Nottingham Forest 3 v Birmingham City 2 - PDL U23 North

Friday 6th December 2019

Professional Development League North

at the Impact Arena, Alfreton Town FC

Nottingham Forest (3) 3
Alex Mighten 13
Kieran Hayes 20
Kieth Asare 26

Birmingham City (0) 2
Miguel Fernandez 57
Adan George 58 Pen

As the goal-times suggest, Blues had a torrid time of things during the opening thirty minutes, at the hands of a rampant Forest side, who, had it not been for the agility of the experienced visitor's keeper David Stockdale, could have been at least six goals to the good, by the time that Kieth Asare netted what was only the Reds third.
But a tactical switch by Birmingham's U23 head coach Steve Spooner, shortly after the half hour mark, saw the visitors abandon their midfield diamond formation and finish the first half on a far better footing, before actually taking control of the game after the interval of this archetypal 'game of two halves'.

The impressive Stockdale, wasn't the only senior Birmingham City player present tonight, in a game that was also used to get Gary Gardner seventy-three minutes of competitive action under his belt, as he looks to build up his fitness in readiness for a first-team return in Pep Clotet's Blues side.

Clotet's team travel to the Madjeski Stadium tomorrow, where they will face Reading, while Forest's first team were in action tonight at Millwall, where Aiden O'Brien denied them a win with a ninety second minute goal, in a game that finished 2-2.

I am all set to travel to Reading tomorrow... at least I was. The train and match tickets are tucked safely away in my coat pocket and I've loaded several hours worth of Gil Scott Heron, Alternative TV, Jah Wobble, Ska/Dub Reggae/Rocksteady, Lee Scratch Perry and King Tubby tunes onto my MP3 player (along with Sleaford Mods 'Austerity Dogs' album), with a view to plugging my earphones in and ignoring people for hours on end, while travelling to Berkshire and back via public transport. 

But on my way home from North Street tonight, word reached me that I'm going to be spending most of Saturday at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham, with somebody who is far more important to me than religiously and habitually attending football matches, or immersing myself into the humongous music collection I have amassed over the years... 'tis a weighty body that would make John Peel's lesser endowed archives blush at it's magnitude, largess, girth, eclectic range and fastidiously assembled content, and would doubtless be the envy of you all... but I digress.

So lets just say: if I get along to any football at all tomorrow, it will have to be somewhere very close to Nottingham Hospital.

Get well soon mi' Julie, because the world would be a f*cking shit-hole of a place without you.

Anyway, having broadly hinted at why this blog isn't being kept up to date quite as prolifically as it used to be and the prioritous reasons that I am spending less time watching football this season, than I usually would've done in previous years, I'll get back on topic. And by the way, I know that prioritous isn't a real word, but it chuffin' well should be.

Forest should have been ahead inside the opening couple of minutes, but Alex Mighten missed an absolute sitter of a chance, after Kieth Asare had set him up, with a powerful run and delivery, following a no nonsense crunching challenge on Ryan Burke. The Forest pair then switched roles a Mighten fed the ball through to Asare, who went one against one with Stockdale and was only denied when the visitors keeper spread himself and the Forest striker's shot ricocheted wide off of Stockdale's outstretched leg.

Ethan Stewart got on the end of the resulting corner and dispatched a thumping header, down towards the bottom right hand corner of Blues goal, but Stockdale came to the rescue again, reaching the ball at full stretch and pushing it away to prevent a certain goal.

Kane Thompson-Sommers set up a chance for Caolan Boyd-Munce at the other end (posh sounding lot, these Blues kids aren't they) but he shot narrowly wide of Marios Siampanis' goal, from twenty yards out, as Birmingham enjoyed a temporary respite, from Forest's onslaught of pressure, for a few fleeting moments at least.

But, almost inevitably, the visitors resolve was broken in the thirteenth minute, when Mighten collected the ball and advanced through the right channel, before spanking an angled shot through Blues defence and past Stockdale. 

With Blues still reeling from conceding the opening goal, Forest helped themselves to two more in quick succession, with Asare unselfishly rolling a sideways pass to Kieran Hayes, ten yards away from Stockdale's goal, who emphatically drilled the ball into the back of the net, before Asare helped himself to the Reds third of the night, with a scuffed shot that wrong-footed and took Blues defence off guard.

Game over!?

Blues had a hill to climb, but as the words to a traditional old terrace chant go: "We're Birmingham City, we fight 'til the end!" And while the assembled throng of ground-hoppers, club scouts, doting parents and die-hard football enthusiasts, who don't let the mere onset of an impending ice-age dissuade them from going outdoors on a chilly Friday night in Derbyshire, all wondered just how many goals Forest might eventually rack up come full-time, they were about to witness a remarkable comeback by Mr Spooner's team of promising youngsters. 

Without wanting to appear to be too anal and scientific, Blues reorganised themselves into a 4-2-3-1 shape, of sorts that gave the hard-working Adan George, plenty of scope to battle his way into the home side's half, especially after the interval, when Birmingham fought tooth and nail to get back into this game. In fact, unlike the one-sided mismatch that had unfolded during the opening half a hour, the hosts were restricted to just one meaningful attempt on goal for the entire duration of the second half, when Stockdale dealt with Liam Sole's strike. Whereas Blues pulled two goals back within a minute of each other... and were only denied an equaliser because of an offside decision that went against Gardner, who might just have expressed his disappointment at the decision in a forthright manner towards the flag-happy assistant referee... although I might have misheard him and what he actually said was: "You're a complete anchor liner!"

Thompson-Sommers fired an angled shot narrowly past the left hand post, as Blues rose to the challenge and in the fifty seventh minute, the impressive George strode purposely towards the Forest goal, before teeing up Miguel Fernandez with a square pass, who provided the finishing touch from close range (see above). And within a minute, Blues scored again, when George netted from the penalty spot, after Thompson-Summers had threaded a pass through to Ryan Burke who was tripped from behind by Ethan Stewart.

Burke was unlucky to see his shot crash down off of the underside of the crossbar, after he'd made himself space with a great run into the heart of Forest's defence... Gardner was even unluckier that when he reached the rebound first and stabbed the ball past Siampanis, his goal was ruled out for an apparent offside.

Having begun the night in the ascendancy, Forest were under siege as full time approach, but hung on for a win, in spite of a string of Blues corners and a near miss by the visitors captain; Joe Redmond.

FT: Nottingham Forest U23 3 v Birmingham City U23 2

As a consequence of tonight's result, Blues dropped to second in the table, while Forest went top on goal-difference.

One final thing, football memorabilia collectors need to visit Alfreton Town's club shop as a matter of some urgency, it's a real treasure trove of all manner of bargain priced wares. Take a bag with you though, because I've never left the premises empty handed and I'm damn sure you won't either.