Forest Boffin

Last week Billy Davies issued a prickly rebuttal of suggestions that his Forest team were losing points through sitting on leads – from being, to use a dirty word, negative. The Reds have lost 17 points from winning positions this season. If Davies’ side were able to kill off these games they would be top of the league with 72 points – this is perhaps an unreasonable expectation, but Forest have lost by far the most points from winning positions of all the promotion candidates ( see right. The figure in brackets is the amount of games in which the team has been winning at some stage - Forest's have done so often, but this does not account for the discrepancy in lost points ). This is because, for a side so high in the table, The Garibaldi struggle to hold onto a lead – our opponents have equalised on 46.2% of the occasions Forest have led. Again, comparison with our rivals is concerning ( see left ). Conversely, they are excellent at taking the lead, doing so on 26 occas...

The year: 1990 (ish). The place: a training pitch just off Quarry Lane, Field Mill, Mansfield. " Boffin , come here." To be honest this guy scared me, but I wandered over. "Listen, if there's one thing I want you to remember from tonight, it's this: when under pressure defending long or high balls, never let the ball bounce. Now get lost." This adolescent memory has been bouncing around my head all night, but what ought to be remembered is an exciting game of football between two highly motivated sides. Leicester set up as we thought they would in our preview , and were clearly up for this game, starting brightly. The Foxes played one of the more stylish brands of football we've seen away sides use at The City Ground - in fact only QPR, Derby and Blackpool have out-passed them this season, although they were prepared to send it long when necessary; an ability which has sometimes been lacking from Forest. The Reds' as expected deployed Reid ...

As the Captains of the West rode towards Mordor with what remained of their battered army, they knew they were approaching the critical point of their campaign, and also that the odds were heavily stacked against them. Perhaps this is how Billy Davies feels this week, leading his injury ravaged Forest side against the dark forces of Leicester and Burnley. League-Champions-elect Leicester will probably play a 4-4-2 against Forest, pushing forward either full-back to support their two creative midfielders, winger Lloyd Dyer and Anthony Knockaert, who plays on the right but tends to drift inside. They have a solid core which protects the centre of the pitch effectively, and a plethora of dangerous forwards who between them provide a variety of threats for every occasion. While scouting them for this preview, I have been extremely impressed with Jamie Vardy. He is not the most high-profile player on their team – perhaps that honour goes to Knockaert or Nugent – but in my opinion h...

Ask Forest fans what has been missing this season – even ask the manager – and sooner than later the phrase “clinical finishing” will be mentioned. It would be easy to conclude that The Reds’ strike force of Simon Cox and Darius Henderson had been sub-standard; this has not been the case.   Hendo has been one of the best target men at this level for a while now. It is unusual for this type of player to score too many goals, but that isn’t what they are generally there to do. Henderson is most influential when providing an outlet, receiving the ball when Forest attempt to come forward.   Direct play isn’t generally the Billy Davies way; he likes the ball played to feet and to build up possession gradually. The forward’s role in this is often to pull out into space – typically onto the wing - and help establish a foothold in enemy territory (which is why Simon Cox and Jamie Mackie are so admired by Davies).   But our manager is canny enough to realise that hi...