1865: The Nottingham Forest Podcast – Men In Black (sigh): The 1865 Forest Ramble, March 2024
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All Premier League teams suffer equally as the club and the council hit an impass could Forest really leave the city ground and on a similar topic we discuss fan safety in terms of stewarding standing and sitting as usual we’ll also hear the opinions of you the listeners we’ll have a new monthly quiz
And Jeremy Davis will be along with his latest sketch all this and more coming up in this episode of 1865 the intelligent notingham Forest podcast now let’s say hello to today’s panel and bearing in mind that we’re recording this on the Monday after the Liverpool game on a scale of one to 10
Baz how angry are you feeling today about the match and about the referee um probably at the moment about one or two I’ve spent most of the day around a six or a seven um risking stroke and a heart attack and cardiac arrest but but it’s kind of just hit I’m
Sure we’ll talk about this in a bit but it’s kind of hit me that no one cares outside of Nottingham so what’s the what’s the even Point okay and just for for scale uh how did you feel on Saturday evening and most of Sunday 25 okay well enough said we will come
Back to you a little bit later uh George Edwards how do you feel on that one to 10 today uh today it’s been a few days it seems like it was about a year ago given how much we’ve seen the story develop to be fair probably about a four I mean I
Gota be honest at the full-time whistle it was like kicking off everyone was kicking off I was just sort of sat there like empty I hadn’t I was just like a head in my hands I could not believe it because it’s like we’ve seen it all before haven’t we and it didn’t it
Didn’t surprise me so yeah I was just like a bit empty and then the anger crept in and I was angry at Forest not clearing in that ball away as much as it was at Paul teny so yeah I think I’m like bz I’ve calmed down quite a lot
Since the final whistle but you go on Twitter and then you see someone Co out for being ridiculous and then you’re back on that anger scale aren’t you so I think until the next match comes along and we can put it to bed I think we’re
Always going to uh still be feeling it yeah and and George um just so you know as you’ve been you’re young enough to have not experienced relegation as a forest supporter but unfortunately have to break it to you that that feeling of emptiness and and being resigned that’s
What relegation feels like um last but not least Steven topless I’m a six or seven on the scale I made the mistake earlier of going on to social media and seeing Liverpool fans piling in on Forest tweets about the incident and basically saying well what about the one at the other end with
With the goalkeeper or what about Ryan Yates High boot that’s nowhere near K uh Kate’s head I I’m sure if Liverpool were on the receiving end of that decision they’d walk away and accept it quietly wouldn’t they well yes quite um let’s let’s just start off with that Stephen so um yeah
This shows that the camera does lie because there’s that still image which appears to suggest that Ryan Yates was going in to kick canate in the head and that’s why he got the head injury and Yates should have been sent off but then actually you look at it from another
Angle and y’s feet was nowhere near it and if he’d if he’d made contact with the ball and it had gone in it would clearly have been a goal it wouldn’t have been just allowed for high boot or anything um so it’s no more High boot than Yan whis’s rather excellent bicycle
Kick that that he scored with so yeah I it it suggests to me Stephen uh and tell me if if you disagree that um there’s a lot of Liverpool fans commenting on it who who weren’t really at the game and probably weren’t even watching at the time yeah and they’re not really
Qualified to have an opinion on it quite frankly because it’s there clear as day what happened and how can you argue with the fact how can you argue with the rules the referee implemented the rules incorrectly it worked heavily in Liverpool’s favor there’s a good chance that they wouldn’t have gone up the
Other end and scored had he not given the ball back to them Paul teny and we wouldn’t be having this conversation now and who knows Forest might well have gone on and got a goal because they had all the momentum and all the pressure at that point and the referees
Actions as Jermaine Gus rightly said on Match of the day it took all that pressure off Liverpool and allowed them to go up the other end of the pitch I just can’t get my head around how people don’t care about this so much outside of forest and how Liverpool fans can look
At this incident and try and claim that Forest are wrong for protesting it it just baffles the mind um George I’m I’m going to come back to you on this because as Steven alluded to when Liverpool were clearly done wrong by an offside call against Tottenham uh they
Were saying the match should be replayed uh now that was a case of getting the rules wrong uh oh rather the interpretation of the rules wrong so V Should clearly have seen that there was an offside and they didn’t and they didn’t use the tools at their disposal
To implement the laws correctly this was something different this was a referee not knowing how to implement the rules of the game he got the actual rule wrong it’s literally his job his one job is to know the rules of the game and and it’s very clear and and R Jamie posted on
Social media earlier today that there’s a a a piece of footage which clearly demonstrates that the fourth official was telling the ref no you have to give it back to Forest in the corner so to me that’s why this one feels particularly Ging it’s it’s the referee not knowing
The rules of the game you’ve got one job man it’s baffling how they can continue to make these seemingly basic errors that 20 you include the Liverpool fans in it I’m sure them at the time would have said the ball should go back to Forest so 29,000 people can see yet the
One guy in the middle can’t and it I don’t see at the minute the the need for linesman and fourth official because they are at the minute utterly useless especially linesman now they the most obvious ofs never put the flag up they wait nine times out of 10 to give
Throwin until the referees decided I cannot see at the minute what influence a linesman has on a game because one of those fourth official one of those four officials plus the V and I get they can’t get involved in it but someone’s got to have a word with P and say look
Mate Forest ball on the left wing it’s their ball and the thing that sort of does baffle me a little bit is how both sort of teams retreated the situation I I thought Forest would have like stayed completely in the Box ready for it to restart whereas we sort of backed off
And that in a way maybe made the referee think it was Liverpool’s Ball but the Lineo obviously that’s just a picture and we don’t know where he was pointing what he was pointing at but these officials are just getting ridiculous and on the Liverpool thing earlier in
The season Jurgen Clark has bullied Paul teny for I don’t know how long but in the media he says things about Paul teny that aren’t right and shouldn’t be targeted at a referee and Nuno is spto Santa could have quite easily come out of the game and slandered the referee
But he probably quite rightly said look I’m not going to comment on it and we know his interviews are quite short but that was a particularly short and blunt one and you notice the YouTube video Forest put out they very quickly cut off the end because Colin Frey said he
Walked off but Jurgen clar he he bullied him in the game he was shouting and screaming at him and tning came over and was I think he’ have booked him at any other point but didn’t book him and I I think that maybe has played into it
Because as a Liverpool fan you’d love your CL and having him on your side but he he’s got that influence and I think he could have equally influenced the referees decision- making there as well um B we’re in a division where we are supposed to have the elite referees
From this country many of whom are on the FIFA list um Paul TIY is supposed to be one of the most senior officials in the country and he doesn’t know the laws of the game um in our group chat we’re also discussing that there’s at least five or six occasions this season
Which appear to have cost Forest so uh the ones that I listed off the top of my head were the red card and penalty given against us at man united the penalty that wasn’t giving given to Ryan Yates against Everton obviously the the willieb red card which was up there as
Being a baffling one and then not giving the penalties against Newcastle and West Ham and then of course this last weekend and I don’t think that’s even all of the instances can you think of any any more you were you were thinking about making a list weren’t you not really had time
To do it to do it fully um because you didn’t have a week to research it um but um and there was obviously Ian Tony as well moving the line um and I I think like you could you could argue they they all changed the game in some
Way but you could argue that like like with Liverpool yeah we should have cleared our lines and if Al Lang was scored earlier then it would be a different story so to some extent it’s in our hands but it also changes the game the penalty against
Newcastle if we get given that and we score it then it’s 3-2 to us and Newcastle aren’t hitting us on the break and so you could you could you could look at all the the incidence and you could say right if everything goes our way then this is what the outcome could
Have been and if everything even if we get the decision and it doesn’t go our our way this is what the outcome would have been and I reckon having added I think I’ve got seven different things so the ones you mentioned plus Ivan Tony as well and I obiously blocked that one out
Of my mind because that that made me Furious the fact that the fact that and again it’s the fact that everyone was going moov the ball everyone moves the ball he didn’t move the ball he moved the line yeah well and actually this is the point I was about to make and and
And Stephen I’m gonna come to you as well um is that that the reaction in the media seems to be just like well yeah but Forest have to you know Forest have to do better Forest should have told the ref that Ivan Tony moved the ball and
Move the foone yeah that’s what what what’s the what as George said there’s four officials plus v even if V is out of their jurisdiction are they not in the ref SE going hang on you might want to have a look at that mate can they not
Do that and even even if not there’s three other officials who are watching what’s going on it was on the the the Tony um free kick was on the linesman’s side were they not watching do they what what are they exactly paid to Stephen what are they paid to
Do you tell me Tony moving the line is cheating canate faking a head injury is cheating and players are being allowed to get away with this the referees I don’t think are fit for purpose you know if if we got rid of all of the referees and brought in a fresh
Slate brought in the best referees from overseas I’d be all for it because officials in the Premier League both in the V room and out in the stadiums are not fit for purpose and what happened on Saturday has been building for a while and I think referees in the stadiums are
Afraid to make decisions because they think they’ve got V there to back it up and V will intervene V clearly can’t intervene and doesn’t want to intervene when clear and obvious mistakes being made so you’re creating this void and this lack of decision making which is it’s hurting the game and Forest more
Than any other club have really been on the receiving end of it this season George you wanted to come in there yeah I just thought i’ give a bit of insight on one of the decisions so on last Wednesday before I came for the Man
United game at Uni we had the PG M come in and they um brought their V experience and one of the referees that came in was Tim Robinson and we had him for the he was the V the West Ham game that’s obviously one of the decisions
That we didn’t get the niik Williams stamp so I made it there was there was two lines I could have gone for him or there was one from the WSL I made sure I got him and uh I asked him about the decision and he said that he saw it
Straight away as we all did because I wasn’t at the game um and he said he thought initially thought it was a penalty right he saw it and thought it was a penalty but the assistant V said to him oh I’m not sure about that and then they looked through the Angles and
Then the doubt was put into his head and it’s almost like there’s too many voices there and in the end he said cheat complete no penalty and then he said to me that instantly as soon as he said that he thought I’ve made a mistake there and that just shows that maybe
They have the right instincts but this there’s too many there’s too much going on nowadays for them and I don’t think that helps and on the thing Stephen said about canate and the header thing that is becoming such a thing now and you see Brena Fernandez who rolled around the
Other day that Viral clip on Tik Tok that ten hards came out defend him for things have got to be done to stop that and I don’t know what it is especially with head injuries because that’s an easy thing to enforce you have to stop the game for a head injury but they
Maybe could be forced to go off the off the pitch for 30 seconds like you are um for any normal circumstances because that would stop it you know if you go down with a head injury and the game stopped regardless of whether the Medical Teams come on you go off the
Pitch for 30 seconds and get assessed and that would that would cut it out wouldn’t it because the second the whistle blew up canate got up and it wasn’t surprising but it shouldn’t be a thing in modern football B on on on Stephen’s point that um that he made and actually this this
Does come to to Georgia’s Point as well um it’s all very well saying oh we could have they they do officiating much better in other countries but everything that the Premier League and pogal touch turns to well it’s got the reverse Midas Touch let’s put it that way yeah um I
I I have I don’t really have the words it’s it’s like the the only thing that the the the rest of the world seems to be saying is just deal with it because everyone’s got the same thing and if I’d had the time I would have
Done I would have gone through lots of matches and tried to figure it out I know I think Brighton have had three apologies this season and we’ve had three apologies wol so and Wolves yeah yeah so so maybe that there is some some equality in it but it doesn’t feel like
That at the moment um not at all Brighton wolves and Forest none of them are top six teams yeah and and and at the same time um you look at Bruno Fernandez in the Cup match just after the Fulham match and it’s very very clear what he’s doing and yeah he never
He never gets a yellow card he never gets a yellow card for winging at the ref nothing ever happens depending upon you know and and every team is the victim of bad decisions because humans make decisions but it’s notable isn’t it wolves Brighton and and Forest three
Teams who who would be regarded as being outside of the elite who would be regarded historically as being not Premier League clubs I mean I’m I’m trying not to get conspiratorial but the longer you talk about it the harder it becomes well I made the point um when I
Was doing the match Report with Stephen the other day is so I I I went through that list today and I said like in the best case scenario we would have got this many points out of that game but in the if the decision had gone our way we
Would have got this many points if the decision had gone our way and we’ still screwed it up then we’d have got this many points I reckon it’s between in in the worst case scenario the referee gives us a decision the way that it was supposed to go that we feel it should
Have gone and we still screwed it up we’d be three points better off now but if the best case scenario um and the referee gives us the decision then I’d say we’d be 11 points better off and if you’re I don’t know even if if you’re Brighton being 11 points worse off is
Going to affect you quite a bit but when you’re in our situation being 11 points worse off is that’s well it’s it’s going to put us down and that’s kind of why why I saying earlier it’s like I’m I’m I’m where George was originally which is
I’m not I’m just nor to it now I I was saying we we could win every single game for the rest of the season by four clear goals and we’re still going down because something will happen because it’s it’s pointless literally pointless um George I’m going to come
Back to you about about the media thing because um you know you you are you are studying Sports journalism that’s how you get the audience with pogal and and this kind of thing um as somebody who’s a student of Journalism does the media reaction the The Click
Talk Sport Daily Mail type stuff does that get on your tits it gets on everyone’s tits doesn’t it but it’s what you have to do to sell stories to broadcast your radio to get more views to get more paper sales because an essay I did last year a
Controversy sells you know if you’re G to put good news stories out it doesn’t sell and every at the top of every talk SP bulletin at the Forefront of most newspapers it’s a bad news story because people love reading bad news stories that’s why the actual news is full of bad news
Stories and yes sport is maybe a bit more light-hearted than the serious world that we’re in but normally the leading story is unless A team’s won something like the FA Cup the Champions League something like that controversy sells and that’s why thoris don’t really get much of a mention in the media
Unless we’ve either caused an upset on the big six and that goes against the pr Premier League narrative or if something unjust has happened against us because stories like that that will cause controversy that will cause com comments online and interactions with post is ultimately what they’re striving for and
If they coming on you know they weren’t going to go on praising Chris kaver who I can remember he had a good game against us at Newcastle played two good advantages but that wasn’t mentioned at all because who is bothered about a referee that’s doing his job right these
Bad stories sell and unfortunately the stories of referees doing good things are very sparse and Stephen I I I start I started this little segment with you asking about media reactions it’s worth noting there’s a lot of forest fans who work in the in the media um so we had
Jermaine genus on Match of the day on Saturday and he got ridiculed for saying it Chang a dynamic which is exactly the point which we’ve been making we’ve got Danny Taylor and a whole host of of forest fans like Nick Miller um and we’ve got Paul Taylor who’s not a forest
Fan but is the forest correspondent at the athletic we’ve got Danny story at the I um there’s a lot of forest fans in the media and yet still the media coverage of forest seems to be focused upon hey let’s all laugh at them and yet Burnley have spent what 130 million
Pounds and no one’s no one’s putting the same appr probium to them as as as Forest have had for the last year and a half what what’s going on I think we’ve come up and we’ve dared to compete and do things a bit differently we haven’t just accepted our
Place as Canon fodder at the bottom of the league come up be grateful for the parachute payments go back down again and keep bouncing between the two divisions and does that include the reaction to marinakis coming pitch side because he was so disgusted at what he
Saw from the referee yeah yeah it does and we are not one of the top six clubs you a few weeks ago Richard Masters was talking about clubs like us almost being insignificant in the Premier oh yeah we’re small clubs yeah we’re small clubs and that’s what we mean to them that’s
What we mean to the rule makers and to the Big Wigs of the Premier League and it stinks so actually it’s not a conspiracy is it you’ve just proven the point isn’t it haven’t you like because yeah when Richard Masters is talking about teams who aren’t in the top six
The big six as being small clubs well that proves our Point um we could go on and we could rant about this forever uh we have got a few other things that we want to talk about so I’m going to move on for the sake of our blood pressure if
Nothing else um having having tried to be Serene I noticed that bow was getting steadily more excited throughout that discussion so let’s move on to another pressing issue so um Forest chairman Tom carage gave an interview last week announcing that the club and Nottingham City Council had ceased discussions about the future of
The city ground the council are of course in massive financial trouble they want to raise the rent from uh 250,000 to1 million pound per anom George how important is it for you as a young fan that we stay at the city ground and also what do you make of the
Impass between the club and the council uh it’s massive Forest St at City ground because that’s all I’ve known football to be and even the trend 10 being the two-story thing that it is the weird curve in the bridgeford stand all of that has been what I’ve known Forest as
And known football as and it will be heartbreaking if Forest weren’t to play there you know finding the same spot in lady Bay every time and when it’s missing we have to drive another five minutes down the road in an extra walk all things like that that add to the
Match day experience and that make you want to come back the Ws McDonald’s it’s just it all adds to the same thing and if Forest were to move away from the city ground because of this ridiculous City ccil Vendetta that they’ve got and I can understanding trying to get more
Money and the Premier League is AIT much bigger poll than wherever we were when we originally um negotiated Le so you can see why they’re asking for a little bit more money but to drive to dve drive Forest out is is ridiculous on Tom
Carage I am quite happy to see him at at the top of the club because he just a bit more involved than maybe Nicholas Randall was and that’s not a criticism of him but even I saw a post on Instagram and Matt Turner’s wife had posted a picture and that was with Tom
Cartilage and they were at an event and it just seemed like he he wants the best for the club and obviously we don’t know what happens behind the scenes but as a fan I would want someone like him leading the club forward to to do what’s
Best for the club and I trust that he will and he won’t take any um can I say can I swear nonsense yeah there you go he won’t take any nonsense from the council and I mean I think it’s a ploy from the club trying to say that we’ll
Move away in a hope that things you know smooth themselves out but yeah if for to play away from the city ground I mean I think we we all know that the main stand is developing that things need to develop and if worst case for me would
Be the city ground being destroyed and rebuilt on the same site but moving away from the city ground would would be heartbreaking to be honest Stephen do you think that this is just a bit of brinksmanship on both sides and I’m just going to put it out
There is it reasonable for the council to ask a Premier League club to pay a million pound a year in rent I can understand the council wanting more money because Forest are now in a in the Premier League and they’re generating more income as a
Result but if I was the council I’d be looking at it and thinking well raise the price but not to up to a million that just seems extortionate you you’re hurting one of your city’s key commodities doing that the the council should be looking at Forest as a Premier League club and
Actually looking to use that profile to boost the city even more because it is it’s big news that Forest are back in the Premier League it brings in more fans more tourists more people staying over more people visiting Nottingham because it’s got a greater National and Global profile now in football and in
Sport so I agree with the point that Tom was making I think it might have been Friday five where he says the council and their decision making doesn’t seem to help the club sometimes and and I agree with it I see councils around the country seem to
Really help the football clubs to thrive and and really support them in developing and whether that’s new training grounds improving stadiums forests and and the city council don’t seem to have that same same approach and it’s a shame because if if you took emotion out of it
Moving to a new stadium would make sense because you’d have better facilities getting to and from the ground would probably be much easier and you’d have brand new stadium and facilities in place for I don’t know 50 60 70 years however long but Forest would lose so much by
Leaving the city ground other clubs have have gone through that themselves I think of centry and Highfield Road I think their fans 20 years on still miss Highfield Road for example and what that meant to them and I do worry that we’d lose a bit of our identity if we if we
Moved away and just up sticks and found a new stadium on the outskirts of the city it just wouldn’t be the same B you wants to come in there but also you know you and I are the ones on this panel who remember going to the city ground not only before the trend
Was built but before the bridgeford end was was built when there’s Terra at both ends um so I mean from a rational point of view you would say that the new stadium makes sense I mean we might have hot water if nothing else um but yeah I
Mean equally football is not a rational thing and and if nothing else that that that view over over the when you’re walking over the bridge and you see the Trent end uh hovering on the Riverside there there a reason why people are so emotional about it one of the things I
Was wanted to mention was that um I read a thing with Jose Mourinho and it was during Euro 96 and he wasn’t famous then he was still like one of the coaches at Barcelona under Bobby Robson but not even like the assistant coach I think it
Be like he hadn’t made his name in any way and when he heard that the matches were in Nottingham he went to the city center and walked from the city center all the way to the city ground and when he because he wanted to to see what it
Was like where where Brian kff had been had managed and he said he just stopped when he got to the the center of trentbridge as everyone does to look out over it and um and it’s it’s just amazing but I I can’t believe I’m saying this either but in the council’s
Defense um it’s three councils that are involved in in all the decisions so far but now it’s the city council that seems to be the sticking point but the reason for that is because of the as I understand it because they’ve declared bankruptcy they’re not in control anymore and it’s central government
Administrator the commission running it so their decisions will have absolutely nothing to do with the long-term future of the city and it will just be about money um and and that’s probably going to make things a lot worse and and going back to the point that Steph was making about
I suppose whether the club should the council be doing something more to to keep the club uh on side our very own Ellie had written on the BBC website the council is leaving forest with no options as a fan the last thing I want to see is us move away from
The city ground what we’ve got is so special such a brilliant atmosphere and I really don’t want to become one of those soulless tin pot clubs what the club brings to the city is huge and especially now they’re in the Premier League they they should be wanting to help Forest maintain their Premier
League status so that businesses can grow even more and that goes for so much it goes not only for the catering outlets in and around the ground but but visiting fans will quite often come in through the station they’ll wander into town because it’s so close Nottingham is
Such a compact place that the having a Premier League club there in the heart you know or within walking distance of the of the city center is surely something that should be treasured I would have thought um um we will talk a little bit more about
The ground uh in part two uh we’ll also hear from you the listeners and we’ll have our forest Quiz I’m Alex Rodriguez and I’m Jason Kelly from Bloomberg this is the deal each week you’re hears in conversation with business icons this show will explore deal making across Sports media and entertainment that is a harsh lesson in business Sports is not as simple as bringing a
Bunch of big names together I didn’t want to do another stomp you out speech it opened up so many more doors the show is called the deal listen to the deal listen to the deal on Spotify as always this episode of the 1865 podcast is sponsored by Green king
Sport where football is more than a game The League season is entering the business end and green Kings sport venues are showing every single your televised Forest fixture across the 2324 season and with more than 900 Sports pops across the UK it doesn’t matter where you’re based you can catch every
Single minute of the action football is best enjoyed with your mates so if you’re not at the ground this month then get a text in the group chat head to your local green King Sports venue to catch the game and don’t forget to download the green King Sports app to
Enjoy exclusive competitions and discounts whenever there’s a game on now it’s back to your Forest Ramble podcast you’re listening to 1865 the not podcast the 1865 sketch by jery Davis Forest goalkeeping woes this season have put me in mind of something Neville Southold once said about his
Defenders being like chess pieces if I get them in the right place I don’t have to do anything if only the likes of Turner and SS could get their chess pieces in the right place then maybe they would stop doing things that cost Notting Forest goals analogy with the ancient sport of
Chess are as old as football itself but the fluidity of the modern game with the interchange of positions meaning your overlapping Center back is as likely to put away a spectacular overhead kick as your Center forward renders comparisons with the rigid structures and positional rules of the venerable board game
Looking as dated as Jose mourinho’s tactics or Richard Keys’s views on gender equality perhaps other goalkeepers should look for different board games for comparisons Affairs at Manchester United have in recent times res Trivial Pursuit with the club’s top brass seeming much more interested in subjects such as geography and entertainment than Sport
And a range of rapacious moneymen competing for a slice of the pie across town at the atad Manchester City continue their Relentless pursuit of Monopoly although newcastle’s owners are in Hot Pursuit with the money from taking over all those utilities at times last season with all the new faces after promotion it was
Sometimes as if Forest were playing a giant game of guess who which might explain playing the extravagant facial hair adoring the likes of Morgan Gibbs white this season the squad is a little more familiar and with everyone now back from afcon one can at least make an
Educated guess as to who will be in the team each week meaning they were able to school the boys from The Academy of football at home to West Ham even if they flunk the test away at Villa where like a teacher who has switched off a
Bit too much over halterm they forgot to do any marking now we try not to talk about referees here at 1865 mindful of mantras of Brian kff but they have been making it hard to stick to those principles this season it’s difficult to say what game the officials have been playing at
The city ground in recent weeks although with all the letters we’ve been getting from the pgmol we might be able to take them on at Scrabble acronyms and initialisms like pugal are thankfully still not permitted in Scrabble although they have officially changed the rules in the
2010s to allow the use of names as anyone who played Scrabble in the unforgiving uncompromising environment of the ‘ 80s and ’90s will tell you the game’s gone soft with yet more controversy surrounding the officiating over Liverpool’s late winter last weekend it’s beginning to feel as if forest and
Other less established topf flight powers are just porns in some referee in game in which the rules are open to interpretation and we might well see another missive arriving in the post but having a wide selection of letters might actually be just as well the way things
Are going Forest may end up needing a triple word score to accumulate enough points to avoid checkm Thank you very much Jeremy and welcome back to 1865 the intelligent Nottingham Forest podcast with me Rich Ferraro also we’re here with George baz and Steven still to come we’ll have more discussion about matters on and off the pitch and we’ll have a game of our quiz guest that
Red uh just before then a few words from our other friends other than Sports social network so our friends at fanhub uh well you’ll know that if you follow us on social media that we post our team predictions on Match dayss and if you register as a forest fan on the app you
Can gain rewards for your predicted lineups you can check in on Match dayss and you can use it as a way to stay in touch with your fellow Reds fans and you gain rewards which means you can get yourself some merch use our golden ticket code 186 hyphen eerg and you can
Skip the waiting list to join the fun it also supports us here at 1865 the Nottingham Forest P podcast we’ll post the code and our team selections regularly on social media you can find all the Links at 1865 foot now let’s hear from you the fans we published some polls and we
Asked your views so here’s what you thought our first question was asking which decision was the worst one that a referee has made so far and we gave it the options of the B red card the Taio a one non penalty against Newcastle or the TIY drop ball and I’ve given you the
Option of other and uh well the B red card has come out very very strongly in this one um what we found is that we had some comments as well so uh Chris says the warl red at Man United and the rashford dive being given as a penalty
Was a double whammy uh we also had uh several people Stuart James and Jim uh also Jason Le uh all saying that the B red card was one of the worst decisions they’ve seen it was a new low it was Dreadful a shocker we had a couple of people
Talking about the drop ball so obviously how it changed the dynamic of the game and also it’s annoying because it’s not just a ref interpreting the rules in one way or the other it was also them getting the actual rules wrong so that was a pretty decisive vote in favor of
The B red card which has cost nffc more points this season injuries goalkeepers referees or anything else and uh we found that goalkeepers just about pipped referees goalkeepers had 41% of the vote and referees had 37% with injuries getting 133% and uh we had a vote from Dave for set
Pieces the next question was how do you feel about Nuno at Forest uh 39% said love him 51% said not sure yet and 8% said they prefer Stevie Cooper where do you think Forest will finish the season well 75% of you are saying between 13th and 17th with 23% saying
Relegation we had a question about staying at the city ground should Forest stay at the city ground yes at all costs gets 53% of the vote 28% have gone for if the price is right 14% say it depends where we go and 5% say I want a shiny new
Ground and then the last thing we asked you was to name your player of the season so we’ve had a couple of votes for mangala even though he’s no longer at the club that came from from Gary and from Labs uh we’ve had votes from marillo from Steve from
Allison and also from Sam uh Martin has gone out on a limb and said Ryan Yates and then we’ve had also mentions for alanga from Labs again from Ian and also from gabaly nut and David so thank you very much for all of your votes just also to mention a couple of honorable
Mentions for uh Nico Williams Harry tofal and also one for Chris Wood so coming back to our panel let’s pick on pick up on some of those themes teams uh we’ve already discussed refereeing in some depth but just quickly which has cost us more points this season has it
Been goalkeeping referees or injuries uh what do you think George uh is there an option for all three injuries injuries has been a big thing hasn’t it because I think if we had two FIT strikers for the whole season it’ have been a different story and if Chris Wood was in the positions
That was in uh on Saturday then we wouldn’t have been in a position that Liverpool would have been down to a referee because the injuries would have surpassed that and you can include afcon I suppose in injures as well with the players that went away from there
Turner um yeah I think it’s a very close call I would Edge on the side of injuries which at the minute on Monday is losing the poll but I would say injuries in selection because as much as referees have cost us in games if certain players were available for the
Whole of the season I think we would have been in a position to pick up more points than if a certain amount of those decisions have gone in the right way uh just quickly Stephen uh would you say that it’s injuries are something that affects all clubs this season last season Forest
Seemed to have more of an issue with injuries than compared to other clubs but this season they seem to have more of an issue with referees than other clubs what do you think yeah of course every Club has has to deal with injuries at some point in
The season but Isles have been in very key areas I think of losing Taio how he did and we really dropped off when we lost him Chris Wood when he got back into form and looked like a real presence up front we’re scoring goals he gets injured and I think we’ve lost a
Bit of edge up front as well as a result so yeah I I I a on the side of goalkeepers in this because I think had we sorted out the goalkeeper position and got somebody commanding in and kept somebody at the level of Henderson or
Nabas from last season I think we’d be a few points better off and I think as a whole the team would be in a far healthier position in terms of where they’d be in the table as well and B uh on on the same topic but then also
If you want to give us a feel about how you feel about Nuno as the head coach um well yeah I’d say so the the thing is not just the the obvious bit about like Tyro um basically him turning our season around last year and we we’re hoping
That he can do it again this year uh Chris Wood obviously losing him just as he hits form those those are the obvious things from from injuries but it’s also the fact that we’ve very rarely been able to put out a consistent selection and so many of our games that we’ve lost
Have been from stupid individual mistakes and you think actually if we had a proper Collective that a consistent selection where everyone knew what everyone else was doing week in week out then that kind of stuff would have would have been Stamped Out much earlier um and would you say that’s one
Of the reasons why despite having three acl’s in one season Villa are doing quite well because emry is quite consistent with his team selection yes yeah and I think that that that sort of thing does make a difference you have to have some rotation obviously but
But if you’ve got like a a core set if you if you remember back in the championship and we would be predicting the the the um the squad and and it’ll be like one player if any that was that was different from our predictions because everyone knew what their jobs
Were and everyone knew what they were going to be doing that week and we’ve not even we’ve not had any of that for the last two years however um I’m actually reasonably confident about Nuno I’m not confident about a stay up but I’m quite confident about Nuno he’s he seems to
Have picked out the strengths of the side very very well and he’s playing to them we we had this I had this image of him in mind of being five at the back low block hit on the break kind of manager uh secure the secure the clean
Sheet first kind of thing and he’s not turned out that way and I think that’s because he’s done his analysis and then said actually we won’t we won’t survive if we do that so we have to do something else so I’m quite I’m quite quietly impressed with him I also like the way
That he repeats himself in every interview as well George what do you think about about Nuno I mean obviously his his interview uh on postmatch interviews on Saturday were the closest we’ve SE to what woles fans told us to expect but I think that was him preserving his own
Status wasn’t it yeah yeah yeah big time I’ve got to say I’m I’ve been really impressed with him and I think there is a stark improvement from under Cooper I don’t think remember about a month I think it was the Bristol game or something that was me and Adam were
Having the scrap in the group chat about him and Adam was sort of not convinced by him but I think I’ve always been convinced by him not not the appointment I think a lot of us were quite underwhelmed because he was brought in as a very similar manager to Steve
Cooper but I think that was a contributing factor to why they pointed him if you point someone like gr Potter mid-season it could take two to three months for some that to happen and then you lose you know you’ve lost that down the drain so I think the improvements
Have been there from the off because Forest have looked like scoring more goals and at times that’s been they’ve conceded more and he’s been up against all those three things we just mentioned referees injuries um and the goalkeepers but I think he’s made us look a lot more
Fluid going forward we now create chances and the Liverpool game last season when we played them and granted it worked we won one- nil and it was uh one of the most memorable days of the season but we approached that game we put about five players in Midfield it
Was about four that sat on the edge of the box and we had a couple of shots and scored and yes we lost at the weekend but that was more of a winning performance because we were willing to play our own game more we approached it like we were a fellow Premier League
Time team and they were out equals we played a high line with Pace we were confident in our abilities uh the Midfield was balanced we didn’t you know drop Gibbs white to play a flat three it was Yates and Dominguez and a more attacking line up with two Wingers and a striker
Who ultimately isn’t a striker but you know I think something El like about him is that he sees things in players and will stick with them we a lot of fans it took a while to be convinced with Nuno tarez but I think a lot of fans now if
He was fit would play him over someone like Caro and Nuno has stuck with that and that’s what I like about him that he’s confident in himself and if he sees something in a player he’ll go with it so I think there’s been a real Improvement under Steve coop and I love
Steve Cooper and I never want him to be sacked but since then I think Forest attacking wise look far better and over the last few games against United and Liverpool we’ve lost them both but the defense defensive side now is starting to come and Stephen just very very briefly
Um Can Nuno save us from relegation I think he can I’ve seen really good signs from the team as George has alluded to there and yes I think he will do enough to keep us out of trouble well you are the resident Optimist on 1865 I will hawk back to what baz said
In part one which is we could win every game 4-0 and something’s going to go wrong so so there’s two sides of the coin don’t say don’t say we don’t have balance on this podcast um okay let’s go back to the uh matter at hand which is I
Did say we come back to issues about the ground um and fan safety more generally uh George I’m going to start with you on this one as the person in this particular podcast um episode who goes to the most away matches you go to pretty much every match home and away
And for the second season running there was some controversy about stewarding at brenford um just for your for your information listener we have compiled some responses from fans who feel like the brenford experience was was was damaging was was difficult was unsafe and we will report back when we can so
At the moment not much that we can say but we will report back if there’s anything that comes back from that in the meantime fors of garabaldi have recently tweeted about possible safe standing options and news in the same week that Forest also put out a notice
To home fans telling them not to stand so so George as somebody who’s who’s been uphill and down Dale been to many many different grounds uh what are your thoughts in terms of fan safety and your thoughts on safe standing I think safe standing is a
Thing that we’re seeing more and more in football and rightly so and you can see why standing was abandoned obviously after what happened in 1989 understandably it was abandoned but it seems like football has found a way to introduce it and undoubtedly safe standard is a lot safer in a away ends
And in places like the a block and the lower bridgeford for the where the home FY is far safer than just having seating I know for a fact that when we go to Premier League grounds and they’re standing because of go my grandparents they feel a lot safer when they’ve got a
Barrier in front of them there’s no one going to be coming from behind or from the sides as much and you just feel a bit more secure and it’s not it’s not limiting you can still move around and celebrate and chat and turn around and
Talk but you you feel a lot more secure I think safety in grounds is it’s very hit and miss defended and way you go there’s been countless times where you think nothing could go wrong and you feel fine and then you you have the brenford experience where it was just
Like they were out to catch everyone out and they were out to start something I’ve never been to a place and I don’t know whether it’s you know increased them but I’ve never been to a place where they check you wallets and they perhaps didn’t do it to me because I’m
There with my grandparents but there was a group of lbs in front of us that all three of them were getting you know searched through the wallets and who’s ever heard of that in football and it might be a new initiative put forward but there’s got to be some communication
With the fans if something like that’s going to happen because understandably people have become defensive in that situation because you’ve never been exposed to that before so yeah I think it’s very hit and miss at certain grounds and places like Manchester City and you know you feel really safe at some places and
Then others it’s completely different so but on the safe standed thing I think it’s something the club have got to do because even at Luton they’ve got safe standing now and it’s a lot a lot more secure a lot safer to to have safe standing because you can’t expect fans
To sit down you know it’s never going to happen you can put all these all the statements out that you want you can ban as many people as you want but if people are going to stand they’re going to stand and if you’ve got a whole block of
People standing up it’s better to assist that by having the right infrastructure than to try and oppose it B the a block are the ones who want to stand the most and lower bridgeford um they’re very different places to be because the lower bridgeford is a modern
I okay it’s 30 odd years old now but it’s a modern era stand where there’s a little bit more the steps are shallower the a block and the main stand in general is a bunch of seats put on all terracing steps so I can understand why the club are fearful
Of losing their safety license if fans keep standing in those areas because I think everyone who not just at football matches but when you go to gigs and stuff you’ve had the experience of people tumbling over your shoulders because they’re a bit too exuberant they they fall over the the seat back in
Front which is what George was alluding to and and rail seating would help prevent that problem wouldn’t it definitely and it’s not even just that it’s like so where I sit is basically on the halfway line and as soon as the ball goes up to what one of the corners near
My side of the the pitch everyone stands to get a better view which means that everybody in the stand has to stand it’s like it’s it it’s almost is I I you end up standing for the stuff that isn’t important because you you’re having your view blocks from other stuff
From from just people Further Down Standing so you need to to deal with it the the the people standing need to be at a stand that’s that’s kind of where I’m going to with this is like yeah people want to stand it’s better standing and so and there’s
A way of making it happen now so we should do it and Stephen is it is it doable without Forest doing Redevelopment I mean could they take out um could they change for example the lower bridgeford and make rail seating so that fans of both teams can can have the option there
Yeah I think that would be the most sensible option give people who want to stand the choice of doing so and lower bridgford seems like the safest and and the best place for it because during the game anyway that they’re pretty much standing in that area of the ground so
Rail seating I think would be a safer and and just a more practical way of letting it happen and then anybody who does sit round the ground who now wants to stand but can’t can go and get a ticket in lower bridgeford and and go and stand and I think that would work
And and just coming back to you bow uh very very briefly I’m just thinking about 1865 dad and and the fact that as he’s now a little a little bit older and a little bit less Supple than he used to be actually in even in in instances like
His rail seating is better because if he were to stand then he’s got the option of having the rail to to lean against and to give him a bit of uh support as he gets up and gets down again yeah well yeah just the getting up and getting
Down again against the problem for him so choosing a position and staying there is probably easier okay all right thank you very much um well we we we’ve covered quite a lot in in in today’s podcast but now it’s time for this 1865 yes that red yes it’s time for our forest quiz
And this month is quiz Master Steven who will be asking us some questions he will give us the name of a match from forest’s recent past or maybe not so recent I don’t know and we need to guess all of the players from that starting 11
And we’ll be taking it in turns to do so so as always do play along at home won’t you and in the meantime it’s over to you quizmaster Steven so in light of forest’s trip to Brighton this weekend I have picked out forest’s one and only win to date at the
Amch stadium a 3-2 victory over Brighton in the championship on the 7th of February 2015 and another little nugget for you this was douge Friedman’s first game as Nottingham Forest manager so whoever wants to go first can give me a name Rich mik Antonio correct uh Henry Lansbury correct [Applause] yay
Pass I really can’t remember any of the team from dougy Freeman’s days um Adin Gora incorrect oh you are a bloody disgrace B you are out Rich Little Benny Osborne Little Benny Osborne is is correct oh that was mine uh right this is a bit of a risk Robert
Teser Robert Tesha was on the bench a come Ono come on Rich keep keep going ah right I am then going to go for brong bonga brong bonga started up front correct going to go for Matt Mills Matt Mills is incorrect he hadn’t joined yet had he he
Hadn’t joined so Michael manen would have worked but Matt Mills probably wouldn’t yeah I’ve got a few I was right Chris Burke or Oliver Burke Chris yeah that’s correct um and then I was thinking who play left back Danny pineos it’s a Danny but it’s not Danny pineos Danny Fox Danny
Fox uh who else who scored the goal Stephen nice try so we’ve got Lansbury um got Henry Lansbury Ben Osborne M Antonio Brit songa and Danny Fox so far Lehi and Chris Burke we’ve got as well Eric Lehi Eric Lehi played at right back correct Hobs Jack Hobbs H good call Correct this midfielder might be a bit of a clue for you was not a forest player technically he was on Gary Gardner Gary Gardner correct yeah any takers for that final player the center back um right so left or right footed oh I think left don’t quote me on
That who was the other one Matt Mills Jack Hobs Jack Hobs right um left footer I’m getting a sea of blank faces here yeah well blanked this whole period out of my mind okay okay go no go on Final clue final clue he’s Welsh Welsh Center
Back this is poor I bet the listeners are screaming at us and rightly so I was 10 can I just say so okay go on you get have to tell us quiz Master Stephen Danny Collins a yeah I didn’t think he was still at Forest I thought he only like stayed the
Season or whatever but there you go well thank thank you everyone and as the quiz winner I get to choose our closing music and I’m going to go for Dawn pen with something evangelos marinakis might be saying to pogol you don’t love me no no
No before we leave you we want to say thank you to today’s panel to baz to Steven and to George and also to Jeremy for the sketch and also to producers Romeo and Winston and Studio assistant Neville while we’ve been recording this podcast we’ve heard the breaking news about Felipe making
His announcement that he will be leaving Forest this summer possibly to retire and I’m sure that we’ll cover this in our Friday 5 podcast later this week if you haven’t heard it we discuss the top stories from the city ground brought to you by our newshound Jamie Martin we’ll
Also be back next weekend with a report on the Brighton game as we do after every single Forest match until next time thank you very much for listening and come on you RS no no No you don’t love me and I know Now no no No you don’t love me yes I Know Sports social podcast Network lucky land Casino asking people what’s the weirdest place you’ve gotten lucky lucky in line of the deli I guess ha in my dentist’s office more than once actually do I have to say yes you do in the car before my kids PTA meeting
Really yes excuse me what’s the weirdest place you You’ gotten lucky I never win Intel well there you have it you could get lucky anywhere playing at lucky landlot outcom play for free right now are you feeling lucky no purchase necessary void rep prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply website
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It’s the return of The Forest Ramble, our discussion podcast in which we cover the Reds’ refereeing woes, the possibility of leaving the City Ground, and the issues around fan safety that have recently cropped up. We try and stay polite but the blood pressure was running a bit high on this one, which is already our 50th podcast of the season!
In a show recorded just as Felipe was announcing his decision to leave Forest in the summer, Rich Ferraro is joined by Steven Toplis, Baz and George Edwards to discuss all of the above and more, and we also have Jeremy Davies’ regular sketch, a game of Guess That Red, and the thoughts of you, the fans, via our Twitter polls.
Subscribe to 1865 via your podcast provider, and please leave a review, as it helps other Forest supporters find our content: Apple – Spotify – YouTube. Join us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads or TikTok. 1865: The Nottingham Forest Podcast is part of the Sports Social Network, and partnered with FanHub; thanks to Greene King Sport for sponsoring this episode.
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