IT WAS not just the Blackburn players who were back in form at Ewood Park on
by admin
IT WAS not just the Blackburn players who were back in form at Ewood Park on Saturday. True to managerial type, Brian Kidd came up with the right result when asked to assess the eight matches that will determine the Premiership fate of his rollercoasting Rovers "We're just looking at the next one," he said. Middlesbrough: Mustoe, Vickers, Deane, Festa.Man of the match: Townsend.Attendance: 21,468.. Substitutes not used: Gascoigne, Beresford (gk), O'Neill.Referee: S Dunn (Bristol). Bookings: Forest: Louis-Jean, Rogers, Bart- Williams, Palmer.
Substitutes not used: Beasant (gk), Gough.Middlesbrough (3-5-2): Schwarzer; Festa, Vickers, Cooper; Stockdale, Maddison, Townsend, Mustoe, Gordon, Deane, Ricard (Beck, 59; Armstrong, 87). Dougie Freedman struck his third goal in as many games but nothing else worked for Forest.Goals: Ricard (30) 0-1; Freedman (37) 1-1; Deane (87) 1-2.Nottingham Forest (3-4-1-2): Crossley; Edwards, Mattsson (Porfirio, 87), Chettle; Louis-Jean, Palmer, Bart-Williams (Bonalair, 74), Rogers; Van Hooijdonk; Freedman (Harewood, h-t), Shipperley. After all, Middlesbrough had not beaten them in 24 league meetings spanning 26 years. But when fate has decided to trample on your head such things count for little.Forest made two serious defensive errors and paid for both, Hamilton Ricard catching Jesper Mattson out of position to give Bryan Robson's side the lead and Brian Deane taking his chance when Steve Chettle's header left Christian Edwards in trouble. Rumour has it also that they have sounded out Brian Little, said to be disenchanted at Stoke, and Tottenham's director of football, David Pleat. Whatever the truth is, Atkinson is unlikely to quit.On Saturday, Forest might have hoped history would protect them. Rumour has it that Forest have offered him pounds 500,000-a-year to mastermind promotion from the First Division.
Victories for Southampton and Blackburn on Saturday leave Forest isolated at the bottom.If Forest now know where they will be next season, Atkinson does not. They were weak-willed, he said, had failed to reveal even a modicum of mental strength and had handed Middlesbrough victory. "I'm furious," he said, "because of the way we played in the last 20 minutes. The game was there to be won."It was such a contrast to the previous Saturday, when Forest had won at Wimbledon. Failure hurts his pride and Forest's miserable response to his arrival is getting to him He berated his players. He liked it even less when Sheffield Wednesday replaced him with Danny Wilson. He was very cross, he said, and those assembled did not disbelieve him.
