...lovely.
This win is exactly what Forest needed.
Derby’s rout took a club on its knees and rubbed its face into the dirt. It felt as though Forest were a doomed side who had played its last hand and still failed to recover.
Now there is a light at the end of the tunnel again. It is suddenly less difficult to believe that Davies can plot a course to safety.
He is a shrewd manager; an intelligent man with more faith in his own ability than anybody else’s. And in games like this his conviction is invaluable.
Forest were hammered and pillaged for the opening 30 minutes. Reading strode forward in waves, savaging us from the wings and battering into the box.
They are an imperious side packed with strength, and a more than adequate seasoning of top quality players.
For a long time the sides looked a division apart.
Our wing-backs, for all of their sweat and tears, had a torrid time of keeping crosses out of the box. Smith – with just about every finger in the ground pointing at him – made a fairly woeful fist of sweeping up the clutter.
At one point he was quarrelling with his defenders, each of them arriving with a separate complaint for him to field. At the same time Reading were taking a short corner with no Forest players watching.
The first Reading goal did not seem too far away. But it didn’t come, and instead the restlessness of the crowd – and indeed the side – gave Forest a lifeline.
Davies watched, mused, fumed and eventually got it right. Smash and grab is, after all, his speciality.
By the end of the first half we looked a lot more settled, and the second half swung almost in Forest’s favour. By no means did we dominate, but attacking the increasingly heartened pocket of Forest fans behind the goal we more than held our own.
Reading were throwing men forward in search of a win, and the space they left behind them facilitated some of the best football Forest have played all season.
It wasn’t Brazilian splendour, but it was simple, functional football involving forward runs in the middle and common sense balls into the channel. The addition of Guy Moussi’s exemplary passing should not be underestimated.
McGugan’s opener brought renewed vigour, and increased frustration in the stands.
The 30 subsequent minutes were rough, tense and – at times – extremely nervy.
But this was not Reading’s day, and no amount of unwarranted stoppage time was going to change the outcome.
It may, on the other hand, have shaved a century off the collective life expectancy of travelling fans.
We are nowhere near out of the woods yet and we have an enormous struggle ahead. But with the spirit and sense demonstrated in the second half of this game we will have enough about us to stay afloat. Just.
I’m delighted to have taken 3 points from Reading, whose £8 car parks and £2 tea bags will have soured more than one Saturday afternoon before this one.
