Match Report

Not the greatest of journeys to an away game with the last 10 miles to the City Ground taking two hours following a spate of accidents on the M1. The chaos caught out the team bus on the journey from their hotel and they arrived at the ground just 40 minutes before kick off. Many Swans fans had not made the ground by kick off.

Roberto Martinez made just the one change with Tom Butler dropping down to the bench for Andy Robinson. Forest were without Junior Agogo who is still involved with Ghana in the African Nations Cup.

Forest had lost just once at home this season and after having the weekend off would undoubtedly have been fresher. The Swans were playing their ninth game in January.

Side- De Vries, Rangel, Monk, Lawrence, Painter, Anderson, Britton, Bodde, Robinson, Scotland, Bauza. Subs- O'Leary, Tate, Allen, Butler, Brandy

Unfortunately due to the traffic chaos I missed the first twenty minutes but I was reliably informed by Jim White and Paul Smith (Dai's son) that Swans had had the better of the opening but Forest had created a couple of chances. Paul Anderson had been replaced by Tom Butler after picking up an early injury.

The remainder of the half continued in the same vein. Swans played much the better football with often six or seven players involved in moves with wonderful passing and movement. Forest played a much more direct game with their game all too reliant on the pace of Nathan Tyson and the strength of Grant Holt. With Garry Monk and Dennis Lawrence standing up to Holt and Angel Rangel keeping up with Tyson, Forest's threat was almost nullified.

Forest probably had two or three strikes on goal with Dorus seeming to save all with his legs.

On the half hour, Andy Robinson had a terrific shot palmed away by Paul Smith (not Dai's son) in the Forest goal. The keeper had no control where the ball was going and fortunately for him it fell to a Forest defender with several Swans players following up.

Andy Robinson had a further chance after a poor punch clear by Forest keeper Smith from a corner. The ball wouldn't quite sit down for Robbo and he snatched at his shot which flew inches over the bar.

On the stroke of half time Jason Scotland bamboozled Forest centre back Wes Morgan just outside the box forcing the defender into a rash challenge. Andy Robinson's free kick beat Smith all ends up but floated inches wide of the post.

Swans went off to a terrific reception from the 1200 or so travelling Jacks who had again been treated to a fantastic display.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first but Forest seemed to get even more men behind the ball. The game was following a similar pattern the fixture at the Liberty with Forest seemingly happy with a point and Swans playing the better, more cultured football.

Swans never let Forest settle on the ball with defenders, midfield players and to be fair Jason Scotland and Guillem Bauza in attack hunting in packs to close everything down. Forest continued to try to counter this with the long ball but the back four were alert to this and swept up tidily.

Chances were few and far between in the second half. Swans played great football right up to the edge of the Forest area but lacked invention from there. Forest often, again had eight men behind the ball.

Despite losing the midfield battle Colin Calderwood switched from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 for the last twenty minutes and this seemed to give Forest more impetus. Neil Lennon came on for them and was at least holding his own in the middle of the park.

Febian Brandy replaced Jason Scotland for the last 7 minutes and Scotland looked far from happy to be substituted.

Predictably Forest came on strong late on and they created their best chances of the game in the two minutes of injury time. But Swans weathered the late storm to secure another great point.

Once more this was a terrific team performance. It is a measure of how far we have come when you can look at the opposition and feel there is not a single player on their side they you would want in our team and this was definitely the case tonight.

Finally, as we were leaving the ground and passing the jubilant Swans fans boarding their coaches in high spirits I heard a couple of pearls of wisdom directed at the Swans fans for them to mull over on their long journey home. The first was the rather predictable ' go home and s##g a sheep but the second made me chuckle… ' Charlotte Church is a slag'.

Ratings -

De Vries 8 - Little to do for long periods but solid and dependable.

Rangel 9 - Absolutely superb. Defended brilliantly and restricted Tyson to long range strikes. Great support to Butler going forward.
Monk 8 - Strong in the challenge and distributed the ball well.
Lawrence 7 - Did well but didn't always look comfortable on the ball.
Painter 7 - Solid in defence and supported Robinson well down the left.

Anderson - I'm afraid I missed his contribution.
Britton 8 - All action, ran, ran and then ran some more.
Bodde 8 - Absolute rock. Always made himself available.
Robinson 9 - Superb, made his markers life a misery all night.

Bauza 7 - Good movement and helped out in midfield when needed.
Scotland 8 - Never stopped running. Unlucky a few times with defenders getting the bounce of the ball in their favour.

Subs-

Butler 8- When we lose one outstanding winger and bring on another you know things aren't going too bad.
Brandy 7 - Just a five minute cameo.

Nottingham Forest 0 Swansea City 0 - Match Report - Peter and Bethan Charles

The first half was evenly and keenly contested between two sides looking for a win. The Swans played the more cultured, passing game and had the lion’s share of possession over the half. Occasionally they reached the heights of fluency which we saw against Doncaster, which at times had the home fans stunned into admiring silence, but without creating so many clear cut chances. Robinson and Bodde had decent efforts which were comfortably saved, and one excellent Robinson strike seemed to be deflecting into the net before the home keeper stuck out a leg to keep it out with the Swans fans already jumping in the air to celebrate.

Forest had their share of chances too, and twice Dorus had to make excellent low saves from fierce drives – one Tyson effort in particular bringing the best out of our keeper. Forest also had the knack of delivering dangerous whipped crosses into our box, which our back four did well to repel, sometime relying on a slice of luck here and there. At half time we were more than worth our point, but knew that the game could still go in any direction.

The second half was a more stilted and rather less fluent affair. There were two main reasons for this. Firstly, Forest had clearly been ordered to get tighter to our front two and close us down more quickly – which to their credit they did to good effect, which made us look less dangerous. And secondly, Forest tactically decided to play like the away side – they kept their shape, played deep and tried to draw us in, rather than pushing men forward. In other words it was they who wanted to be the “parasites” last night! Of course, a point was more use to us than to them, so we were having none of this. We kept our shape well and so the second half became more of a sparring match. We had a couple of good attempts – one from Butler seemed goal-bound but was deflected over the bar.

Forest also looked dangerous in patches without creating too much – other than a couple of weak headers were comfortably handled by Dorus and again a few dangerous whipped crosses. Most of Forest’s shots in this half, particularly from Tyson, were so wayward that the away fans behind Dorus’ goal were laughing so much we could barely catch the ball as it flew towards us. We did have one scare in the dying moments when Tyson cantered past Rangel into the box and slipped a low ball across goal which evaded the run of Holt, much the latter’s disgust and amusing spat ensued. It was noticeable that our team was tiring in the last twenty minutes – not surprising after five tough games in 14 days, and so it was a little but backs to the wall in the dying minutes. But at the end we had finished ahead in possession, attempts and corner-count and so deservedly took a well-earned and valuable point.

DeVries - 8 Some important stops

Painter - 7 Tidy but perhaps could have done more to stem the flow of crosses

Rangel - 7 Pretty much as above, our full backs understandably did not push forward so much in this game

Lawrence - 7 Battled hard and gave little away, although Forest still managed to get in a few free headers on goal.

Monk - As above, but marshalled the defence well

Anderson - went off after five minutes with a leg injury; hopefully not too serious

Robinson - 7 Terrific first half in which he showed excellent touch and was dangerous cutting inside; faded in last half hour

Bodde - 7 A weaker game by his standards although he still came through the midfield tussle with honours

Britton - 8 (MOM) Was everywhere - strong in the tackle and dangerous going forward; at one point was in our box clearing a corner! Just lacked the killer pass.

Bauza - 7 A great first half but faded - beginning to look like a natural first choice partner for Scotland

Scotland - 8 Not a game in which he looked that dangerous in terms of scoring, but as front man, holding up play and bringing others in he was strong and effective



Butler - 8 Beginning to look the real deal on the flank. Skilful and dangerous.

Brandy - Only on for a few minutes.



Great vocal support also from the travelling jack Army which spurred the team on throughout. I got the impression walking back to the car that the Forest faithful were as pleased with a point as we were - which says an awful lot about how far we have come. This has been a very satisfying week and the table doesn’t lie. A long way to go, but credit to all for the excellent response in the last two weeks.


Nottm Forest: Smith, Chambers, Wilson, Morgan, Bennett, McGugan (Lennon 72), Clingan, Thornhill (Sinclair 66), Commons, Holt, Tyson.
Subs Not Used: Breckin, Perch, Davies.

Swansea: De Vries, Rangel, Lawrence, Monk, Painter, Anderson (Butler 15), Bodde, Britton, Robinson, Scotland (Brandy 84), Bauza.
Subs Not Used: O'Leary, Tate, Allen.

Booked: Monk.
Att: 21,065
Ref: Darren Deadman (Cambridgeshire).

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