Forest mark life of Brian

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, there was a fantastic round of applause on 15 minutes, Barnsley fans included, from a full house.

A beaming 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 suggests they might.

They were lucky to get away with this one against a Barnsley team that played well.

But Forest are unbeaten in nine games, in the top six and will head the table if they win at Stoke on Friday evening.

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 22-year-old Portuguese creative midfielder Clough would have loved.

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

“Barnsley played well and we suffered.

“Three points and a clean sheet for the second game in a row – 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.”

Lewis Grabban has scored as many goals himself this season as Barnsley have managed in total – and if he had put away two more 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 from Luke Thomas.

Barnsley boss Daniel Stendel said: “It was disappointing result but a great performance from us. We just needed to score.”

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

As Clough would have asked:” Hey, young man, what kept you?” NFOREST BARNSLEY 1 ......... Shots on Target .........5 7 ........ Shots off Target ..........1 8 ................Corners ............... 10 6 .................. Fouls .................. 10 1 ................ Offsides ..................1 67.5 . Passing Success % .. 70.3 388 ...... Total Passes ........ 397 47.9 ..... Possession % ...... 52.1 43.2... Territorial Adv % ....56.8