So as we spend the summer trying to let promotion actually sink in… On the journey home at Wembley I thought through what were the best and (mostly) worst games I’d been to in the 23 years. In a moment of obsession pre-Wembley I worked out I’d been to 410 games in that time (largely commuting having moved to Bristol for Uni in 2010 and stayed). I think for me the very worst games were: Forest 2-5 Yeovil - barely needs explanation. We broke down on the way home and had to call the AA - nightmarish. Swindon 2-1 Forest - the infamous rain soaked game on the open terrace, losing to two own goals with Grant Holt plodding about on the wing. Forest 2-4 Doncaster - Boxing Day 2008 relegation battle which spelled the end of Calderwood. Grim. Forest 3-4 Blackpool - the best Billy Davies season going up in a puff of smoke in that second half. That is the year we should have done it, and don’t think I recovered emotionally until Wembley this year. Forest 2-3 Leicester - last day of the season 2014 I think. Injury time winner for them at the CH to miss out on the playoffs. Genuinely blocked out post FT memories of this for my own sanity. Derby 5-0 Forest - I’ve blocked out the context of this one, but a true horror show. Sheff U 3-1 Forest - FA Cup quarter final, 1-0 up at ht with a genuine chance of Wembley v League 1 blades - 2nd half collapse and a pitch invasion. Woeful. Forest 1-3 Brentford - 2017 - midweek in our near relegation season, in front of a 14k crowd and 3-0 down at half time. The whole club felt like a dying, rotten husk at that point. Cardiff 1-0 Forest - penultimate away game 2017 - the pitying consultation form the Cardiff fans leaving the ground, apologising for the result and wishing us well - we were so shot that clubs genuinely felt sorry for us at that point. Forest 1-4 Stoke - obviously Zoom only, but a horror moment for us all (but so inevitable for Forest). Genuinely harrowing after the joy & hope of the Lamouchi season then the grim wait of lockdown. If only we knew then what was to come. Bournemouth 1-0 Forest - that FT whistle was very difficult to witness, the Bournemouth fans running over and goading the away end, laughing on our faces. After so many similar scenes over the years (Sheff U, Yeovil, Blackpool, Leicester, Swansea, Readings promotion) it was hard to take. Be interested to reminisce over anyone else’s tales of woe… now we can look back on them will a happy nostalgia rather than trauma!
Ones that immediately stick out in my head. That I attended Forest 2 - 5 Yeovil Forest 3 - 4 Blackpool Swindon 2 - 1 Forest Oldham 5 - 0 Forest Forest 0 - 3 Plymouth Derby 4 - 2 Forest So many more. I had some fun times in League One I must admit. Some great away days. But christ did we have some bad ones.
I hated nearly every minute of League one tbh Dawg, the only redeeming features were some of the away days . The promotion was more of a relief, no real celebration for me unlike what we achieved last Sunday. Anyway there's so many horrors to look back on I'll compile a list later
I missed the Oldham game luckily. The Plymouth game is a good shout - I laughed them all the way down to League 2 after that although tbh have a soft spot for them again now.
Ok the worst: Losing 3-0 to Derby in 'just another game' apparently in Kinnear's last game Losing 6-0 to Ipswich shortly followed back to back horrendous defeats to Plymouth and Coventry which sealed the relegation First season in league one basically every away game under the Ginger twat 'highlights' being 3-0 defeats at Oldham and Yeovil 4-0 at home to Scunthorpe then 5-0 to Oldham, we were so bad at the time I accurately predicted the score for the latter Numerous struggles and defeats to non-league team in the cups (Chester, Macclesfield, Woking) 3-0 to Chelsea in the cup, the gulf in class was embarrassing The Yeovil debacle 2-4 at home to Doncaster 3-4 Blackpool, I swear Billy Davies threw all the playoff games on purpose and did the Blackpool team talk for them after the first leg Swansea a year later, baffling team selections the poisoned dwarf definitely threw this one as he knew he was getting the sack 5-0 at Derby which brought a fitting end to a humiliating and embarrassing second reign under Billy Davies 1-4 against Stoke completing the mother of all capitulations under Lamouchi Probably lots more, alot of individual games have been meh and just soul destroying espeically under the likes of Hughton and O'Neil
The Blackpool play off loss really sucked. Should've been back up that year. The other more recent losing on the last game to miss out on the play off under Sabri. Everything that was less likely to happen, flipping happened.
Ironically we were pipped by Swansea and Coops as well. Now looking back in retrospect in it probably wasn't the worst thing to happen, we would have been murdered in the playoffs anyway
Not a Forest fan but I think I can give my opinion on this Losing to Darlington 1-2 at home in 00/01 dosen't sound that bad until I realised that Darlington is a League Two side. Losing to Sheffield United in the 02/03 play-off SFs after being 3-1 up on aggregate must feel pain Losing to Ipswich 0-6 in 04/05 Losing to Macclesfield and Chester in 05/06 (League 2), Woking too (Conference) Losing to Oldham 0-5 in 06/07 Losing to Accrington Stanley in 06/07 after Stanley just got promoted to League two in the first time in 45 years. Losing to Yeovil in the 06/07 play-off SFs after being 3-1 up on aggregate Losing to Peterborough (League 2 team) in 07/08 Losing to Burnley 0-5 in 08/09 Losing to Blackpool 4-6 on aggregate in the 09/10 Championship play-off SFs Losing to Swansea 1-3 in the 10/11 Championship play-off SFs. Losing to Bradford City in the 10/11 League Cup (League Two again) Losing to Derby 0-5 in 13/14 Losing to Stoke 1-4 in 19/20 to blow their play-off chances There's probably many more moments that I didn't see as I did not follow Forest closely until this season.
Nailed it there Garrinch, I think the first two season's post PL were awful under Platt and his wastefulness in the transfer market as well but I didn't properly start supporting Forest then thankfully so don't remember much.
I'm going put this list out there as I've got a bit of spare time. Gary Jones Marlon King Sonner Gunnarsson Nowland Friio Dadi Powell Gary Holt Nick Eaden John Curtis Padula Ishmael Miller Derbyshire Abdoun Djebbour Veldwijk Bendtner Perquis Traore Lam Carayol Lica Dumitriu Velios Clough Stojkovic Ariyibi Kapino Bouchalakis Cummings Mckay Hefele Tachtsidis Milosevic Bong Jenkinson Arter Da Costa Blackett Guerrero Drager Ely And those are just permanent transfers. There are at least as many duds/unknowns that have come in on loan. This is all this century. When you've been watching tripe like this attempt to play football week in week out, some of it in League One then you feel like you deserve a bit of time watching us have success and seeing a bit of quality on the pitch.
God are we were making a conceited effort to depress ourselves after the europhia of last week, your list has certainly achieved that Fo
Too many to mention and I'd rather not blow dust off some of the horror shows I've managed to nearly forget over the years, but that said, all the play off crashes hurt the most. The drop out of the top 6 on the last day when we folded to Stoke on ifollow scarred me and my 2 lads deeply... the only time the youngest has been reduced to tears after a match which is quite amazing considering how shite we've been whilst he's been going (just ask Worrall ). There's a few rotten nuggets worthy of mention like Barnsley away 0-1 in the league (sorry, cba to pinpoint the year but a looooong time ago) and Chesterfield away in the FA Cup 5th round 0-1 mid nineties are quite unforgettable due to scoring highly on the shitness scale. I'd try and remember a few more but it's time to pop the Wembley recording back on as it's about an hour and a half since I last watched it. Sorry.
I wasn't even alive for most of the moments I mentioned! Got them from wikipedia which is why I don't think that's a good list
