Alfreton Town 1 v Nottingham Forest 2 - PSF

Saturday 29th June 2019

Pre Season Friendly

at the Impact Arena, North Street, Alfreton

Alfreton Town (1) 1

Dec Bacon 16

Nottingham Forest (1) 2

Brennan Johnson 40

Karim Ansarifard 83

Attendance: 1,799

Point and hope photo gallery link: Click HERE

If the question is: when is it too early in the year to start watching football again?; although it would only be a rhetorical line of enquiry (especially while teams are still making plans and signing players on, in preparation for the forthcoming term) , the correct answer is probably: Saturday 29th June.
But I s'pose, that with a lot of leagues starting their new campaigns on Saturday 3rd August, teams need to get their preparation minutes and a few 'prestige' games in early this time around.

That said, though it might be an age thing on my part, the demarcation lines are becoming increasingly blurred these days, to the point of non-existence, as one season merges seamlessly into the next one, with almost indecent haste. To be honest, I'd always thought that it was expressly against FA rules to organise and play games in the month of June.

That annual quizzical probing that I'm sure you'll all be familiar with, when somebody invariably asks: "What are you going to do, now that the football season is over?", has been rendered somewhat inert, by the fact that football is never really over nowadays... and we, either as participants (in whatever capacity), or mere disciples, who avidly follow our chosen variations of the beautiful game; seldom, if ever, close for business.

Towards the arse end of my ever diminishing grey matter, I have a very vague and distant recollection, from days of yore, that there was once something that we called 'the Summer', that fell roughly in between the first Saturday of May (AKA 'Cup Final Day') and either the first or second weekend in August. But that seems to be a thing of the past nowadays, just like the Home International tournaments, that used to briefly punctuate the so called 'closed season'.

I wonder if there is still such a thing as a factory shutdown fortnight nowadays, whereby people head off to the coast, or sunnier climes, en masse, to recharge their mojo, sans any football activity whatsoever.
Or, if there is anyone left who still insists on playing that daft Summer game called cricket anymore.
It's okay for you lot, but this kind of rumination and deeply unsettling procrastination keeps me awake for hours on end at night.

Today's visitors hit the 'back page headlines' yesterday, when they off-loaded manager Martin O'Neill, just five months into his reign at the City Ground... and just a few days after his assistant Roy Keane resigned from his post at Forest.
Subsequently, the club hierarchy installed Sabri Lamouchi into their ejector seat... whoops! I meant to say hot seat; putting him in charge of first team affairs, with immediate effect, and officially announced his arrival just eighteen minutes after putting out a statement regarding O'Neill's dismissal. Though, obviously, the wheels had been in motion to conclude this 'swoop' for a considerable time prior to Friday's breaking news.

Stories have since emerged, that O'Neill had 'lost the dressing room', so to speak, and claims have been made that there was a groundswell of player mutiny behind the decision to axe him. Similar tales did the rounds when Aitor Karanka left the club last season too, but the conflict between conjecture and fact is often employed, when circumstances such as these present themselves, leaving those whose vocation it is to commentate on events from the outside, clutching at straws and desperately trying to provide some kind of purported inside track.

Football, at all levels, has a massive turnover of juxtaposed elements, be they players, staff or managers... and after all of these years, nothing should surprise me (or you) anymore.
But, that said, this particular piece of business definitely falls into the 'didn't see that one coming' category. Though maybe we all ought to have had an inkling, because the knives were out for O'Neill, virtually from the moment he returned to the club he had served so gloriously as a player. Alas, there is no room for sentiment, nor living in the past, when hard nosed business decisions have to be made in any walk of life.

Apparently the 'new guy' is bringing in up to six new staff members with him too, so those who are suggesting that Forest are doing things 'on the cheap' seem to be way off the mark with that inaccurate guesstimate... unless they're all working for free, of course.
But, who the flipping heck is this Sabri Lamouchi bloke? You may well be asking.
So, without further ado, I'll raid Wikipedia to find out as much as I can... just like everybody else probably has been doing. He's certainly got a few decent notches on his headboard.

Sabri Lamouchi's City Ground debut

The former French international's playing CV encompassed spells at Alès, Auxerre (who he played for against Forest in the UEFA Cup), Monaco, Parma, Inter Milan, Genoa and Olympique de Marseille, before he wound down his career in Qatar, where he turned out for Al-Rayyan, Umm-Salal, and Al-Kharitiyath.
Lamouchi made a dozen appearances for France between 1996 and 2001. He scored one international goal in that time... in a friendly against Belgium in Narch 1996.

Prior to taking on the managerial position at Forest,  he has also been in charge of the Ivory Coast national side, a position he filled from 2012, until he resigned after the 2014 World Cup, to take over the reigns at El-Jaish Sports Club in Qatar, where he stayed for three years, before subsequently moving to Rennes, who he led to fifth place in Ligue 1 during his first season in charge, which afforded the club with qualification the Europa League. But, after a disappointing start to the 2018-19 season, he was sacked from his post in December.

Those 'in the know' as regards the subject of French football (I've personally only ever heard of Michel Platini, Arsene Wenger, Franck Ribéry, Thierry Henry, Eric Cantona, Patrick Vierra, Zinedine Zidane and Jacques Cousteau) are of the opinion that he'll interact well with the Reds team and will prove to be a good appointment.
Jimmy Gilligan took charge of the Forest team this afternoon as a stop gap measure, but Lamouchi was present to watch his new charges in action too, along with his new coaching staff.

But, today's game wasn't all about Nottingham Forest, and as if to illustrate that point, Billy Heath's Alfreton started the game on the front foot on their immaculately prepared pitch, and Costel Pantilimon, the visitors keeper was tested inside the first minute and needed some attention after taking a knock to his wrist.

At the other end, Lewis Grabban was denied by a great save from Tom Nicholson, after Arvin Appiah had cut the ball back and crossed from out on the left hand side of the area.
But a breakdown in communication between Pantilimon and Joe Worrall, presented Dec Bacon with the simple task of knocking the ball into the back of the net to give the Reds (playing blue today) a lead in the sixteenth minute.

On a 'scorchio' afternoon in Derbyshire (the temperature gauge in my car read 32C/89F as I prepared to make good of my escape after the game), water breaks were something of a must, and a sensible precaution in such gruelling conditions.
In fact it was so hot, somebody decided to take all of his clothes off and watch the entire game over the wall, under the shelter of some nearby bushes.

Joe Lolley couldn't keep the ball down, as his shot from outside the hosts area sailed over the crossbar, but the same player was soon involved again soon afterwards, combining well with Grabban, to create a great chance for Brennan Johnson, who had both time and space to tuck away the Forest equaliser, five minutes before the break.

Nicholson did really well to deny Grabban again, with what was to be both players final contribution to the action, as the clock ticked down towards half time, when many players were rested and given some respite from the unrelenting heat, including the entire visitors starting eleven.

HT: Blue Reds 1 v Red Reds 1

Tyler Walker, who spent last season out on loan at nearby Mansfield Town to good effect, was among the visitors half time subs, as was recent capture Sammi Ameobi, who joined Forest from 'crisis club' Bolton Wanderers. But although this meant that the Nationwide League North side were going to have to keep up a high level of work-rate, I've yet to see a Billy Heath managed team in action who weren't fired up for a proper scrap... and that pretty much summed up Alfreton's second half resilience and competitiveness, as they kept their illustrious guests at bay, right until the closing stages of the game.

Karim Ansarifard almost headed Forest in front, but Shane Killock was well placed to make a last ditch clearance.

Shortly after being introduced to the fray around the hour mark, fhe former Retford United youth team player (and Mattersey FC mainstay) Bobby Johnson, had a great chance to restore Alfreton's lead, but he cushioned his effort over the bar.

Though clear cut chances were at a premium as the second half moved on, Forest were having the better of them... and Jack Atkinson had to field a buzzing free-kick from Ben Osborn that he did really well to deal with. It must be something of a luxury for that nice Mr Heath to have two quality keepers in his squad.

Ameobi smashed a shot against the upright, and at that moment in time, it looked to all intents and purposes as though the hosts were going to hold out and claim an honourable draw against their Championship opponents.

Another break in play saw me taking the opportunity to leg it round to the Alma Street end of the ground, to watch the remainder of the game out, from near the exit at that end, that I just was parked opposite. I needed to be away ASAP, because I was meeting up with my missus at the pictures in Worksop at 5.30PM. I figured it was far safer to potentially be confronted by the local nudist colony hiding in the bushes round there, than risk facing the wrath of mi' Julie by being late for the film we were going to see... 'Yesterday', the Beatles songs derived comedy if you're even remotely interested.

I took up my new vantage point just in time to see Ameobi (who'd impressed me no end this afternoon), make a powerful run towards the dead-ball line to the left of Alfreton's goal, before cutting the ball across the six yard box for Ansarifard steered past Jack Atkinson, to give Forest a victory that they'd had to work damn hard for.
In my humble opinion, Alfreton probably didn't deserve to lose, given the amount of effort they had put in, but Forest had some high calibre performers out on the park today... and that extra bit of class told in the end.
Right, where is that bottle of 'After-Sun', I'm starting to resemble a boiled beetroot in this heat.
FT: Alfreton Town 1 v Nottingham Forest 2

Massive respect and kudos to everyone who went through their paces in such searing heat today, it was uncomfortable enough just standing around watching on 'tghe hottest day of the yaer'. But, hey ho! We'll have plenty of opportunity to moan about waterlogged and frozen pitches any time soon, while shivering to death in dripping wet clothes... roll on 2019-20.

Enjoy your football.