Well that was just odd, in ten or eleven ways.
1. There's something really odd about watching crowdless matches. Crowd noise is a kind of filter which has the unusual effect of speeding things up and making them blurry. Without noise, things slow down and grow sharper. That's why crowdless matches have that weird slow-motion, high definition, empty swimming bath quality which we're not yet used to. It's either that, or all the players are tired and really clean. Or I've gone mad. Whatever.
2. Three goals is an odd number of goals to score in one match. Forest often score one, which is odd, but not as odd as three. Forest last scored three in one match on Sunday June 28th 2020 when they beat Uddersfeel 3-1. On that day, two goals from Lewis Grabban moved Forest up to fourth, and 78 people died from covid.
3. Forest played in an oddly convincing way. With Cafu threatening to look a bit like a playmaker and Sow finding time to stomp forward dangerously, Forest's midfield looked suspiciously like that of a proper football team. People have suggested that they may have "worked on things" in training, but this is unlikely to be true. The reason Forest controlled the match was probably that an oddly useless Mewo gave them all the time they wanted.
4. Mewo were oddly useless. Without the brutal stupidity of their supporters, they seemed lost. Perhaps they are in transition, which is another way of saying that Gary Rowett is in charge, and he has as much idea what he is doing as any man who's had his left ear pinned forward for no apparent reason. Their kit seemed lost, too. I remember shirts like that from secondary school changing rooms. "Forgotten your football shirt again, Pogson? Here, put this on."
5. Sameobi remains magnificently odd. I thought for many years that his eccentric playing style was caused by universal joints, but now realise he is built from the toughest rubber, like Stretch Armstrong. His wonderful second goal was made possible by an outrageous degree of flexion in his left shin and a foot like a spade. His celebration involved performing enormous rubbery leaps and grinning like Bluto...
6. ...which seems normal compared with the odd celebration performed by Ryan Yates after scoring Forest's third. The goal itself, the neatest of flicks from what looked like a pretty shabby corner, was so rare and special that it reduced the young man to a state of manic and directionless enthusiasm. His gallop ended with an awkward slide and an obvious invitation to his team mates to molest him. It was the kind of oddly embarrassing thing you do when you've forgotten how to behave in a given situation, an experience shared by many forum members as the goals went in.
7. What was really odd was the behaviour of the referee, Mister Stroud. Mister Stroud has a long and celebrated history of allowing West Brom's Jake Livermore to cripple Forest players, but in this match he seemed unusually muted, presumably because there was no crowd to play to, or Jake Livermore was off crippling somebody somewhere else.
8. It's odd how often the meeja hypes up a manager and his team only to see said manager/team fall flat on their face. It's almost like cause and effect. And it's odd how often that manager and his team is Wayne Rooney's Dhabi County. They did it again, didn't they - all Rooney retires this and Rooney manages that before losing at home to fellow strugglers Rotheringham. Perhaps they should stop pretending to be an embryonic Man City, or even a proper football club, because they don't seem very good at it. Ask their fans.
9. The oddest thing of all was the feeling of complete relaxation throughout the match. Not for a long time have Forest provided such a stress free experience. It would be nice to think we could have an equally smooth ride to safety, but the numbers at the lower end of the table offer no reason for complacency.
10. Leed lost. To Brighton. At Elland Road. It's odd that the meeja keep harping on about them being "a breath of fresh air" while ignoring their obvious decline. It's also odd that nobody dares admit this decline is caused by Bielsa working his players to death. They're already starting to look knackered, like those donkeys on that charity advert. Perhaps we should send money.
11. There's far too much Schadenfreude in this cake. It tastes of smugness and Germans. Be warned. It's Miserablebugger next.
MEANWHILE, HERE'S HENRY LONGFELLOW'S NOTTINGHAM FOREST VIDEO BLOG ARCHIVE STUFF
