A football club which came within months of Premier League football for the first time in a decade failed to buy a single player in the January transfer window, an inquest has heard.
Nottingham Forest FC, aged 145, from West Bridgford, collapsed without warning in early February 2010 after a long spell of almost perfect health.
Dr William McIntosh Davies told Nottingham Coroner's Court the club was ‘making really positive steps’ in the run up to its death and had even found itself ‘in a really positive situation.’
“As far as Dr Davies was concerned this young club was on the rise” he added.
The court heard that paramedics found the club on its knees at an industrial estate near Coventry and pronounced it dead at the scene.
An autopsy later revealed several square pegs had been forced into round holes.
“Basically the club had just run out of legs” Dr Davies said.
“The Incoming Stock Committee were handed a very long list of remedies, but it seems that at some point between Christmas and the end of January that list was lost.”
Mark Arthur, the club’s full-time carer, told the court: “We made valiant attempts to address points made on the list, but the remedies proved elusive.
“If Dr Davies is interested in arranging to borrow some of them in the short-term we are still more than happy to assist him.”
In his summary Coroner Nick Kerrs told the court he had ‘absolutely no doubts’ about the cause of the club’s downfall and recorded a verdict of suicide.
Ends
After two dubious performances and a familiar bout of internal turmoil, tonight’s game seemed somewhat ‘do or die’.
If it was, we’re dead.
Contrary to earlier reports we may even have been dead before the game started. Forest were present in body but not in mind, and the same applies to our travelling supporters.
The physical appearance of lumbering red shapes may have implied otherwise, but absolutely nobody from Nottingham turned up.
A 15-minute spell at the start of the second half brought faint promise as Coventry questioned their own solidarity. But our rhythm was cruelly interrupted by the referee collapsing beneath his beer gut.
What followed was sheer farce. Perhaps it’s an ardent, deep-seated sexism talking but I found his female substitute hysterically inadequate.
The six minutes of stoppage time represented compensation for half of what we were owed, and Coventry gobbled up another half of that as players eagerly writhed on the turf.
But we can blame nobody but ourselves. It was a dispirited, lethargic, sulky performance from a side that was second best all night.
The Championship is a frenzied place and in three weeks we may well have the champagne on ice again.
Blips are to be expected in such a marathon season, and even if it is a blip which destroys fall hopes of second spot we will scarcely have cause for complaint.
But it increasingly seems that our idle January will again leave us fretting over what might have been.
RIBs (Ratings in Brief)
Camp – 7 – spectacular save immediately before the goal. Couldn’t keep it out but wasn’t at fault.
Gunter – 6.5 – one too many sliced clearances, but a fairly steady performance.
Morgan – 7 – a creditable performance, thwarted by occasional aimless distribution.
Wilson – 7 – all at sea once or twice in the first half, but he’s not the reason we lost.
Cohen – 6.5 – a waste at left back, but immediately better-suited than Perch.
Garner – 4.5 – I don’t blame him, but there is nothing about his game which suggests he is a suitable winger. He hates his football at the moment and
couldn’t wait to leave the field, but has the season been so bad that the ironic cheers were necessary? Thought not.
McKenna – 5.5 – plenty of looping side-footers, spiralling into no man’s land. Has Ian Breckin returned as coach?
Moussi – 5 – his reluctance to move with the ball slowed us down at times and he failed in his responsibility to release the wingers.
Majewski – 6.5 – dire first half, but he found his tricks (and presumably got his head right...) in the second.
Anderson – 5.5 – a fairly anonymous evening.
Blackstock – 7.5 – worked well with limited resources.
Subs:
Earnshaw – 5
McGoldrick - 5
McGugan – 5
A word on our venue for the evening. The Ricoh Arena is the only stadium in the world which captures perfect silence and stalls the movement of sound. Ironic jeers from the home supporters invariably arrived three minutes after a chant or on-field incident, as if delivered by pigeons.
The leg room, however, I found exemplary.
This is what we don’t want in Nottingham if England 2018 gets the nod.
