Thoughts on the Forest 2nd leg - 10 years on

O

O4tonygreen

Well-known member
I really enjoyed watching the forest game on YouTube tonight. I was at the game, and then watched the full re-run when I got home at 2 am in the morning. It was exhilarating at the time, and still ranks as the best away game I have ever been to, with only Liverpool away in the prem, or the destruction of Middlesboro away, coming close to it.

However, I have only ever seen the highlights of the game since, which usually is just the goals, so it was fascinating to watch tonight with the benefit of hindsight, and with the last 10 years of football to consider too. Below are some thoughts I took away from the game.

1. How fit were we as a team. Full on pressing when we didn't have the ball, and counter attacking at full pace. They must have worked so hard in training.
2. Everyone seemed to know how to play in the system. Gilks gets it, full backs pull wide, Evo gets it and pings long diagonals. Vaughan and Southern work their socks off and try to give Charlie as much space to creat things.
3. The team spirit was obvious for all to see (other than DJ seemed a bit like an outsider - probably as he was just on loan at the time).
4. How good was Southern in this game. I don't think he always got the appreciation from everyone but he worked his socks off. Same goes for Vaughnie, who was always my daughter's favourite.
5. How good was Coleman for a 21 year old in his first season. Totally nullified Forest down their left flank
6. Gilks was such a calming influence as a keeper and made some great saves keeping us in the game.
7. How much did Dobbie change the game? He always seemed to be a better player coming on as sub. Very tricky, great feet, quality finisher and superb when their defence was getting tired
8. I forgot how annoying Billy Davies was. Brilliant to hear "billy, Billy, what's the score".
9. How risky was it leaving Charlie on when he was risking a booking. 3 up with 10 mins to go, I remember screaming for him to be taken off. All turned out well though.
10. You tend to forget how good Charlie was at this level, and how quickly he became the best player in the division. He was a good leader too, taking lots of responsibility. You could see that the opposition, and their fans, were scared stiff of him.
11. Evatt was very dominant in the air, winning nearly everything.
12. Ollie used Tommo a great deal. Whenever it cut to the touchline you could see them discussing things.
13. Baps was always likely to make a mistake that would lead to a goal. He did some great last ditch tackles, but the 1st and 3rd goals were his mistakes, as he did in some other big games.
14. I didn't realise until it came up on this commentary, but prior to this game we had won 7 play-off games successfully, so with this and the final, we won 9 play-off games on the trot. I don't think that this will be equalled,
15. Forest hadn't conceded a home goal for seven games before this one.
16. What a second half performance.....best ever.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable watch, and with a different commentator than the original sky one. I think that this was the one used for international broadcast and he was good
 
O4tonygreen said:
I really enjoyed watching the forest game on YouTube tonight. I was at the game, and then watched the full re-run when I got home at 2 am in the morning. It was exhilarating at the time, and still ranks as the best away game I have ever been to, with only Liverpool away in the prem, or the destruction of Middlesboro away, coming close to it.

However, I have only ever seen the highlights of the game since, which usually is just the goals, so it was fascinating to watch tonight with the benefit of hindsight, and with the last 10 years of football to consider too. Below are some thoughts I took away from the game.

1. How fit were we as a team. Full on pressing when we didn't have the ball, and counter attacking at full pace. They must have worked so hard in training.
2. Everyone seemed to know how to play in the system. Gilks gets it, full backs pull wide, Evo gets it and pings long diagonals. Vaughan and Southern work their socks off and try to give Charlie as much space to creat things.
3. The team spirit was obvious for all to see (other than DJ seemed a bit like an outsider - probably as he was just on loan at the time).
4. How good was Southern in this game. I don't think he always got the appreciation from everyone but he worked his socks off. Same goes for Vaughnie, who was always my daughter's favourite.
5. How good was Coleman for a 21 year old in his first season. Totally nullified Forest down their left flank
6. Gilks was such a calming influence as a keeper and made some great saves keeping us in the game.
7. How much did Dobbie change the game? He always seemed to be a better player coming on as sub. Very tricky, great feet, quality finisher and superb when their defence was getting tired
8. I forgot how annoying Billy Davies was. Brilliant to hear "billy, Billy, what's the score".
9. How risky was it leaving Charlie on when he was risking a booking. 3 up with 10 mins to go, I remember screaming for him to be taken off. All turned out well though.
10. You tend to forget how good Charlie was at this level, and how quickly he became the best player in the division. He was a good leader too, taking lots of responsibility. You could see that the opposition, and their fans, were scared stiff of him.
11. Evatt was very dominant in the air, winning nearly everything.
12. Ollie used Tommo a great deal. Whenever it cut to the touchline you could see them discussing things.
13. Baps was always likely to make a mistake that would lead to a goal. He did some great last ditch tackles, but the 1st and 3rd goals were his mistakes, as he did in some other big games.
14. I didn't realise until it came up on this commentary, but prior to this game we had won 7 play-off games successfully, so with this and the final, we won 9 play-off games on the trot. I don't think that this will be equalled,
15. Forest hadn't conceded a home goal for seven games before this one.
16. What a second half performance.....best ever.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable watch, and with a different commentator than the original sky one. I think that this was the one used for international broadcast and he was good
Click to expand...
I thought the Sky team gave us far more credit. Don Goodman always took our side. This guy was harping on about 10 minutes on Earnshaws disallowed goal. He was well off, move on.

You're right; the stamina was there for the full 90 minutes and then again in the baking heat of Wembley.

Good to see Billy Davies slumped in his dug out with 15 minutes to go.

Your comment on DJ was interesting. For a close knit group, I get where you're coming from. Even then, his finishes were exquisite.

A great memory of a great night.
 
I remember at the time thinking that the team just played with an attacking joy, it's brilliant still to watch DJ and Dobbie marauding at them, their defence didn't know what to do, I've never seen us play with that unchained freedom before or since.

Brings a tear to the eye.
 
O4tonygreen said:
I really enjoyed watching the forest game on YouTube tonight. I was at the game, and then watched the full re-run when I got home at 2 am in the morning. It was exhilarating at the time, and still ranks as the best away game I have ever been to, with only Liverpool away in the prem, or the destruction of Middlesboro away, coming close to it.

However, I have only ever seen the highlights of the game since, which usually is just the goals, so it was fascinating to watch tonight with the benefit of hindsight, and with the last 10 years of football to consider too. Below are some thoughts I took away from the game.

1. How fit were we as a team. Full on pressing when we didn't have the ball, and counter attacking at full pace. They must have worked so hard in training.
2. Everyone seemed to know how to play in the system. Gilks gets it, full backs pull wide, Evo gets it and pings long diagonals. Vaughan and Southern work their socks off and try to give Charlie as much space to creat things.
3. The team spirit was obvious for all to see (other than DJ seemed a bit like an outsider - probably as he was just on loan at the time).
4. How good was Southern in this game. I don't think he always got the appreciation from everyone but he worked his socks off. Same goes for Vaughnie, who was always my daughter's favourite.
5. How good was Coleman for a 21 year old in his first season. Totally nullified Forest down their left flank
6. Gilks was such a calming influence as a keeper and made some great saves keeping us in the game.
7. How much did Dobbie change the game? He always seemed to be a better player coming on as sub. Very tricky, great feet, quality finisher and superb when their defence was getting tired
8. I forgot how annoying Billy Davies was. Brilliant to hear "billy, Billy, what's the score".
9. How risky was it leaving Charlie on when he was risking a booking. 3 up with 10 mins to go, I remember screaming for him to be taken off. All turned out well though.
10. You tend to forget how good Charlie was at this level, and how quickly he became the best player in the division. He was a good leader too, taking lots of responsibility. You could see that the opposition, and their fans, were scared stiff of him.
11. Evatt was very dominant in the air, winning nearly everything.
12. Ollie used Tommo a great deal. Whenever it cut to the touchline you could see them discussing things.
13. Baps was always likely to make a mistake that would lead to a goal. He did some great last ditch tackles, but the 1st and 3rd goals were his mistakes, as he did in some other big games.
14. I didn't realise until it came up on this commentary, but prior to this game we had won 7 play-off games successfully, so with this and the final, we won 9 play-off games on the trot. I don't think that this will be equalled,
15. Forest hadn't conceded a home goal for seven games before this one.
16. What a second half performance.....best ever.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable watch, and with a different commentator than the original sky one. I think that this was the one used for international broadcast and he was good
Click to expand...
It was sublime. I remember even the incidentals, such as when I went to the toilet and even the conversation I had with strangers in the toilets.
Sublime 👍
 
Yeah, just finished watching it. Agree with Wiz about Sky and Goodman. Their commentary was on a different level to this. Also didn't realise Baptiste had such a poor game. He wasn't far off for being at fault for their second goal too. Substitution of Dobbie for Brett was inspired. Dobbie far superior technically and it showed.
 
20togo said:
Yeah, just finished watching it. Agree with Wiz about Sky and Goodman. Their commentary was on a different level to this. Also didn't realise Baptiste had such a poor game. He wasn't far off for being at fault for their second goal too. Substitution of Dobbie for Brett was inspired. Dobbie far superior technically and it showed.
Click to expand...
Dobbie for Brett was the clincher but here's the thing - in his first 50 minutes Brett played his part. A full squad game.
 
Wizaard said:
I thought the Sky team gave us far more credit. Don Goodman always took our side. This guy was harping on about 10 minutes on Earnshaws disallowed goal. He was well off, move on.

You're right; the stamina was there for the full 90 minutes and then again in the baking heat of Wembley.

Good to see Billy Davies slumped in his dug out with 15 minutes to go.

Your comment on DJ was interesting. For a close knit group, I get where you're coming from. Even then, his finishes were exquisite.

A great memory of a great night.
Click to expand...
Re the DJ bit...I also read that he sulked after the Spurs penalty away when Charlie had missed the first one, and insisted on taking the second one. A lot of the squad seem to be pallyy, but you don't seem to hear much from DJ. Does anyone know what happened to him and/or what he's doing nowadays?
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
I remember at the time thinking that the team just played with an attacking joy, it's brilliant still to watch DJ and Dobbie marauding at them, their defence didn't know what to do, I've never seen us play with that unchained freedom before or since.

Brings a tear to the eye.
Click to expand...
You are right about the attacking intent. It was interesting to note that even when we were 3 up we still left one upfield when they had corners and/or were attacking us. Contrast that to boring Grayson this season who had all 11 back even when we were losing
 
O4tonygreen said:
Re the DJ bit...I also read that he sulked after the Spurs penalty away when Charlie had missed the first one, and insisted on taking the second one. A lot of the squad seem to be pallyy, but you don't seem to hear much from DJ. Does anyone know what happened to him and/or what he's doing nowadays?
Click to expand...
Last I saw of him was him kicking off at the Blackburn game at Bloomers.
 
Great OP and agree with all your points. Watching the full game again last night gave another opportunity to realise what an exceptional and outstanding set of players we had at the time, it was non stop high octane energy and the passing, possession and finishing was brilliant. Forest were a very good team then with a fantastic home record but they had no answers to us that night apart from one or two moments. Can't wait for the final a week on Friday!👍
 
I was on night shift the night of the game and the only place that could get a reception for the radio was in the far corner of the factory about 150 yards away from my machine.
It was purgatory listening for the first 55 minutes of that match. The Nobbers taking the piss when Earnshaw scored after 7 minutes.
Michael Jackson was the guest analyst and at half time I remember him saying that Blackpool were still a real threat and that the next goal was key.
DJ scores and I'm in heaven, Earnshaw gets another for Forest and the Nobbers, Dingles and Rovers fans rear their ugly heads again.
I can't take this, we're playing well but losing on the night its 3-3 on aggregate.
Hide Wizzer, piss off into the car park, just get away from this agony.
A quick look at my watch, 10 minutes to go, hopefully itll still be 3-3 we might have even nicked another.
Chisnall........"Its 2-4 on the night 3-6 on aggregate surely, surely Blackpool are in the final.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!
Forests 3rd was far too little, far too late.

The rest of the night was a whirlwind, who's going to the final? How many tickets do I need to get? How are we getting down there?

Got home at 8am and Mrs Wizzerboy had recorded it. Watched everything from the build up to the post match interviews.
Joe's face when DJ scored his second.
We were sublime, watching and listening are two very different media.
Listening, I was nervous as a new born kitten.
Watching, it honestly looked, even though we went 1 down and 2-1 down like we were never going to lose the match.

A great night, a great game.
And the only sad thing looking back to those times is that we didn't have an owner like SS at the helm then. Christ, how good could it have REALLY been?

Sorry for rambling 🤪
 
20togo said:
Yeah, just finished watching it. Agree with Wiz about Sky and Goodman. Their commentary was on a different level to this. Also didn't realise Baptiste had such a poor game. He wasn't far off for being at fault for their second goal too. Substitution of Dobbie for Brett was inspired. Dobbie far superior technically and it showed.
Click to expand...
Just to add a bit of balance re Baps, he had a poor game but did save an almost certain goal in the first half.
 
Whoever built this team, be it Olly, Thommo, TP or Larry (and in reality it was all of them), this was the best football I have ever seen Blackpool play. They had an energy level and team commitment that is unsurpassed. It was a time when I was most relaxed at matches, didn't matter if we were 2 down at 80 minutes, there was still a feeling we could nick it.

It was also really satisfying to stuff Forrest again. Their arrogance, particularly after we had already beaten them, their, "we should go up because we were third", Billy's totally counter productive mind games, brilliant.

Good to see the full version, I have watched the Chissie version with Elbow backing more times than I could mention, still affects me.

Happy days, football with no fear, a team greater than the sum of the parts.

The next game wasn't too bad either!
 
Forest were a bloody good side but we were just better. We truly were a thing of beauty. One of the biggest memories was the noise from them, just drowned us out...until later 😀. Felt every moment of this game and like others have said even felt nervous for the stream. Obviously enjoyed the Cardiff game but it was all a bit surreal - to steal a quote I probably 'played' the occasion more than the game.

Great idea for the stream 👍, the shared event adds that extra bit of frisson.
 
I’m pretty sure Forest only lost one league game all season and that was to us. 1-0 Charlie Adam if I remember correctly
 
Think im right in saying Charlie Adam was on 14 bookings for the season before the play offs - 1 more & an automatic 3 game ban.
In the first leg Charlie took out Blackstock on the touch line near the end. Touch n go red but in fairness a definite yellow. Ref bottled it & just gave the free kick.
Dickhead Davies was fuming on the touchline & made several references to it afterwards
 
Athers said:
I’m pretty sure Forest only lost one league game all season and that was to us. 1-0 Charlie Adam if I remember correctly
Click to expand...
Think they said in the commentary that they'd only lost 3 times at home all season. The last one being to us.
 
Due to work commitments I watched the game in the back room at The Number 4 and it was rammed. The place went berserk several times. I have never been in a pub and watched a game with an atmosphere like it. Happy days.
 
Great o/p, great game, great team, great tactics, great away day.
I was so excited at the end of it I couldn't rememeber where I'd parked the car.
 
I think Dobbie's impact is often over-stated, but he did well when he came on in this game. I thought the two real stars of the performance were Coleman and Southern, both of whom worked prodigiously hard. They had no answer to Seamus at all, and nobody who could do the job that Gnashers did.

The key to the game was our relentless probing when we had the ball. We kept it well, we moved it around, the front players were very intelligent in the way they dragged their back four around and I think that in the last half hour they were very tired, physically and mentally.

I'll never forget the journey back to Bedford in the car, we were ecstatic about the fact that we had played so well in a game that meant so much. And for once our arrival coincided with the night train's hourly arrival, so I actually managed to get home at about 3 a.m. 😀
 
Maybe our fitness levels were great for the championship, but it was out fitness that let us down in the prem. I remember that heartbreaking stat from sky after the season, if games had lasted 80 minutes Blackpool would have qualified for the Champions league. 😞
 
DJ last heard of at Maidenhead Utd in the Conference South 2014-15 season. Think he then went into business with Martin Maddog Allen
 
Great post. Special mention to Dobbie's contribution in 20 mins ish, he scored one & made 2 goals.
Also Ollie was a God! Despite the Os
 
O4tonygreen said:
I really enjoyed watching the forest game on YouTube tonight. I was at the game, and then watched the full re-run when I got home at 2 am in the morning. It was exhilarating at the time, and still ranks as the best away game I have ever been to, with only Liverpool away in the prem, or the destruction of Middlesboro away, coming close to it.

However, I have only ever seen the highlights of the game since, which usually is just the goals, so it was fascinating to watch tonight with the benefit of hindsight, and with the last 10 years of football to consider too. Below are some thoughts I took away from the game.

1. How fit were we as a team. Full on pressing when we didn't have the ball, and counter attacking at full pace. They must have worked so hard in training.
2. Everyone seemed to know how to play in the system. Gilks gets it, full backs pull wide, Evo gets it and pings long diagonals. Vaughan and Southern work their socks off and try to give Charlie as much space to creat things.
3. The team spirit was obvious for all to see (other than DJ seemed a bit like an outsider - probably as he was just on loan at the time).
4. How good was Southern in this game. I don't think he always got the appreciation from everyone but he worked his socks off. Same goes for Vaughnie, who was always my daughter's favourite.
5. How good was Coleman for a 21 year old in his first season. Totally nullified Forest down their left flank
6. Gilks was such a calming influence as a keeper and made some great saves keeping us in the game.
7. How much did Dobbie change the game? He always seemed to be a better player coming on as sub. Very tricky, great feet, quality finisher and superb when their defence was getting tired
8. I forgot how annoying Billy Davies was. Brilliant to hear "billy, Billy, what's the score".
9. How risky was it leaving Charlie on when he was risking a booking. 3 up with 10 mins to go, I remember screaming for him to be taken off. All turned out well though.
10. You tend to forget how good Charlie was at this level, and how quickly he became the best player in the division. He was a good leader too, taking lots of responsibility. You could see that the opposition, and their fans, were scared stiff of him.
11. Evatt was very dominant in the air, winning nearly everything.
12. Ollie used Tommo a great deal. Whenever it cut to the touchline you could see them discussing things.
13. Baps was always likely to make a mistake that would lead to a goal. He did some great last ditch tackles, but the 1st and 3rd goals were his mistakes, as he did in some other big games.
14. I didn't realise until it came up on this commentary, but prior to this game we had won 7 play-off games successfully, so with this and the final, we won 9 play-off games on the trot. I don't think that this will be equalled,
15. Forest hadn't conceded a home goal for seven games before this one.
16. What a second half performance.....best ever.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable watch, and with a different commentator than the original sky one. I think that this was the one used for international broadcast and he was good
Click to expand...

Re point 14. Including our 1-0 win in the first leg over Birmingham in the 2012 play offs that's 10 on the trot... Still can't believe how close we came to going back to the premier league that time round too.
 
Absolutely fantastic watch last night. One other point I will make is we did seem to get the rub of the green with the officials which is something I don’t say often.
 
Great to watch it all unfold again last night! The 2nd half probably the most thrilling attacking play I’ve ever seen from a Pool side in my lifetime ... Dobbie’s introduction was genius and his link up play with DJ was the difference for us in that pulsating, heart pumping, head aching last 20 minutes ... a truly memorable evening etched in my head forever! 😉👍🏻🍊
 
All the pain of watching Blackpool over 40 years plus we’re made all worth while that night. Very privileged to have been there.
 
I watched last night although skipped a lot of bits.

It was the best match ever, obviously the playoff final and others in the prem etc were amazing but this was just special.

Watched it in the 1953 lounge or whatever the bigger one is and got there late.

Just as I walked in forest scored the first and it was like great, here we go.

After that it's just a blur and when DJ Campbell got that first the place went mental and beer flying and many people 'came to' on the floor, I dont remember going down just getting up with other random pool fans.

Same again when the other goals eventually went in it was just unbelievable scenes.

What an amazing night and game.

You can never recreate that tension and anticipation watching it back, the pressure.

However looking back, the way we played was great but you forget there was quite a few long balls still, some diagonal yes.

Also a lot of our goals were kind of from their mistakes. First their keeper did a poor kick and defence had chance to clear and keeper then come flying out into no mans land and DJ put it away. 2nd a deflected strike so a bit lucky there. 3rd a great goal but an over hit pass cut out by their defender but a bad touch and we attack again and then the amazing 1-2 finish. That was the moment of the night.

There was some good fortune then but without doubt amazing ability, determination and a relentless never say die attitude shown by the team. A great night.
 
Some good stuff in there JJ. All their goals were from defensive mistakes by us but as you rightly point out, they weren't defensively great either.
 
JJpool said:
I watched last night although skipped a lot of bits.

It was the best match ever, obviously the playoff final and others in the prem etc were amazing but this was just special.

Watched it in the 1953 lounge or whatever the bigger one is and got there late.

Just as I walked in forest scored the first and it was like great, here we go.

After that it's just a blur and when DJ Campbell got that first the place went mental and beer flying and many people 'came to' on the floor, I dont remember going down just getting up with other random pool fans.

Same again when the other goals eventually went in it was just unbelievable scenes.

What an amazing night and game.

You can never recreate that tension and anticipation watching it back, the pressure.

However looking back, the way we played was great but you forget there was quite a few long balls still, some diagonal yes.

Also a lot of our goals were kind of from their mistakes. First their keeper did a poor kick and defence had chance to clear and keeper then come flying out into no mans land and DJ put it away. 2nd a deflected strike so a bit lucky there. 3rd a great goal but an over hit pass cut out by their defender but a bad touch and we attack again and then the amazing 1-2 finish. That was the moment of the night.

There was some good fortune then but without doubt amazing ability, determination and a relentless never say die attitude shown by the team. A great night.
Click to expand...
To counter balance that, Baps gave them two with miscontrols.
 
I am still convinced Baps was fouled by Blackstock for the second goal. Had his legs taken away as he was about to clear the ball.
 
Worth mentioning as well how bad James Perch was. Discussing it with a Forest mate at work who said he got utterly mullered by the Forest fans after those performances.
 
In one of the most hostile match atmospheres I have ever experienced we came out against a team that expected to win with a belief in ourselves that hadn’t been seen since King Billy made us invincible at home. Couple that with a system we knew inside out.... that the opposition knew aswell but had no answer to, and we steam rollers them.

As much as the rest of the lads had great games, the enabler was the fact that every team and player in the division knew and feared the ability of Charlie Adam. Wouldn’t have happened without him in the team.

Unbelievable scenes behind that goal that night.

And the poster that mentioned Thommo....we have never been the same team since he was forced out. Imagine him as number two to Critcherino!
 
clappers said:
In one of the most hostile match atmospheres I have ever experienced we came out against a team that expected to win with a belief in ourselves that hadn’t been seen since King Billy made us invincible at home. Couple that with a system we knew inside out.... that the opposition knew aswell but had no answer to, and we steam rollers them.

As much as the rest of the lads had great games, the enabler was the fact that every team and player in the division knew and feared the ability of Charlie Adam. Wouldn’t have happened without him in the team.

Unbelievable scenes behind that goal that night.

And the poster that mentioned Thommo....we have never been the same team since he was forced out. Imagine him as number two to Critcherino!
Click to expand...
Great point about Tommo. The team spirit has never been the same since he left, and it was worth a goal to us in some games. How many times did we come from behind? Both semi-final games, and the final.
 
M61Exile said:
Worth mentioning as well how bad James Perch was. Discussing it with a Forest mate at work who said he got utterly mullered by the Forest fans after those performances.
Click to expand...
Yep. Every time I subsequently saw him in the Premier League I was staggered.
 
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