Championship finished. Almost.

It’s great to see my Nottingham Forest at the 3rd line after all 46 fixtures. So now I am just right before the playoffs. I am little bit trembling because of very strong Blackburn there…

How Forest played spring matches

Look whom I managed to loan on March, 22!

Jonjo Shelvey

I thought $14.5K of additional burden to the Forest wage budget should be compensated by mastery of Shelvey on the pitch. Actually my greatest hope and intention was that he might help much during playoff round. The only problem I saw is that he had no time to blend to the squad… But I am sure you would support me in the decision to load this English wonderkid.

Latest matches

There were a lot of games of very different types:

0:2 loss to uneasy Charton;
the good win over the future Championship winners – Wolves;
another home draw with many missed opportunities, versus Leeds;
a weird deja vu game with Bolton. 3:3 score repeated under the same scenario as it was in the first season’s half;
devastating 1:6 loss which is described below…

Disaster match

I saw Sheffield uses two quite slow forwards Pecnik and Madine. Decided to put experienced Danny Collins to the squad therefore… What a mistake was that!

A catastrophic performance by all my defenders and goalie buried Forest in not the worst match if we take a look at such statistic parameters as Shots or Possession.

Nottingham Forest is a hockey team this season

Well, sometimes I feel my guys play hockey than football. Just look at the scores of several matches. We have conceded too much being one of the worst Championship teams with 72 goals in 46 matches. Luckily, my attackers have provided 86 goals. It is the best result in the league!

In spite of that, 3 last matches were played confidently without conceded goals! It’s a real achievement for my defence that has been making me anxious so much during season. Loaned goalie Jan Lastuvka displaced Lee Camp from the main squad and confirmed his level.

Forest players

First of all, pay attention to our excellent morale level before playoffs. It should help us.

As for the players, I don’t want to analyse much now because there’s going to be a complete squad review before the next season. Just want to single out a person who was the best perform in spring. He scored so many goals during the last matches… His name is Simon Cox!

Simon Cox

Form and some stats of Simon Cox:

Best Championship players including some of The Reds

And now some season statistics regarding the players. Here are some of the best from my club like Sharp, Cox, Ayala, Lascelles…

Goal scorers

Assisters

By average rating

Expectations about Championship playoffs

The almost superb morale level should help much during the last 2 or 3 matches of the season. I hope there will all three matches. Blackburn seems to be a playoffs favourite and the strongest team here. I am a little bit scared of them. Fortunately, Forest plays against Peterborough in the semi-final stage.