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Wednesday 13th December. The win against Crewe 10 days ago was vital to even contemplate the possibility of survival albeit against mediocre opposition, whilst the win against Wolves last Saturday against supposedly better opposition showed that Town do perhaps have some fight in them. Now, a win against in-form Nottingham Forest at the City Ground would show that the bid for survival might not be quite such a pipe dream after all. Once again I contented myself with the coverage provided by Mr Crawshaw as there is no way I could make it to Nottingham as I don’t finish work in Bradford until 6.00pm. How I wish I had been able to witness this one, as promotion chasing Forest were soundly beaten by Town in front of a crowd of over 28,000 swelled by a £5.00 entry fee for this game. Only about 750 of this number were supporting the Terriers but this makes victory so much sweeter when you’re so heavily outnumbered. Fit again Jon Dyson was restored to defence allowing former Nottingham Forest player Craig Armstrong to resume his midfield duties at the expense of Kenny Irons, otherwise the line up was much as expected. Once again this was another game of two halves, not that there was anything lacking in the first half performance, just the goals. From the off it sounded as though Town played with real spirit and purpose and were determined not to let the hard work put in over the previous two home games go to waste. Chances were at a premium in the first 45 minutes, but in the battle for superiority Town fought for every ball, knocking the home side out of their stride and began to dominate proceedings. If the fixture had been played on either of the two previous attempts they would probably have folded meekly, but their new workmanlike attitude is making them a different proposition. I was happy with 0-0 at half time and would probably have settled for this as the final score, but the game began to open up in the second period and Nico Vaesen had to be alert to smother a Ben Olsen effort on his goal line. Just 4 minutes later Town took the lead with loan man Peter Ndlovu using his pace to excellent effect. A long clearance out of Town’s defence was chased downfield by Ndlovu who made no mistake blasting a first time shot straight past Dave Beasant from around 20 yards out. I always get twitchy when Town take the lead as they always seem to be vulnerable defending a lead, but this time it was different as they took control of the game and doubled their lead just 4 minutes later. A Simon Baldry corner was met by the head of Jon Dyson whose powerful header was spilled by the Forest keeper and Kevin Gallen finished the job off from close range. There was much debate at the time whether the ball had crossed the line before Gallen finished the job, but whoever the scorer really was didn’t matter as Town looked to be heading for an extremely unexpected win. I could hardly contain my joy another 4 minutes later when Town took a 3-goal lead. Following a free kick towards the area Kevin Gallen was given too much space and time by the shell shocked home defence. He had ample time to control the ball and then turn before lashing a shot into the back of the net. Three goals in each of the last three games is such a turnaround from the gloomy days of October when it looked as though they might never score again so this was amazing. The question now was how many more could they score? Unfortunately, the pattern of a goal every 4 minutes continued after 69 minutes with a score for the home side from Andrew Reid that set the Town supporters nerves jangling. Having taken a commanding lead Town weren’t in the mood to throw this one away without a fight. The defence fought hard to contain Forest who had woken from their slumbers, and Nico Vaesen had to be on his mettle to deny efforts from Reid, Olsen and Bart Williams. It was not one-way traffic however and Ndlovu had two glorious chances to put the game beyond reach in the 75th and 87th minutes but his cool in front of goal seemed to desert him. Like Saturday, Delroy Facey was brought on for the closing quarter of an hour or so to disrupt the opposition with his non stop running, and he too had a great chance but his effort was directed straight at Beasant in the Forest goal as the game neared it’s conclusion. Most of the 28,000 crowd must have left with their chins on the floor after they probably expected an easy 3 points in their bid to maintain a play off position. It was great to hear the cheers of the 750 over the deafening silence of the home faithful. After being dead and buried Town have lifted themselves off the bottom of the table, and with Grimsby and Stockport only a couple of points better off, the quest for survival is starting to look as though it could be achievable. Saturday’s opposition, Portsmouth are 9 points ahead of us in mid table. Now if we can beat them… Let’s not get carried away, but it’s nice to be able to look at the league table again without wanting to throw myself under a speeding train. Having said that, with the current crisis on Britain’s railways you’d be lucky to see a train!
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All words and thoughts by Chris except where stated.
A big thank you to Machala for putting up with me doing this and Ian for his support and my Mum for her proof reading.
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