With the vomitous taste of a 6-0 rooting off Birmingham still lingering in the mouth, the SBA endured another heavy defeat, this time at the hands of a disciplined and motivated Forest outfit.
Despite having a good turn out of players, it was a bit of a makeshift SBA side on the day, with many debutants and the return of a couple of long-term absentees. As I remember, the squad consisted of:
Myself (Danny Mac)
Tiger Tim
David
Pete
Banjo
Steve
Mick
John McCutcheon
Lewis Hand-Shandy
Lewis' mates, Toz, Justin and John
Big Jonn Holmes
Jonn's mates Chris and Rob
Edwin
... and Ali, several minutes after everyone else.
Apologies to anyone I may have left out but, hey, I've been drinking to forget! With all the personnel above, the side kept changing, so there's probably not much point in my listing the starting line-up.
It quickly transpired that Forest were completely dominant on the air, which put a great deal of pressure on our defence. After some close shaves, we fell behind after Forest got two free headers from a corner and their striker nodded the ball past Pete. Another goal for the home side was scrambled home soon after.
After this came a bit of a controversial award to the SBA: we were given a corner after several minutes' bickering about whether it ought to be a throw-in. Fortunately, the lengthy delay gave Edwin the time he needed to blunder forward from defence. A pinpoint cross onto the boy Britney's head, he deftly butted the ball against his mate on the Forest team and then authoritatively claimed a penalty. The ref concurred, I struck the ball home from the spot with "Dirty Sanchez" celebration accompaniment and we were back in the fixture, just before half time.
That we were 4-1 down by the time we turned round was largely due to my own calamitous stupidity inside my own penalty area. Percentages? You can keep them.
A bit of a rethink at the break and the SBA emerged in an unfamiliar 4-4-2 line-up to try and make headway into the Forest lead. In actual fact, we didn't show a great deal more stability at the back, but the new shape allowed us to use possession better in the second half and it was this that allowed us to stem the tide, for a while at least.
The Forest defence still held firm, however, and our fledgling comeback was brutally executed by another couple of Forest goals- the one that really summed our day up was when we survived a handball shout in the area, only for the Forest striker to produce a spectacular overhead kick which left Pete with no chance.
We managed another goal in the shape of a glorious finish from the bye-line by Mick, with his left foot, floating the ball over the bemused Forest custodian, into the far corner. Not something you see too often but some welcome glad tidings for the embattled SBA. Forest were really shitting it now, but managed to settle their nerves by walking their seventh into an unguarded net, to the great despite of Lewis, who had donned the gloves and pulled out a couple of fine stops.
That pretty much rounded off the game, although I later drew comfort from the fact that, if we'd had the same monstrous good luck enjoyed by the City, we could probably have won 2-0. My thanks also to everyone who turned out on the day, and particularly those unwary debutants who rose to the occasion and played in the same excellent spirit that I've come to expect over the years.
In this week's Shooters and rooterstm, Pete has elected to throw himself on his proverbial sabre, nominating himself rooter, despite the fact that I don't think he could really have done too much about any of the Forest goals. I must admit, I was awaiting his decision with trepidation. Our shooter, for the second time this season, is Midfield Mick, who crowned a battling performance with a goal of the highest quality (and the lowest probability...)
Due to staff difficulties, we are unable to provide our popular Russ' Scapegoat feature this week ;-)