Make no mistake, Raging Bill had to reach very deep into the top hat for his latest trick.
Coventry will be seething; recoiling like a wet kitten. Their show-stopping display has yielded a two goal deficit while a slumbering Forest continue to bark outside the Premiership’s back door.
This is how a Billy Davies side really butters its bread.
Throughout the last three months we have strutted, strode and scintillated. But a team that holds its own at the sharp of the Championship is one that can growl, grunt and grind.
The visitors overran our midfield, hacked our decorous triangles into frenzied loops and forced Camp into several smart saves. But they left with nothing, and ultimately Forest will be disappointed to have not added at least a third.
With a new year looming, it is worth pondering the overwhelming influence Davies has had on Nottingham Forest’s fortunes.
Twelve months ago we were pondering the very real threat of becoming a yo-yo club between League One and the Championship; bobbing moodily between the scrappy and the insufferable.
Now we are towering ominously above all challengers. Teams are posting us points without even turning up to fight for them.
Credit to Coventry for rolling up their sleeves, but the net result is the same. Forest march on again.
It is going to be quite hard to stomach when the comedown eventually begins. Knowing Forest it will be a cataclysmic derailing and not a graceful bow. But then none of us really know Forest anymore, and none of us really know what is going to happen next.
All the more reason, in my view, to enjoy it while it lasts.
The several thousand supporters who shuffled out of the ground early – again – should be lapping up every glorious second. They’ll be the first to heckle when reality returns.
But to the travelling fans who sneered at our support: do not get carried away, chaps, at most Coventry games the Ricoh Arena looks like an empty bath and sounds like a doctor’s waiting room.
Oh, and you are indeed going down with Derby.
Ratings:
Camp – 7.5 – a few frenetic moments, but numerous saves and several excellent claims as he launched from his line.
Gunter – 7 – solid and tireless.
Wilson – 8 – a fairly dozy start to the game and he initially struggled with a rumbustious Leon Best. But his last-ditch lunges kept the sheet clean. Again.
Morgan – 7.5 – rock solid. Again.
Shorey – 7.5 – one slack moment, otherwise another solid performance and some flawless crosses into the penalty area. He’d get into any side in the bottom half of the Premiership and won’t be joining Forest – but he is more than welcome too.
Cohen – 6.5 – a lost lamb at times.
Majewski – 7.5 - industrious as ever, and his shooting star surge from deep in the Forest half laid on Earnshaw’s crucial opener.
McKenna – 6.5 – aberrantly sloppy. Not a two games in two days man at his age.
Tyson – 6 – half asleep throughout and ballooned his one-on-one into the second tier.
Earnshaw – 7 – a beautiful first half goal.
Blackstock – 7.5 – difficult to contain.
Subs:
McCleary – 7
McGugan – 7
Adebola – 8.5
Clattenberg – 3 – posing in his fitted shirt and surgically-transplanted quiff, he looked every inch the twat that he is.
