Nottingham Forest v Fulham

the sky declaring that, like Russell Osman in
Escape to Victory, we can win this. The smoke
from the flare lit to mark the equaliser was still
wafting around just 47 seconds after the ball
was retrieved from the Bristol goal to when it
resided there once more. Carnage broke loose
in the away end.
When asked after the game whether he could
quite believe what had happened, Steve
Cooper casually replied, ‘Yeah.’ Not in an
arrogant manner but more to articulate that
given the way the team kept playing, such a
comeback shouldn’t feel quite as outlandish
at it may have seemed. Admittedly, nobody
can realistically claim that they saw that
dénouement coming. But at the same time,
it wasn’t wholly unexpected. This game - or
at least a similar game - has been played out
before.
Back in October 2001, Paul Hart was in his third
month as manager of Forest when we travelled
to Watford for a midweek away game. Despite
going one down, we rallied and came away
with a 2-1 win. Some similarities exist between
the two games. Watford’s opener, just like
City’s, came after the goalkeeper parried a first
attempt but could not keep out the followup.
From then on, Hart’s young Forest team
simply kept doing what they were told: keeper
Darren Ward repeatedly bowled the ball out to
his full backs who carried it up field and kept
asking questions of the Watford defence. David
Johnson and Stern John (see right) hit the
Forest goals to seal a remarkable turnaround
against a side looking for a third consecutive
win.
Likewise, against Bristol City, Forest just kept
doing what they had been doing and you could
almost see the opposition players’ shoulders
sag as yet another ball was threaded wide for
a marauding full back to link up with a wide
forward and pose yet more problems for a
wilting defence.
It is a rare occasion that one feels utterly
immune to the misery of stepping into a third
consecutive puddle wearing inadequate
footwear while trundling away into the night
from an away game in midweek, hundreds of
miles from Nottingham. Yet Tuesday was one
such occasion. Like Gene Kelly, we danced and
serenaded our way back to our cars and buses
with a wholly new and fanciful story of a trip at
Ashton Gate on an evening when legends were
created. From a distance, it might only seem
like a league win, but it felt like so much more.
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