Villans', forms part of what became a seven game unbeaten run at the City Ground this afternoon, in front of a large appreciative, and dare I say, expectant crowd.
They weren't to be disappointed, as the hosts convincingly and comfortably turned over their Suffolk based opposition and came close to winning by a much bigger margin, when they hit the woodwork three times and had another goal-bound effort cleared off of the visitors line.
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| Watch out! Danny Westwell's about! |
Ipswich showed why they might be struggling at the exact opposite end of table to their East Anglian rivals Norwich City, when they afforded Tendayi Darikwa enough time and space to turn a barge in, a few yards outside their area and he unleashed a dipping shot, that the visitors keeper Bartosz Bialkowski struggled to hold onto and he spilled the ball to his left, straight into the path of Grabban whose predatory instincts had kicked in as he followed the ball just in case such a gift of an opportunity should present itself. On his current form the Forest striker was never going to miss from there. After the game, in an unprompted comment, the visitors manager, Paul Lambert, said that he didn't want to attach any blame to Bialkowski for today's result. So, err... why mention him in such a context then? Just saying.
Kayden Jackson had a couple of chances to pull the visitors back on level terms, but as he got his head down over the ball and let fly from ten yards with his initial effort, when he looked up the goal was to his left and the ball was vanishing into the Trent End to his right. He went much closer a few minutes later, when he flicked a glancing header across the face of Costel Pantilimon's goal from Grant Ward's right wing cross, that dropped narrowly beyond the far post.
Ipswich's short lived attacking spell, acted as a call to arms for Karanka's team and Tendayi Darikwa was instrumental in taking the game to the visitors on the right, he picked out Gil Dias at the back post with a cross, that the Reds number 31 crashed against the aforementioned upright, with a thumping header, but seven minutes before half time, Joao Carvalho stroked a slide-rule pass out to Darikwa, who whipped the ball across the face of the Ipswich goal (and their flat footed defence and wrong footed keeper) to where Grabban was in the right place at the right time once again to provide the finishing touch to give Forest a two goal cushion going into the break.
HT: The Reds 2 v The Blues 0
As the players were coming out for the second half, while I was telling my mate why you'll never see me use the nicknames: Tricky Trees or Tractor Boys on this blog (because they both sound equally as daft as each other), we were disturbed by a rather shrill gentleman, standing a few rows behind us, whose voice sounded like George Formby's might have done if he'd been inhaling helium and talking while eating half a packet of Toffos at the same time, sprayed forth (literally) with a public denunciation and condemnation of the Forest manager: "Come on Karanka, get 'em sorted out, we were 2-0 up at Villa and phuct that one up didn't we!? Don't do it again stupid!"
It takes all sorts doesn't it!?
I wonder where he got his sweets from... I haven't seen any Toffos in the shops in ages.
Carvalho, who was effectively bossing the game, picked out Michael Hefele with a floating free kick, whose free header came back out off the inside of the post and into Bialkowski's arms. Joe Lolley, who was influencing the shape of game, almost on a par with Carvalho, was unlucky to see his shot from Grabban's sideways knock blocked on the line, whilst Grabban almost scored a most opportunist of goals, from over by the right touchline, when he chased the ball down and hooked it over the advancing Ipswich captain Luke Chambers (himself a former Forest player, who made over 200 appearances for them between 2001 and 2012) and the stranded Bialkowski, but saw his audacious knock bounce off of the top of the crossbar.
Although Forest still looked in command, Ipswich almost pulled a goal back out of the blue, when Jack Lankester fizzed a shot narrowly wide of the left hand post.
Until then, apart from Jackson's near miss, ages ago, when it was still 1-0, that was pretty much all that the visiting fans had to get excited about today, safe for when they were celebrating the fact that Rotherham United were beating their nearest and dearest 0-1 at Carrow Road... but the Canaries had turned things around by now and were leading 3-1, meaning that it would be a miserable ride home for the 1,493 Town fans in the lower tier of the Bridgford Stand.
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| The City Ground at 5:10PM |
Until then, apart from Jackson's near miss, ages ago, when it was still 1-0, that was pretty much all that the visiting fans had to get excited about today, safe for when they were celebrating the fact that Rotherham United were beating their nearest and dearest 0-1 at Carrow Road... but the Canaries had turned things around by now and were leading 3-1, meaning that it would be a miserable ride home for the 1,493 Town fans in the lower tier of the Bridgford Stand.
Bialkowski did well to get down to Lolley's half volley, following his mazy run through a few static Ipswich players.
The Reds skipper Michael Dawson, limped off of the pitch to a backdrop of a few thousand home fans singing "He's one of our own!", having taken a hefty knock... and Grabban almost marked the occasion of being handed the captain's armband by finally completing his hat trick, but though he beat Bialkowski, Matt Pennington was on hand to make a last ditch block.
Grabban then left the field to the acclaim of the home crowd as Karim Ansarifard replaced him for the last couple of minutes.
FT: Nottingham Forest 2 v Ipswich Town 0
Grabban was awarded with the man of the match award. He'd played very well and obviously his prowess in front of goal had swung it for him; but in my humble opinion: Carvalho and Lolley must've been under serious consideration too. While the unsung hero of the afternoon was one Adlene Guedioura, who put in a great shift, playing in a 'mine-sweeper' role between the home sides defence and midfield, where he snubbed the majority of attacking intentions that Ipswich might have had, while providing the foundations for Forest's forward momentum.
