pauli Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 City Ground, Nottingham 15:00 Saturday, 18 Feb 2017 TODAY’S OPPOSITES Originally based in Burnham, Scotland, Nottingham Forest Football Club was controversially uprooted and eventually relocated in 1963 to their new home in The People's Republic of the East Midlands, following a fruitless campaign to obtain planning permission on land in nearby Dunsinane. After years struggling to survive in the lower divisions, Northern philosopher Brian Clough was appointed as boss. On his arrival, Clough promised to introduce passing football, boldy asserting that “If God had wanted us to play football in the sky, He'd have put grass up there.” But things did not go well, and after the club narrowly escaped relegation in the 1970/1 season he grumbled “the passing football's not working - the bloody tree-trunks keep getting in the way”. God may not have wanted him to play football in the sky, but Clough clearly thought the idea had potential. As ever, he got his way. Nottingham Forest began the 1971/2 season as the only club in Britain to play their home games on a purpose-built pitch on top of the Forest canopy. This worked pretty well, although fetching the balls from wayward free-kicks took aaaages. Immediate success was to follow, with the club soon obtaining two European Cups, later exchanged for British Cups because of the manager's dislike of the metric system. Forest began to show a relentless desire to win trophies, and over the next ten years picked up the League Cup, the European SuperCup, the Zenith Data Systems Cup, and the TV Times award for best-dressed female newsreader. Suspicions of bribery, cheating and making up results began to gather force. At that time, there were very few televised matches, so the reporters at the game were paid to report that Forest had won. Raised ambitions saw Forest buy Trevor Francis, billed as the first one-million pound player. Unfortunately, Francis never actually played a game for the club, because the jungle harnesses required to raise the players onto the canopy pitch were not strong enough to handle his enormous weight. Similar problems were encountered years later when the club signed Nigel Jemson, the worlds second one-million pound player, and Alan Rogers, the world's first player to consume his entire weight in ice-cream in one sitting. There are no famous players in the current Nottingham Forest team, and their past players, embarrassed at having played for a team with more negative press about them than Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot combined, refuse to acknowledge they played for the club. As a result, Forest's current leading scorer is a fleet-footed winger called Thingy, the club captain is Whatsisname, and their goalkeeper is You know, that tall lad with the big nose. MATCHDAY THINGS Official Matchday Pie: Kebab. Official Matchday Drink: They have beer of sorts in Nottingham, so 16 pints of that. Official Matchday Song: ‘Just A Groove in G” by Wilbur Bascomb… Full-back Eric Lychee returns from a one-match ban and is expected to start for Forest. Fellow defenders Michael “Pineapples” Mancienne (hamstring) and Matt Mills (groin) are doubts while Chris Cohen (groin) is back in training but will not feature. Sheffield Wednesday striker Steven Fletcher could start after returning from suspension as a substitute for the 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers. Defender Tom Lees (knee) has missed three matches, but is nearing a return. Head To Head ▪ Nottingham Forest have lost their last four league games against Sheffield Wednesday - they have not lost five in a row against them since a run of seven between 1908 and 1911. ▪ The Owls have won their last two league visits to the City Ground, scoring five goals and conceding none. ▪ Wednesday's last five wins at the City Ground have seen them keep a clean sheet - they have not won a game in which they have conceded at the City Ground since September 1992 (D1 L7 of the last eight they have conceded in). ▪ Sheffield Wednesday have had three successive wins in the Championship - the last time they won four in a row in the competition was in April 2016. ▪ Carlos Carvalhal's side have conceded only six goals in their last 11 league games and have kept seven clean sheets in this run. In fact, they have scored in a league-high 27 games this season. ▪ Nottingham Forest have lost the most points from losing positions this season (23) and have lost a league-high five games in which they have held a lead. KING CARLOS’ PEARLS OF WISDOM “The mentality in England is completely different to Portugal, for example. “In this country, the teams never give up, always having the beans on toast. I was in the stadium for Rotherham v Blackburn last week and the way that Rotherham played, in Portugal a team would never fight like that. In Portugal, they maybe give up in that moment but they are still fighting a lot and playing good football, they have a vibe and want to survive and it’s something I appreciate. All the teams here are like this, it’s why we don’t have any easy teams and of course you must understand that when one team are near the bottom, and when they are a goal down and take risks, they put six, seven or eight players near your goal. So even with the best teams in the world, if you have seven attackers against your four defenders, what will you do? You must come back with your wingers because with long balls and second balls, something can happen. This is something we must understand, in that moment the good teams try to manage the situations and if they have a chance with space, they can score on the counter attack. If you don’t act correctly, if you are winning 2-1 in the last ten minutes and you stay with four defender, four midfielders and two strikers and the opposition put six in attack – even if you are the best team in the competition, you must understand in that moment the problem the other team can create. You give a correct answer or you lose points. We are understanding what we must do. We prefer playing at Hillsborough but I must tell you when we play away, the fans are always 100% behind the team. We feel a big presence from our fans when we play away, maybe because they are all together in one place and they make a lot of noise. But we feel all the time a lot of support away and it puts the players excited to the game. When we play in this environment, our players want to respond to the way they push the team. It’s something I expect on Saturday. We need that support and we will do our best, like we do all the time. We know what Nottingham Forest can do but I know my players love playing away. It’s a game that, in this month, we know it’s one of the more dangerous games we have but we’ll be ready to the game. We understand exactly what we must do to win points and improve what we missed in the last game. We have a brand in the Championship and we go to all the games trying to win.” MINTYNESS We are here to fight… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage owl Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Nice Pauli. We are here to fight, like it. Come on Wednesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOOTIE AND THE SHIT TU Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 2-1 to The Wednesday Rhodes and Bannan Just a bloke, who used up all his luck in one go when he met his wife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage owl Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Win these next 3 games and the table will look very different. Believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flo Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Come! On! Wednesday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kelliesleftnut Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 £10 on Thingy for first goal. happy days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elyowl1 Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Oddly I would take a draw here if it guarantees the next two are wins however I expect a 2-0 win Rhodes and McManaman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeroswfc Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 COME ON WEDNESDAY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalamunda Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Brilliant Pauli. We're back in the world of wingers, overlapping full backs, crosses into the box and forwards (or 4th choice centre backs) scoring goals. It's like a dream int it? 0-2 to the Owls. Scorers could be anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogers Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 3 points - don't care how. Let's keep the run going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S36 OWL Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Brilliant OMDT Pauli confident for tomorrow , 3 pts and onwards and upwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazowl55 Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 7-1 Wednesday. Revenge for 95. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRADDO Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Excellent again Pauli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Regulator Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 (edited) Not there tomorrow but praying for a win. How do we get there? I don't care! UTO Edited February 18, 2017 by The Regulator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spencerowl Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Brilliant Pauli - Come on Wednesday lets make it four - think I have re-grown enough finger nails to do it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nebneeb Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 In an era of fake news and alternative facts, I'm happy to see some truth is still out there. Obviously if we put in a decent performance we will win. We're due one. But if we don't perform our luck is due to run out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wonder Spaniel Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 I was a bit slow on the uptake , wondering why there was a cake in the thread for a bit! Got there in the end! Top OMDT as always. I hope that I'm not disappointed, as I'm expecting a win tomorrow (and Tuesday!). 0-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauli Posted February 18, 2017 Author Share Posted February 18, 2017 There should always be a cake in the Official Matchday Thead. We are Sheffield Wednesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJH1867OWLS Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Great OMDT Pauli nervous about this game and I don't know why! Maybe I'm just used to Wednesday snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the past heart - 5-0 Wednesday win head - a very nervy 1-0 Wednesday win RELEASE THE LLAMA WE DRESS FOR THE OPERA SOMETIMES WE DRESS LIKE GLADIATORS RHODES WILL STILL SCORE FOUR COME ON WEDNESDAY!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themaskedowl Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 (edited) This is going to be a very interesting match up. Away from home and I don't think we should underestim... ... ...oh I'm sorry. Couldn't maintain it for a whole post. We will win. That is all. Cheers Pauli. Excellent work. Morning all. Hope you're keeping well. Edited February 18, 2017 by themaskedowl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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