[jjamez]

 

Shall we begin?

Its that time of year once again. Yes santa is once again coming down our chimneys (good luck with that fat lad!) and the presents will once again be pilling up under the tree. But most importantly its the festive football fixtures, with town welcoming troubled club Nottingham Forest to Fortress John Smith. Judging by the comments on the twittersphere, there is set to be over 20k yorkies packed into the stadium roaring on monday, with quite possibly 20k alone backing the boys in blue and white.


Ho Ho No...just no. bah humbug.

The feel good atmosphere has returned to the club after three wins in three, including that dominant first half away at norwich. There was the possibility that that feel good factor was going to be damaged when it emerged earlier this week that kaiser wagner was wanted by wolfsburg, who sit at the wrong end of the bundesliga. However, that has been quashed by Wagner and Hoyle, who have both issued a statement saying that Waggers is staying in Yorkshire, whilst to some, Hoyles statement also read as a statement of intent, which could make it a case of christmas coming late, with the january transfer window coming just around the corner.


Thats more like christmas

Monday also sees the league season reach its halfway mark, so whats the story so far? well for town, it needs not be said, we are the story of the season so far, reaching well above where we should be and also holding our own whilst up there, forest on the other hand started the season off quite well but have dropped off rather drastically but we'll get to that later on. Lets look at who was in the top six on boxing day over the last few seasons and look at where they finished at the end of the season.

26/12/2012
this was a season where a team who were not fully expected to go up actually managed it. on boxing day cardiff city were 5 points clear of Hull in second place. the top two would finish in the same order come the end of the season. town meanwhile were sitting in 15th position and we would have taken that at the end of the season, although we know how that season finished...tara peterborough!

boxing day

1st cardiff             50points
2nd Hull                45points
3rd Middlesborough 44points
4th Palarse            43points
5th Leicester         38points
6th Watford           37points

15th Town             31points

at the end of the season

1st cardiff            87points
2nd hull               79points
3rd watford          77points
4th brighton         75points
5th palarse           72points Promoted via playoffs
6th leicester         68points

19th town            58points

middlesborough tailed off dramatically adding only 15 points to their tally, finishing in 16th position, whilst brighton snuck in from 10th position. if i remember correctly town finished with mark robins in charge of town who whilst only being 10 points off the playoffs, only really survived by the skin of their teeth.

2013-2014 season
i feel like i have commited this season to the back of my memory and i couldnt really tell you anything interesting about it.

boxing day

1st leicester     45points
2nd burnley      43points
3rd QPR           42points
4th Derby        41points
5th Forest       36points
6th Leeds        36points

14th town       28points

end of the season

1st Leicester    102points
2nd Burnley       93points
3rd Derby          85points
4th QPR            80points  Promoted via playoffs
5th Wigan         73points
6th Brighton       72points

17th Town         53points

So looking at that its the season where Leicester dominated and ran away with the league title. whilst forest and leeds both fell away and couldnt stay with the pack. forest finished the season 11th on 65 points (so they still added more in the second half of the season than they did in the first half!) and leeds finished 15th on 57 points.

2014-2015 season

this was the worst season for town back in the championship and i am basing that on the quality of play, we lost the first game of the season 5-1 at home to bournemouth or something like that. it was a long season for a town fan.

boxing day

1st Bournemouth    45points
2nd ipswich           44points
3rd Derby              42points
4th Middlesb          42points
5th Brentford         40points
6th Watford           38points

19th Town             25points

end of the season

1st Bournemouth   90points
2nd Watford         89points
3rd Norwich          86points promoted via playoffs
4th middlesb         85points
5th brentford        78points
6th ipswich           78points

16th town            55points

true we finished our highest since our return but it was not a season to write home about and in fact it really showed us a glimpse of what was to come. ipswich and watford switched places in the top 6 whilst derby dropped out and finished 8th on 77 points. a 3-0 loss to reading ended hopes of a playoff place on the final day of the season.

2015-2016 season

The summer saw town lose the likes of smithies and butterfield to qpr and derby respectively, with neither really being replaced. it was a summer that saw the pursestrings tightened and by october powell had left the club to be replaced with wagner. his side tried to play the pressing game, but fitness levels were not what they should have been and the side struggled, but there were positive signs.

1st derby         47points
2nd middlesb     46points
3rd hull            44points
4th brighton      44points
5th burnley       38points
6th ipswich       37points

19th town        24points

end of the season

1st Burnley      93points
2nd Middlesb    89points
3rd Brighton     89points
4th Hull           83points promoted via playoffs
5th derby        78points
6th Wednesday 74points

19th town       51points

the side didnt make a change in final position, mainly due to some heavy defeats at the end of the season. ipswich finished 7th in the league.

its noticeable that at least one team falls away out of the playoff places from boxing day, but a good sign for town is that the team that was 4th come the end of boxing day was still in the playoff places come the end of the season. We just have to make sure we are 4th come monday night!

Now moving onto our visitors for monday.

The mist is well and truly rolling in from the trent at the city ground, in more ways than one. After a scoring spree at the start of the season, they lost a key young talent in Oliver Burke who left the reds to join german moneybag side red bull leipzig.

Oliver Burke...he has wings

Manager Phillipe Montanier was appointed in summer and has had sporadic success on the continent at real sociedad and rennes. He was a goalkeeper for sides such as Caen and Toulouse.
Montanier was promised to funds to sign new players, however, much to the dismay of the fans that promise was never fullfilled and the relationship between owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi and the fans became even more strained. the fans were already losing patience after the clubs failure to 1 sign players, 2 pay for the players and 3 pay the bills. The club had already been placed under a transfer embargo over the failure to pay bills and had been in court numerous times over said problem. they also had fall outs with clubs like peterborough over the signing of britt assombalonga, with the payment of certain sections of the deal being either late or not paid at all.

Forest in safe hands?

since these troubles there have been many parties interested in purchasing the club from the Kuwaiti owner, however, none came to fruitition. there have been many rumours about why the deals have fallen through, ranging from wanting a salary which totaled more than the squad combined, that would also include bonuses that matched the players. other rumours were in regards to finances and how much of a percentage he would keep of the club.


potential owners included a greek man who owns olypiakos. this would be the man who has been up in court in regards to blackmail, match fixing and organising the bombing of a bakery owned by a referee who hadnt given a decision his way... another rumoured owner was red bull, who have since claimed they are not interested in any english based club.

Maybe there was something with that bakery...?

Forest are in advanced talks with an american consortium led by John Jay Moores who owns San Diego Pardres and also tried to buy Everton. Its all gone quiet on that front but a deal is expected to be completed by january with manager Montanier expected to keep his job.

In terms of performances of late, the team has been up and down, beating ipswich, barnsley and 9 man Newcastle in quick succession, before losing the east midlands derby against well derby and also losing against Wolverhampton. the side currently sits 17th and some fans fear they are at risk of being dragged even further into a relegation battle.

Now i reckon its customary to have a played for both and like normal, i am going to give some of the easier ones and let you find the harder ones! so in no particular order...

Jack 'the helmet' Hunt

The full back made strides as an attacking full back out town before being sold to palarse. after suffering injury the defender went out on loan to forest before eventually being sold to sheffield wednesday

lee peltier

Another fullback who had two spells at town. The first spell was rather successful, joining town from yeovil before being sold to leicester city. after spells at leeds and a loan at forest, he rejoined town and was made captain before he left for cardiff

radi majewski

the little polish midfielder joined on loan from forest and failed to live up to expectation due to one reason or another. at forest he had more success, with a lot of it coming against town.

muzzy carayol

the winger who cannot cross...he spent the first half of last season on loan at town and was rather indifferent, he was sent back to boro before going out on loan to leeds. his contract was torn up in the summer and joined forest on a 3 year deal. he has yet to endear himself to the fans and when i have seen him on the telly he has yet to beat the first man with a cross...

Joel Lynch

the rolls royce defender who had a dodgy clutch. he was the utility player at forest playing centre half, left back and left wing on occasion. he joined town on a free transfer and was sold in summer to qpr and replaced almost immediately by chris schindler.

To say the reds didnt spend a huge wad of cash in the summer doesnt mean they didnt sign no one. they made a few signings that have been just as indifferent as their form.

some of the notable signings include patjim kasami who once played at fulham and also represented switzerland at the euros this summer. the midfielder has been lambasted in the local press by former player kenny burns for not performing up to standard. burns also hit out at muzzy.


another signing was aposiltos velios who used to play for everton, the striker signed from olympiakos in deal thought to have been ochestrated by the man wanting to buy forest. it is thought he may be leaving in the winter window. another striker in the form of nicklas bendtner and he too has not lived up to the billing that he brought with him


The forest squad still has talent including the likes of britt assombalonga who is thought to be fit again for mondays fixture, they also possess the talent of henri lansbury who is sought after bu clubs such as the illustrious birmingham city and watford.  they also have pushed through players from their youth squads like ben osborne, matty cash and joe worrall.


JJ's one to watch is neither Lansbury or assombalonga but is midfielder ben osborne. the midfielder is essentially the sort of player that matches towns specifications in that he is a willing runner and will harrass the player in possession constantly over the course of the game. he also pops up with goals and assists meaning he is a player that will have to well watched by hogg for 90 minutes.


In terms of town they have welcomed back joe lolley and mark hudson into the fold however, only hudson may feature on monday, it may still be too early for lolley to make an appearance in the match day squad, his chance will probably come in the fa cup against port vale. however i would expect the same squad that played norwich to be the one facing forest with a couple of changes to the side with probably michael hefele coming in for stankovic.

Hopefully we witness a festive treat with forests defence being rather leaky at times it may be the perfect time for town to finally score more than two goals in a fixture. although there is never a bad time

happy christmas and it is now over to you

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one, jjamez.

Can I just say, the one to watch, especially by the ref, is Lansbury. Because he's a cheat.

One for the older ones who played for both. Now assistant at Burton, Gary Crosby.

[MNTerrier]

Hello folks Been away for a while for various reason but thought id throw my two penneth worth in

Played for Both
Jamie Paterson
Craig Armstrong
Brian Laws
Grant Holt
BIG ISH
the Legend Phil Starbuck

Tom Johnston , played for Forrest and managed town

[theo_luddite]

Top thread jjamez, a reet riveting read. I've left Muddled England for the duration of the jollies and arrived in Halifax,  cold wet and windy, as is the weather and the first pint of the evening.  

Hope everyone has a Beezer of a good time, Town put in a table Topper of a performance (or 3), you all have a reet good Beano on Xmas Day and everyone looks fair Dandy in those Town chrimbo ganzies.

[theo_luddite]

Just seen that the big fella upstairs has claimed Rick Parfitt to add to his Rock 'n' Roll end of year Hootenanny. That long day out in Brum earlier in the year was even more worth the money now. Bit of a Down Downer that one.

[jjamez]

Murdoch sports international did an ultimate boxing day league which was to show which teams perform best on boxing days. Manure top the table whilst town sit 5th. Mondays guests sit 7th. Shame it counts for nowt. Surely those boxing day trips to Carlisle damaged everything.

[MNTerrier]

if town win tomorrow , it will be the first time we have won 4 games in a row since october of the 2011-12 season....the season we got promoted

[MNTerrier]

statistically speaking town are basically twice as good as last season .
at 23 games last season, town sat 19th on 24 points after recording only their 6th win of the season , a 3 -1 win against preston ( incidentally i was at that game and met Wakey and Mitzi)
today they sit 4th with 13 wins and 42 points ...more than double the number of wins and almost double the number of points
they are also only 9 points away from the total they achieved last year, 51 points

[sloppyattheback]

Dominant performance, Mooy in control & Hogg everywhere V a poor Forest team and good to see them sent packing.

As usual we didnt threaten anywhere near enough in the area and created few shots or clear changes, looked like an own goal on first showing then a bizarre OG with their lad just sticking his boot out to a low cross, put it in and gamble I guess. The scoreline always gave Forest the hope they could sneak something right to the end. DW shored it up throwing Cranie on for VLP late who was really bright again, would dearly love to see him crash one home.

Great holiday crowd, good atmosphere and most should return on Saturday to try follow up these 3 pts. Got to put Blackburn to the sword early and maximise points, I felt the Forest lot never expected a result and were quiet for long periods and kind of going through the motions.

[Lord Snooty]

Like Sloppy says, great performance without looking too threatening. Nice to see Lady Luck is still smiling on us. Important to keep this run going and get six points from the next two games.
As for Forest. Garbage!