Nottingham Forest suffered another play-off disappointment last night, the defeat at Swansea's Liberty Stadium means the club has now failed in four such campaigns. But what do the fans take from the season? Pleasure from another decent attempt at promotion, or frustration that they came up short again? Probably both.
Some may look back at the season and think of it is a disappointment, a failure even, but for me, far from it. At the start of the campaign another tilt at the big time looked an awful long way off after a summer of discontent at the club. I blogged at the end of August expressing my anger at what I assumed would be the start of a downward spiral and a year of, at best, mid-table mediocrity. I did mention however that we hadn't become a bad side overnight either, and that's how it turned out to be fair.
We were, at the start of the season, a difficult team to beat without being spectacular, or indeed winning enough games, and that was how we continued really for too long. Players came in, which was an improvement on last year, but they were replacements rather than additions, and the squad was still far too thin. Although we were challenging for a top-two place as recently as February, there was a feeling in my head that it was almost too good to be true. There followed a sharp decline in form in the spring was in a part down to our lack of strength in depth and injuries and suspensions hitting that had stayed away a few weeks earlier.
The promotion season in League One saw Forest look out of the reckoning, before 6 wins in the last 7 got that side over the line. This season looked similar to that. Defeat at Norwich left us needing - in my opinion at the time - an unlikely 10 points, or even 12, from the last four games. We got 12 to get into the play-off places again. Unbelievable. I didn't see that coming after the Carrow Road game. Would momentum take us over the line? If only it was that simple, but I did have a feeling that the underdogs tag would suit us, as opposed to being the huge favourites we were against Blackpool, and before that, Yeovil Town. Sorry for the reminders!
As it turned out, we were underdogs for a reason. Swansea defended brilliantly at the City Ground with ten men, although were helped by Forest's alarming lack of ambition in the first half. The 0-0 scoreline felt like a win for them and Forest had, in my eyes, missed the boat. The second leg performance was much better from the Reds, but the Swans deserved the win. You have to take your chances, you cant afford to miss ones like those not taken by Marcus Tudgay and David McGoldrick.
Of course I was disappointed to have lost, but not devastated like in the aforementioned semi-finals. Rightly or wrongly, it didn't feel as bad. Overall it has been a decent season, but are decent seasons enough? Now we know we are a Championship club once again, we can get down to the business of sorting out the futures of those out of contract. I really hope the final-year trio of Guy Moussi, Nathan Tyson and Rob Earnshaw do not see their futures elsewhere. I would also like to see on-loan Kris Boyd at the club full time. There will probably be a few departures, but as long as more come in than go out we should be ok and ready to have another go next season.
No comments:
Post a Comment