By CCFC Sid
August 27 2003

Forest hadn't won away in seven, and CCFC hadn't won a D1 match at home since Boxing Day - somebodies poor run was likely to end, and as usual it wasn't CCFC's.... CCFC started brightly, and only minutes into the match Morrell managed to escape an attempt to hack him down, and was past the last defender (all-be-it just past the half-way line), but the referee failed to play an advantage and awarded CCFC a free-kick (Which came to nothing). Minutes later the referee slightly made up for this by breaking up a Forest move, getting in the way of a pass as they looked set to attack.

CCFC looked vulnerable at the back, especially on the left side of defence, with Warnock being tormented repeatedly, though thankfully any chance Forest created failed to hit the target. When they did look like having a shot, they found the fairly immaculate Callum Davenport in the way.

Morrell looked to get a CCFC attack under-way wide on the left, but was hacked down by the highly-rated Dawson - though had Morrell's first touch been better, the Forest defender wouldn't have got near him anyway. Dawson became the second Forest player to go in the book, with Leeds loanee Steven McPhail having been shown the yellow card minutes before.

When CCFC did go on an attack they appeared far to bothered about trying to walk the ball into the net (passing repeatedly, rather than just having a shot at goal), and Barrett was guilty of said crime after 20 minutes, when he got behind the last Forest man, but, rather than test the keeper hit a cross-come-shot that troubled the corner flag rather than the defence.

A fairly disjointed first 45 minutes from CCFC was followed by a 15 minute spell of pressure after the break that saw Forest fail to cross the halfway-line - then they ran up the pitch and scored. Minutes later they scored again - game over. Whing had scored his first ever CCFC goal within 30 seconds of the re-start (and was booked for celebrating), which saw a decent tune belted out at Highfield Road to celebrate (`House Of Pain's' `Jump Around' - Quality!) and it was one-way traffic for a while after that - but, as with last season (and so many others), "sitters" were squandered, and three points disappeared off up the motorway.

Morrell hit a screamer wide on 58 minutes after great work from Suffo, and minutes later Forest went ahead. Reid re-gained Forest's lead on 61 minutes, and a minute later Louis-Jean walked past the left side of CCFC's defence and hit the angle of post and bar with Shearer beaten. A big Forest shout for hand-ball was ignored on 64 minutes, and a minute later Forest scored their third after a terrible clearance from Shearer. CCFC tried to claim there had been an obstruction, but in keeping with the rest of the match, the referee ignored the appeals. There were, once again CCFC claims for a penalty or two, but Suffo already appears to have had his card marked by referees, having a fairly clear looking appeal waved away.

Barrett showed the absent Gary McAllister how to take a free-kick after Suffo was felled on the edge of the area, with his fine effort beating Ward in the Forest goal, but hitting the bar rather than threatening to bring CCFC back into the game (His range of corners were far better too).

Suffo was booked minutes later for winning the ball off a Forest defender, and this decision was greeted by a CCFC fan running onto the pitch and making gestures involving his groin region in the general direction of the referee. Fair comment, me thinks....

Keith O'Neill managed to deflect a lot of talk away from a disappointing defeat, having managed to earn some of his extortionate wage by coming on as a substitute for seven full minutes (Greeted by chants of "Who Are You?" from CCFC supporters), before going off injured - you could not make it up. His first contribution had been to give the ball away in midfield, and ended up as a Forest corner. Way to go, Keith....

Both `Teamtalk' and Nick Owen on `Midlands Today' made reference to the fact it was CCFC's first goal at home for four months - though not actually playing for three of them might have something to do with that too....