SkyBet EFL Championship
at the City Ground
Nottingham Forest (0) 0
Millwall (3) 3
Matt Smith 20, 26, 33
Attendance: 27,307 (inc. 936 away fans)
The last time I saw Sabri Lamouchi's team in action, a month ago, they lost 2-1 against Birmingham City at St. Andrew's.
The following weekend they beat Leeds United 2-0 at the City Ground to move to within just one point of their second placed West Yorkshire visitors in the table and just two adrift of Championship leaders West Bromwich Albion.
Since then, Forest have won just one of their last six games, while also losing twice (including tonight) and drawing three times, which sees them firmly entrenched in the play-off berths, some eight points behind Leeds and nine behind the Baggies, who both have a game in hand over the Reds and play tomorrow.
You can seriously never predict anything in this division, but it's almost nailed on for Forest now, that any bid that they ultimately make to reach the Premier League for the first time since 1999, will now have to be via the end of season play-offs. Although if they get turned over like they did by Gary Rowett's Lions tonight anymore, it is by no means a mathematical certainty that they'll even be taking part in the May-time lottery involving the third, fourth, fifth and sixth placed sides in the table.
Quite often however, there is a team that makes a late push for contention in the play-offs... and if Millwall set the bar tonight for how they intend to finish the current campaign, then you never know, that accolade could even be theirs.
Walking down the stairs, as I headed towards the exit, from my panoramic perch, up in the 'Brian Clough Stand (formerly known as the Execuitive Stand), after the game had finished (yes, some people did actually wait until the full time whistle had sounded), I overheard Nottingham's answer to Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosophising and expounding poetically about the plight of Nottingham Forest FC:
Raising his arms aloft, he held court:
"I mean look at this lot... and there's a new stand going up over the other side soon. It's all geared to bigger and better things. We're a Premier League set up in everything but name.
"And then there's the history: nobody... and I mean absolutely no-bod-y, is ever going to repeat some of the stuff that we did, not ever! But this lot we've got now... all of these foreign managers we've had, and these overrated players, they just don't get it... they're bottlers!
"Forest now, we're still showy, we still look the part, but we don't deliver, no matter how much money us loyal fans chuck at it. I'll tell you what it's like, exactly what it's like! It's like getting seduced by a beautiful woman, spending a shed load of cash on her and then when you get her home, she hasn't even got a vagina... and you've been led up right up the path for nothing!"
Thankfully, the angst ridden gentleman was going in the opposite direction to me when we reached the car park... and I was unable to pick up any more pearls of wisdom from him.
If I had a pound for every time that I'd heard someone say: "We can do it against Leeds, but not against teams like Millwall" tonight, I would've been quite comfortably off by the time that I got home.
Hmm... that there Millwall team, who many were dismissing as some kind of inferior beings, have actually only lost one of their last six games... and, for the record, they played very well tonight and thoroughly deserved the three points. In actual fact, if they had kept their first half tempo up after the break, then Forest might not have gotten away with a mere three goal drubbing.
By the way, no offence is intended to any of my mates who support tonight's host team... I'm just saying it as I saw it. Your lot were second best.
Gary Rowett's side did a job on Forest and made them look decidedly average, at best. I bet the Lions manager is still chuckling to himself about the: "Gary Rowett, your trainers are shit!" song that was aimed his way from A Block in the main stand (AKA the Peter Taylor stand), while the home crowd were still in full voice, even though their side had just gone two goals down.
The following weekend they beat Leeds United 2-0 at the City Ground to move to within just one point of their second placed West Yorkshire visitors in the table and just two adrift of Championship leaders West Bromwich Albion.
Since then, Forest have won just one of their last six games, while also losing twice (including tonight) and drawing three times, which sees them firmly entrenched in the play-off berths, some eight points behind Leeds and nine behind the Baggies, who both have a game in hand over the Reds and play tomorrow.
Quite often however, there is a team that makes a late push for contention in the play-offs... and if Millwall set the bar tonight for how they intend to finish the current campaign, then you never know, that accolade could even be theirs.
Raising his arms aloft, he held court:
"I mean look at this lot... and there's a new stand going up over the other side soon. It's all geared to bigger and better things. We're a Premier League set up in everything but name.
"Forest now, we're still showy, we still look the part, but we don't deliver, no matter how much money us loyal fans chuck at it. I'll tell you what it's like, exactly what it's like! It's like getting seduced by a beautiful woman, spending a shed load of cash on her and then when you get her home, she hasn't even got a vagina... and you've been led up right up the path for nothing!"
If I had a pound for every time that I'd heard someone say: "We can do it against Leeds, but not against teams like Millwall" tonight, I would've been quite comfortably off by the time that I got home.
Hmm... that there Millwall team, who many were dismissing as some kind of inferior beings, have actually only lost one of their last six games... and, for the record, they played very well tonight and thoroughly deserved the three points. In actual fact, if they had kept their first half tempo up after the break, then Forest might not have gotten away with a mere three goal drubbing.
Gary Rowett's side did a job on Forest and made them look decidedly average, at best. I bet the Lions manager is still chuckling to himself about the: "Gary Rowett, your trainers are shit!" song that was aimed his way from A Block in the main stand (AKA the Peter Taylor stand), while the home crowd were still in full voice, even though their side had just gone two goals down.
Alas, Millwall's third goal, saw an exodus of home fans from various parts of the ground, as many Reds fans decided to call it a night, despite there still being almost a hour (plus stoppage time) left to play. I wonder if these sort of people have ever seen a film all the way through, or read the last page of a book? What a curious way to carry on.
Matt Smith has been credited with a hat-trick, for having got the final touch on all of the visitors goals tonight, which were all netted within a thirteen minute spell during the first half, when Millwall overran Lamouchi's side, while for their part, Forest got pulled all over the place by the rampant Lions, to the extent that they to only appeared be putting up a token resistance.
The visitors absorbed some early pressure, before getting to grips with the game in the twentieth minute and passing their way through the Reds ranks, like a warm knife cutting a swathe through butter, when Jayson Molumby slipped the ball to Mason Bennett, who in turn found Murray Wallace, who burst forward into space on the right flank, before delivering a low cross that Smith stooped to head past Brice Samba.
Molumby was involved again with the Lions second goal, when his long range strike took a deflection off of Smith's foot, that wrong-footed Simba as the flight of the ball changed.
The goal that gave Millwall a three goal cushion, was simplicity itself in it's execution, as Smith towered above his marker Joe Worrall, to head the ball in under the crossbar, directly from Shane Ferguson's corner kick.
Sammy Ameobi had two chances to reduce the deficit before the break, but his first was saved by Bartosz Bialkowski... and his second opening was thwarted by a time tackle by Molumby, who was having a game and a half for his side tonight.
Forest looked livelier in the second half, but the visitors could by now sit back and let the Reds have more of the ball, while hitting them on the counter attack. As it turned out, Millwall looked just as adept in defence after the break, as they had done in attack before it.
Joao Carvalho, a crowd favourite at the City Ground, rewarded his fan base in the upper tier for their loyalty, by hoofing a couple of match balls up to them, while the visitors had closed their ranks, restricting the home side to resorting to speculative efforts from outside the area.
With seventy minutes on the clock, a Reds substitute: John Bostock tested Bartos Bialkowski with a thumping shot, that the Polish international keeper did well to deal with.
Carvalho went down in the Millwall penalty area under a challenge, but the referee: Geoff Eltringham was unimpressed by the Forest number ten's appeals... and the player was substituted a few minutes later too, making way for Tyler Walker, the son of the former Forest defender Des Walker.
But in the main the game passed Walker by and he was unable to make any kind of impression. Meanwhile, Sam Hutchinson (the Millwall captain), Ryan Woods and Jake Cooper were towers of strength at the back for Rowett's side (on his birthday too) and of course: Molumby, who at only twenty years old appears to have a great future in the game ahead of him, was determined to ensure that there would be no way back for Forest tonight... and he more than played his part at both ends of the pitch tonight.
FT: Nottingham Forest 0 v Millwall 3
