COOPS STUNG BY BUSY BEES
And then faded before relegation began staring them in the face Travel-sick Forest are given another harsh lesson
TOUGH place to learn, the Premier League.
As Nottingham Forest have found out this season – the hard way.
One victory on their travels – against bottom-feeders Southampton – suggests that for all the determination, organisation and verve shown at the City Ground those traits are lacking on their travels.
So, if owner Evangelos Marinakis and his cobbledtogether bunch were to start picking up the points necessary to stay up, Forest needed to pay heed – and start doing something about it.
Instead of being taught a lesson, they needed to learn some.
Sadly for them, they just didn’t in west London.
For 83 of the 90 minutes, they managed it without blemish.
But one slack moment fed into another.
And bang – another precious match had been and gone.
You can’t do that in the Premier League.
And you certainly can’t do that against Brentford.
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Forest’s campaign has been nothing like stable. It started poorly, picked up brightly
Stadium is the modern-day equivalent of a date with Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang.
That isn’t meant as a slur, by the way.
During his midweek postmatch interview after defeating Chelsea, Bees boss Thomas Frank said that his club don’t get credit they deserve.
He’s spot on.
What owner Matthew Benham has presided over is little short of a footballing miracle.
They know what they are and revel in upsetting the applecart.
As they savoured victory at Stamford Bridge, Frank picked eight of the players who he had celebrated promotion with to the top flight.
Selection
Even yesterday, there were seven on show.
That continuity in selection and familiarity has enabled the Bees to hone their system – to find a way to win while the big-hitters throw cash at problems to make them go away.
Armed with Marinakis’ money, Forest see themselves as one of them.
But their campaign has been nothing like stable. It started poorly, picked up brightly and then faded before relegation began staring them in the face.
Manager Steve Cooper has sufficient players. But he hasn’t had time to bed them in to any coherent whole. What he needed to do in west London was find a way – any way – of keeping a clean sheet and stopping Brentford from doing what they’re good at.
And, dear reader, where Frank & Co excel is that they are physically robust, athletically strong, compact as a unit and well-drilled at set-pieces.
The crowd are packed in, have bought into the methods that have brought success and are prepared to be patient.
Even when they aren’t at their best – as they weren’t yesterday – they have belief that something will happen.
For long periods, Forest did what they could, nullifying the hosts’ threats, making their defensive runs, getting into shape quickly, being brave when the ball was slung into the air.
Chances
And they had to make the most of any chances that came their way.
The goal they ended up scoring – and then defending for their lives – didn’t even fall into that category. But it did prove that if you win battles in the opposition area, even if you don’t mean it, that good things sometimes happen.
And when the ball fell to Danilo at the end of a turgid first 45 minutes, it appeared they had indeed picked up something valuable in football’s school of hard knocks.
But then they made two mistakes too many as the clock ticked down.
Cheikhou Kouyate was a smidgen late in the tackle and Ivan Toney fired a free-kick goalwards from 25 yards out.
The defensive wall broke – the ball went between two yellowshirted defenders who turned their back on it – and keeper Keylor Navas was unable to stop it dribbling over the line. Desperate to cling on to a point, Forest retreated – but they made yet another error.
Shoved
Renan Lodi was shoved out of the way by Josh Dasilva and the sub fired through a ruck of players into the bottom corner.
Fine margins, small errors. But in the Premier League – as Nottingham Forest are finding out – they cost.
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