It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the ground and we joined the sizeable
Abion contingent in the away end, sitting as far to the right as we could so
on the side rather than behind the goal.
Forest may have had 28,000 at the match but at times the place was echoing to the Albion songs and chants. It was the noisiest and best away support I have heard for a long time and made me so proud to be an Albion fan.
It was hard to tell how may Albion fans turned up as you could in-fact pay at the ticket office, so I would guess at around 1,200. The sad Forest fans ended up singing for about 2 or 3 minutes after each goal, then resorted to the Mexican wave.
It was superb when we did our own mocking version. I imagine they will be back to 20,000 when they have to pay more than #5 as most sat like statues, not singing, doing nothing and so we sang 'You should have gone to the Library' or 'It's the worst support we've ever seen'.
As for the game, we started with Oatway and when he was on the pitch were
3-0 down and over run in midfield. I have to say that Forest are the best
side we have played this season and they had several great chances to have
us 4 or 5 down at half time. Kuipers pulled of a blinding save before
Forest capitalised on the rebound, and the ball went through Kuipers legs.
I thought the second goal was offside, but Johnsons strong run and shot was
too powerful for Kuipers who got his hands to the ball but it hardly stopped
it at all and it was in the net.
The third goal looked easy and at 3-0 I was dreading a 5 or 6 nil, but luckily forest eased up and we bought on Webb and Chippy and what a difference. Watson and Oatway went off and IMHO are better for us off the pitch.
Chippy played forward passes and linked up with Sidwell and Rodger. Sidwell struck in a great goal after a neat set up by Webb, who IMHO should have been on at half time as Brooker and Hart played well, but had nobody to aim for when they had chances to cross or pass in the box.
Jones then slammed in a 30 yard beauty into the top corner, and we had Forest rattled. Earlier he had made England U21 Dawson look a mug by playing the ball round him and collecting it by running round him.
We had a corner in the last minute of the 4 extra minutes at 3-2, had every
player but 2 in the box, so tried a short corner that went wrong! It shows
the new found spirit and belief, but why do we have to be 2 or 3 down before
sparking into life.
My MOTM was Jones, the highlight was the noise for us the fans, and it was
good to see the passion displayed by the team.
Saturday, another tough one!
Mark R
My player ratings
Kuipers - 5 (probably expect too much but I thought he could have had first
2 goals!)
Jones - 8
Cullip - 6
Pethick - 6
Mayo - 7
Watson - 3
Oatway - 3
Rodger - 5
Sidwell - 7
Hart - 7
Brooker - 7
Subs
Chippy - 7
Webb - 7