Just back

Just wow ..what a game, what an atmosphere and what a club....and who said football would be boring under Hurst??...

First game back.  If Carlsberg did entertaining and winning matches, then this was it.

Last 2 Town goals equalised and won the game.  Have we ever scored 2 better goals in one half?

Great day out.  Echo comments already made.

I forecast the result (in a way) by talking in the car today about Forest winning their first European Cup.  They were 2 goals at home in their semi-final against Cologne.  This was 1979.  They drew 3-3.  

Cologne were very strong favourites to reach the final, they were German double winners. Forest were outstanding and won 1-0.  (Won 4-3 on aggregate, from 2-0 down at home, hence the link).  I went to the 2nd leg as serving in Germany in the RAF.  A very special game for any Forest fan or Brit).

Apart from 2 , possibly 3, absolute bits of rank bad defending on our part...and maybe a fortunate 2nd penalty I thought it was a pretty impressive performance and deserved win.
No shirkers or passengers in the side , only Bapaga looking a bit unsure but the rest worked and worked and worked to grab that game back.
That is what Hurst selects in players and instills in them and it paid dividends.
Some really nice passages of play as well, overdoing several times instead of getting the shot off but fantastic to see players happy to take and work the ball in right areas.

Last season we would have lost that, last season we wouldnt have got that second penalty or the rub from the officials...but then maybe the new board arent as tight as the old one and are happy to buy the officials  this season 🤣

UTM

I,d just like to say that the referee was the best ive seen for a long time at Blundell Park, i,d have him back for every home game any day.

First actual game I've been to in a couple of years due to all the 'demicy stuff going on. Felt like payback after the ifollow streams paid for last season and the best result I witnessed was the 0-0 with Colchester.

Second brilliant Saturday afternoon in a row.

To start with, I have to say what a difference I feel it makes to the whole matchday experience having proper food at the ground. It's already part of going to the game for me now, seeing which food outlets are there and where, and getting some top quality scran.

Onto the game. Played 4-2-3-1 which means we've started each of the 3 games so far with a different formation.

Started well. Didn't get a clear view of the early penalty incident to be honest but was good to get an early goal. Barnet eventually regrouped and I thought they looked like a decent side for most of the first half. Looked quite lively when in our half and at one point I wandered whether our one-paced left half of the back 4 (Crookes/Pearson) would need changing as they seemed to be getting around or through us on that side with their fairly quick players.

Despite Barnet giving a decent account of themselves 1st half, we actually looked very threatening ourselves. Was promising to see us counter attack very quickly a couple of times through McAtee, Sousa and Efete joining in too. Didn't get a chance to do that last week with Weymouth not committing enough players forward for us to be able to counter attack. We could and should have scored 3 in the first half. McAtee spurned a great chance sidefooting wide, Sousa had one saved and Taylor had one ruled out.

Link up down the right was good, with Sousa, McAtee, Efete and Hunt all central to a lot of decent football. On the left, Bapaga was ok but he did look like someone making their first competitive start. Played within himself and was quite safe, turning inside to pass infield each time and didn't really have a run at the full back. Whipped a great cross in just before half time though, and I think there could be more to come from him as he builds confidence.

Have to agree with mariner91 re:Coke I'm afraid. Thought he was off the pace a little bit at times. Last season he was very good in a 3 man central midfield and today it was a much different set-up in midfield with just the two in there. Hurst was also spot on in his post match interview about McAtee not quite dropping in as much as he should've done out of possession. Coke wasn't awful by any means, but he did struggle at times with the pace of it and Barnets mobility.

2nd half we undoubtedly upped the tempo. I'm sure they would've been asked to do that at HT, but playing at a higher tempo is someting that can definitely be influenced or helped by a good crowd. And once we were awarded the penalty in the 2nd half the noise went up, and stayed up. A really lively crowd gets the players buzzing and playing quicker. And what a pivotal moment that penalty decision was. I've very rarely seen a team lose their heads and capitulate from a single incident as that. Kewell lost his head and got sent off, and that almost set the tone for his players to just bottle it too. Yes they were down to 10 men, but that's no excuse for a team to lose their heads and give away a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3. I've seen Kewell's post match comments and he's acting like no team has ever avoided defeat after a red card and it was game over as soon as the lad was sent off.

Then it was just a matter of could we get the goals to win it before we ran out of time. Brilliant goal from Taylor after good work from Sousa (who looked more assured today I thought) was pleasing and helps psychologically knowing all our goals haven't been set-pieces/pens. And the Hunt free kick was excellent.

MOM

Normally its easy or lazy journalism to give MOM to a goalscorer, or the guy who scores the winner. And you often see it with the sponsors MOM at BP. But even before his match-winning free kick, I was thinking Hunt had been excellent and would be my MOM. I think this lad is a touch of class. Was impressed with him last Saturday and even more so today. He plays quickly, moves the ball on quick, makes good decisions (when to lay it off first time, when to recycle, when to take a few touches), is brave with his pass selection, tries to play forward, links well with people in tight spaces, gets the ball out wide with urgency, and always wants to get on the ball. Have we only got him on loan till January? If so I can see Wednesday pulling him back in January, either for themselves, or to send him to a League Two club if we're not having a meaningful season challenging around the top end.

Fantastic afternoon. UTM.

Quoted from Tommy

On the left, Bapaga was ok but he did look like someone making their first competitive start. Played within himself and was quite safe, turning inside to pass infield each time and didn't really have a run at the full back. Whipped a great cross in just before half time though, and I think there could be more to come from him as he builds confidence

Fantastic afternoon. UTM.

Great report Tommy. Bapaga in patches  looked dangerous  which is why I really liked  him. Give him time as you say and I think will be effective in the conference.

Quoted from Rick12

Great report Tommy. Bapaga in patches  looked dangerous  which is why I really liked  him. Give him time as you say and I think will be effective in the conference.

Bapaga didn’t do his defensive duties terribly well but he’s very inexperienced. Must be a tough call between him and Max. Also must be a difficult call to leave Clifton out on current form.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Bapaga didn’t do his defensive duties terribly well but he’s very inexperienced. Must be a tough call between him and Max. Also must be a difficult call to leave Clifton out on current form.

To be fair to Clifton having not seen a great deal of him but from reading what others say is a worker and I admire that. Having said that I was glad Bapaga got the start over him.Competition in the squad is a healthy thing and keeps standards up.

Today was a testimony to why Hurst signs players with the right attitude and application.

I’m glad we got the result as we did so many good things in this game, I lost count of how many times we got in behind them. If any striker is considering signing for us the recording of today would surely spark his interest.

The thing I liked the most was at 1 - 3 nobody was panicking on and off the field, which is a very different feeling at BP.

MOM - a few to choose from but McAtee for me. Mentions need to go Hunt, Efete, Waterfall and Souussa.

Overall good day, a day which will mean a decent turnout for the Wrexham game I hope.