JOE RALLS' GOAL FROM A NOTT'M F FAN'S PERSPECTIVE ...

[Steve the Tea]

I trust you will find of interest this view of Joe Ralls' goal from the eyes of a Nott'm Forest fan.

" 'This club’s dying on its arse,' I said. And Mick, who’s normally a picture of optimism, didn’t even look at me. With his mouth fixed tight, he just nodded. 'One thousand cuts,' he replied. And nothing more.

What’d happened, minutes before, was this: trying to be better than he actually is, Armand Traoré had coughed up the ball at his own corner flag. It’s the sort of thing defenders do, when they come to your club on a free transfer, and haven’t played regular football in over a year.

The ball was crossed in to a Cardiff forward, who Thomas Lam should have been marking, but wasn’t, because he’d just gone barrelling fifty yards forwards and lost the ball. He did that because – and let’s be honest here – he’ll never, ever be a Championship centre half. He doesn’t seem to know any better.

None of Lam’s teammates had dropped in to cover him, because they’re all too young, or cheap, or new, and because none of them seem to know any better either. Twenty-seven goals in fourteen games says as much.

In a pinch, Stojković went for the ball feet-first. Goalkeepers will do that when they’re free, and when they’ve just spent two years playing in the Israeli league. It doesn’t make him bad – far from it. It’s just the nature of the beast. It’s what you get with cheap.

And the ball looped up off his knee, and slowly, gently, onto the head of Joe Ralls, and that made it 0-2. It was simple, and obvious, and dreadful.

Nobody talked. Stojković smacked the ball high into a sharp black night, back towards the halfway line. Red shirts were bunched there, in twos and threes; fists balled against their hips, breath pluming. Brooding, and silent – none of them talking.

And those thousand cuts; they wept. Blood, everywhere: from that bargain basement back five, slung together from Zwolle, and Haifa, and Toronto, and Villa’s reserves, and QPR’s reserves; from the abandoned Directors’ box; and from the stands, which aren’t just hyperbolically half-empty these days, but mathematically so. 16,500 people came on Saturday night. In four years, Forest have lost over 6,000 fans.

From the acres of bare red seats; gallons of thin blood."

[The full article can be read here: https://thelovingfeeling.com/2016/10...thousand-cuts/ ]

StT.

[bobh]

Is he aiming for the Booker prize?

[blackrock bluebird]

Sounds like us before Neil took over.

[Cyclops]

16,500 people came on Saturday night. In four years, Forest have lost over 6,000 fans.

err.......based on attendance figures, we have lost roughly double that in four years.....