Foam hands aside, this was another very satisfying afternoon.
Never spectacular but competent throughout, Forest have turned out a thrashing with a very ordinary display.
It’s textbook Davies. Points pay bills, not performances - and he knows it.
Forest allowed the visitors their possession but stopped short of letting them do anything much with it. We saw plenty of the ball ourselves and with so much attacking quality in the side a solid defensive display was always likely to be crucial.
It was duly delivered, along with yet another weekend without defeat.
The transformation from Doncaster’s festive blitz last season is spectacular.
On that forlorn afternoon a lazy Forest side, bereft of any enthusiasm for the game, brought shame to the banks of the Trent. Around eleven months on and we are marching coolly for a top ten finish, perhaps more.
Davies - irritable, insecure and eerily shrewd - is barking this team into what is looking scarily like a play-off push.
It wasn’t ‘a good advert for the Championship as one or two couldn’t wait to say on the way out of the ground, in fact it all seemed rather dull for a five-goal game.
But during Calderwood stay today's game would have looked veritably Brazilian. One thing's for sure - it's good enough for me.
Neutrals
I suppose it would be rude to ignore today's "groundbreaking integration scheme".
The problem with the ‘neutral’ zone (surely to be dubbed the ‘Gay Block’?) is that it doesn’t provide anything especially useful. Home supporters already have a family block and away supporters could very easily be segregated into a family section – if there was enough demand.
Sitting a small group of like-minded sycophants together will earn safety chief Bexon a gold star, it may even prompt a little extra back-slapping for Supreme Leader Doughty and Chief Comrade Arthur.
But to fans on the front line it is at best irrelevant, and at worst unpalatable.
I drifted contentedly into the latter camp.
The incessant self-congratulation over the public address, the NHL-style foam pointers bearing the emblems of both sides, the mascot race unashamedly fixed
so both costumes could ‘win’. It wasn’t only unnatural, it was a pantomime.
This was an icy afternoon, cloaked in darkness with the floodlights blazing and the turf a piercing green.
What fans want in this indigenous setting is crunching tackles, flying clumps of turf and a game of football just about interesting enough to be angry about.
Or am I wrong? Perhaps this PR stunt happened to be the development we've all been waiting for. I doubt it.
Ratings:
Camp – 7 – he was annoyed to see his clean sheet spoiled. I enjoyed his blatant celebration of the Lewis’ thunderbolt; the Donny fans reeled, but I wonder what the neutrals made of it?
Gunter – 7.5 – solid display, complete with some exceptional overlaps.
Morgan – 7 – not the sponsors’ man of the match? Whose girlfriend has he bedded to solicit this indignity?
Wilson – 7 – several excellent interventions.
Shorey – 7 – the man knows how to play left-back.
Anderson – 6.5 - a busy performance, capped at 6.5 because of his ludicrous 70-yard kamikaze run. Can Main Stand fans please verify that he was screaming “save me, Lee”? Thanks.
McKenna – 7 – the terrier. Snapped at heels and kept things ticking over nicely.
Majewski – 7 – typical display, not consistently involved but dangerous when on the ball.
McCleary – 7 – fairly quiet in parts, but he worked hard and was rewarded as the visitors tired.
Earnshaw – 7 – if he plays, the goals will come.
Blackstock – 6.5 – personally I thought he looked rusty, especially because I’d grown very fond of the all-conquering, pre-injury Dexter. For some reason he was given man of the match.
Subs:
Adebola – 7 – the heavy goods wagon. A headache the Rovers defence did not relish after 75 minutes in the cold.
McGugan – 7 – four touches in about ten minutes, all of them wonderful.
McGoldrick - / - the game was over by the time he came on.
