Nottm Forest v Scunthorpe United

Saturday, October 7, 2006

Football League One

Nottm Forest :
Smith, Curtis, Morgan, Breckin, Bennett, Southall, Perch, Holt, Commons, Lester, Holt (Harris 57)
Subs not used:
Pedersen, Thompson, James, Hughes

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Crosby, Foster, Hinds, Williams (McBreen 84), Taylor, Sparrow, Baraclough (MacKenzie 85), Morris, Keogh, Sharp
Subs not used:
Lillis, Mulligan, Byrne

SULSESC REPORT

by Mark Borrill at City Ground

RECENTLY, at Bournemouth, with United sitting in mid-table, I realised that within three seasons of unrivalled success, we could be playing Barcelona in the Champions’ League.

Conversely, a similar period of unmitigated failure could lead to an FA Trophy tie at Burscough.

Given the above scenario, and if you had never before seen the Iron in action, following our demolition of Forest, we are off to Barcelona in the not too distant future.

United played with passion, pride and commitment. Laws’ adherence to the doctrine of passing and movement was fully exemplified and, indeed, Morris was to be found on both the right and left flanks and finally completed the game at left-back.

Either Laws is a tactical genius or young Morris got lost. Let’s be generous and say the former.

Admittedly, Forest were absolutely awful once they fell behind but even before that they had only raised their game to mediocre.

Most surprisingly, they showed little passion, totally failing to even start the second-half by at least putting some pressure on United.

Perhaps Forest have had too good a season to date to be able to respond to adversity but whatever the reason, United deserved this scoreline.

In contrast to our opponents, we showed that this side of ours can genuinely play open, attractive football. We also possess the strongest squad that any of us can remember with a real strength in (relative) depth.

If I concluded now, dear reader, you would probably think the future is rosy but please refer to the opening paragraph before the voices in your head start chanting ‘We are Going Up”, etc.

Just cast your mind back a month previously to Boundary Park, Oldham, where we were woeful and definitely heading in the direction of Burscough. So take heed, enjoy the moment, but remember we are still more likely to be visiting rainy Lancashire than sunny Catalonia.