Nottingaham Forest-Tuesday 9th August 2005-(h)

[Andy W Taylor]

Has anyone seen the match highlights? Although it was probably harsh and not really deserved, the ref had no option but to give penalty and red card the keeper. Jorge slid in with his right foot, the goalie goes in 2-FOOTED and catches him in the chest. Doesn't matter that he plays the ball first, or that it wasn't deliberate, it counts as serious foul play and the consequences are automatic.

Full credit to Merson for realising 5-4-1 wasn't working and making the switch to 4-4-2 at half time. But can someone explain why he made the double substitution of Ossie and Jorge when they "scored" their 2nd? Only a few minutes left and we needed to keep our shape and nerve so why throw in 2 cold players (1 making his debut)?

[WFC_Rob]

But can someone explain why he made the double substitution of Ossie and Jorge when they "scored" their 2nd? Only a few minutes left and we needed to keep our shape and nerve so why throw in 2 cold players (1 making his debut)?

We went on to win the game so the substitutions worked.

[Andy W Taylor]

I wouldn't say they worked as such, just that we managed to hang on so they didn't go against us - but they could have at that stage in the game. Both Ossie and Jorge were looking comfortable, and were playing a big part in winning and holding ball to disrupt the inevitable Forest pressure.

Kinsella didn't hit the ground running in the Ossie role and gave away at least 1 free kick and wasn't as effective as the player he replaced. Lorossa did a slightly better job and had 1 good run to show he might be decent player for us.

But the fact remains that at that stage in the game we didn't really need fresh legs, just to keep on doing what we were doing to keep Forest at bay prior to their dodgy goal. They were obviously then going to throw everything at us to get a 3rd so we needed stability. Maybe 1 substitution to reinforce the backline but not a double change![/quote]

[Jorge14]

Ossie was absolutely shattered Andy! I thought it was a good decision to bring on Kinsella when he did - but that aside, is it not a massive show of our strength in depth to replace one bloke with 400+ league appearences with a second bloke with 400+ league appearences and 50 odd international caps? Collectively, our squad more have more international caps than most in the Premiership - which is justification enough for the likes of Kinsella and Staunton. That extent of experience doesn't grow on trees.