Forest celebrate life of Brian with Watson winner

WHAT would Cloughie have said?

Fifteen years since his death, Forest paid tribute to Brian Clough.

Fans turned up in the kind of green top Clough used to wear and there was a fantastic round of applause on 15 minutes from a full house – Barnsley fans included.

A picture of Cloughie, with one of the two European Cups he won, dominated the ground on the big screens.

Forest’s ambitions are more mundane these days – simply to get back into the Premier League 20 years after they left it.

Current form and current manager

Sabri Lamouchi suggest they might just do that.

They were lucky to get away with this one against a Barnsley team that played well, though. But Forest are unbeaten in nine games, in the Championship top six and will go top if they win at Stoke on Friday night.

Barnsley, with barely a point or a goal to their name, made it trickier than expected and were well in the game until Ben Watson scored in the 56th minute.

The final pass was from Matty Cash but the architect of the goal was Joao Carvalho, a little Portuguese creative midfielder Clough would have loved to manage.

“It was a great victory, fantastic victory,” said a relieved Lamouchi.

“Barnsley played well and we suffered.

“That’s three points and a clean sheet for the second game in a row now. It is a very good time for us.

“We couldn’t put three passes together but finally did it for the winning goal.

“This Championship league is so, so tough.

“The marathon only started a month ago and we are in the top six of the table.”

Lewis Grabban has scored as many goals himself this season as Barnsley have managed in total.

And if he had taken two more chances in the first half it would have been much easier for Forest.

It might have been worse because just before the break it took a good save from Brice Samba to stop Barnsley going ahead with an effort from Luke Thomas.

And midfielder Thomas also had a belter saved in the second half.

Barnsley manager Daniel Stendel said: “It was a disappointing result but really a great performance from us.

“We just needed to score.”

Watson’s winner was his first goal for three and-a-half-years.

As Clough would have asked: “Hey, young man, what kept you?”