Pearce should have been given more time, says Forest fan Seat Pitch

Rival Lines

Match preview
Nottingham Forest v AFCB
Blogger Interview: Seat Pitch

I had the pleasure of asking Seat Pitch blogger Pat what he thought about Dougie Freedman's appointment and how Nottingham Forest might go about the match with AFCB. Seeing how the team played against Wigan and Bolton at home it looks like AFCB have a big job on their hands.

CC: Do you think Stuart Pearce had run out of ideas and were you sad to see him go?

SP: Injuries to key players, like last season, have hurt us. But, of course, we shouldn’t - and can’t - be dependent on the likes of Andy Reid, Chris Cohen and Jack Hobbs. That said, Pearce seemed to struggle with a Plan B and, ultimately, that seemed to be his downfall.

Many Forest fans, myself included, had hoped it would work - and the club would finally have some stability. Any manager should have a whole season before being judged and I think Pearce deserved that. The man is a live, breathing City Ground legend - this article on Seat Pitch pretty much sums it up:

CC: Forest have not had the best of luck in picking their managers of late. Does Dougie Freedman stand a good chance of getting it right or is there a more deep routed reason why the team has not been challenging at the top of the Championship?

SP: There is something deep-routed at Forest that seems to have hampered our chances for years… maybe it’s the expectation, maybe it’s the history, maybe it’s just the lack of a real plan for progress. Actually, it’s largely that - at the moment we’re just chucking money around and changing managers and hoping we’ll get lucky. Freedman could be the man we need, or it could be another false dawn - we’ll find out if he lasts beyond the summer.

CC: You have had your fair share of injuries this season do you think that has hampered Forest's progress much?

SP: As I said, losing Reid, Cohen and Hobbs early in the season halted our impressive start - without them it became apparent we had no leaders on the pitch, no creativity without Reid, no energy without Cohen and no defensive resolve without Hobbs. And now we’ve lost Britt Assombalonga for a year as well.

CC: Are you disappointed about the way the club has been handling its finances that resulted in an embargo (now lifted) and failure to meet FIFA's Financial Fair Play rules?

SP: We’ve basically ignored FFP for the past three seasons thinking we’d somehow get promoted and pretend it didn’t exist. Except it’s caught up with us now and we’re under a transfer embargo until (at least) January 2016. As you can imagine this a little bit inconvenient for a club desperate to get promoted. The financial results due this week won't be pretty.

CC: Can you see some positive things about the team that you like since Dougie Freedman has been brought in - the Wigan game was a good home win wasn't it?

SP: The Wigan game, albeit against poor opposition, showed what we can do over 90 minutes - something we’ve struggled to do all season. Likewise, the 4-1 win against Bolton on Saturday was one of our most complete performances of this campaign. Players have responded positively and there’s definitely been a lift (new manager bounce?). Ten points from 12 so far is obviously an impressive start, as is 14 goals from four games.

CC: How about the Blackpool match. A 4-4 draw highlighted some of the problems in the team didn't it?

SP: Losing Jack Hobbs injury (again) highlighted our defensive weakness - Freedman brought Danny Collins back in from the cold, seemingly a good move as we’re also missing Wilson and Mancienne at centre-back. But conceding an injury-time equaliser against nine men shows our lack of concentration at times.

CC: Forest have only got a goal difference of +1, so is the defence the main reason for Forest's slip down the league?

SP: Until mid-October we were conceding fewer than a goal per game. Obviously that changed after Hobbs’ injury and our midfield’s inability to track attacking players. But after scoring for fun, we seemed to forget where the net was - so it’s a combination of both really.

CC: Can you still make the play-offs?

SP: Fawaz thinks we have a ‘big chance’. I think we have a remote chance; one that involves us gaining close to 30 points from our last 14 games - some of the other teams are going to have to slip up.

CC: Do you think the selling of Karl Darlow and Jaamal Lascelles to Newcastle last summer was in the best interests of the club or a big mistake?

SP: In reality, it’s what Championship clubs need to do - bring though academy players and sell for big money. At the time it was claimed it would help with FFP, but then we spent the money on Michail Antonio and Assombalonga. So it was both in the best interests and a big mistake - if that’s possible.

CC: Do you expect a big exodus of players in this summer?

SP: I hope not! We are still allowed to sign players but there’s tight restrictions which make it very difficult to bring quality in, unless they’re on a free transfer. Burnley and West Brom bid for Henri Lansbury and Antonio respectively on deadline day but if we lose them we’ll struggle to replace them.

CC: Forest raised their game when they last played AFC Bournemouth and got a win. So is it a game that you think the Forest fans particularly look forward to when they play the Cherries?

SP: Given your position, and our need for points, I’m not sure it’s a game most are looking forward to. Although we often raise our game against teams above us in the table so who knows?

CC: Which player do AFCB have to look out for in Forest's team when they play?

SP: Given Assombalong’s injury, Antonio is the obvious answer - ungainly at times, he’s also fast, direct and exceptionally strong on the ball and responsible for eight assists and 10 goals this season.

CC: What is your score prediction for the game?
SP: I’ll be optimistic and go for 2-1 to Forest.

CC: It was good to hear from Pat at Seat Pitch, although on recent results I think AFCB are more worried about finding ways to get three points than Forest these days and I make Forest big favourites for this game. I saw Michail Antonio's goal against Bolton at the weekend - strength, power and a controlled finish - incredible! I might be wrong but maybe Jack Hobbs is Pat's favourite player by the amount of references to him. But Forest will be a good team even without him and, Reid, Lansbury and Assombalonga. 

Eddie Howe needs a reaction from the stupor that has fallen on the Cherries and while the atmosphere at the City ground will be great another defeat for the Cherries now would be very damaging, but something we might just have to cope with. While I hope for an AFCB win, I believe a draw would be a good result in this fixture.

Cherries done with 'two sucker punches'

Eddie Howe was complimentary of his players even though they let slip a 1-0 lead at home against Nottingham Forest. While he would have been confident of success after the first half chances that his team created, the second period looked to be all set up for a Bournemouth home win when Callum Wilson put the Cherries up, but it was not to be.

It all looked good and ordered at the start.

Eddie said "We were dominant from start to finish. I thought we were very, very good. We should have been two or three up by half time, no doubt. We had great movement, some great interplay in and around the box. It was just the finishing touch that was missing.

"We got the goal and you thought that was that. Forest hadn't offered any attacking threat and then we got hit with two sucker punches."

That might be a bit unflattering to Forest who could have found themselves with a huge deficit before half time but they managed to keep Bournemouth's strikers out, and they were always in the game when AFCB could not get a two goal lead. I felt that Pearce changed things around well at half time and got his ball winners more involved in central midfield. But what troubled AFCB was firstly a set-piece and when the central defenders don't make contact with the ball the wing backs don't always seem to win the headers. Even though Assombalonga did not look that comfortable he managed to get enough on the ball to head it hard and down into the ground and whether Lee camp thought Eunan O'Kane would get a clearance in is hard to tell, but Camp was not able to get across in time. It looked a soft goal to me and one that could have been defended better.

The second goal was also one which Eddie Howe said cold have been prevented as it came from a cross that he had been explaining in training all week that the team must try and block. So while the Cherries are not going to stop every cross, it is that ball which goes over the central defenders and leaves a striker against a full back facing goal that is so dangerous. This time Adam Smith could not stop Matt Fryatt who had a pretty simple task to score if you watch the clip back.

The Cherries defence had been good in the first two matches but not without some moments when Huddersfield and Brentford could have scored. In those matches they got a way with a few things, but against Forest they only offered a couple of chances and Forest took them both. What made it annoying was that AFCB fans know that Forest are capable of that, but for most of the game the opposition did not look like they were going to get such a chance, let alone two great chances to score! In the end, you have to say things balance themselves up because AFCB really got out of jail against Brentford but got nothing for a great overall performance against Forest. It's a strange old game.

Forest have a point to prove

In my mind Nottingham Forest are the most difficult side for Eddie Howe's men to take on so far this season. That is not any disrespect to Huddersfield or Brentford, but Forest are an established Championship side with deep pockets and a new manager who is out to restore the belief and footballing heritage of a club that has some how not been able to get back to the Premier League. What is more, even with a new squad and Stuart Pearce now at the helm they will still be smarting from the fact that they only get a single point from the two league games against the Cherries last season.

Nottingham Forest warm up at the Goldsands stadium last April.

Stuart Pearce has been busier than most in the transfer market and even last week he was adding to the squad with Robert Tesche who was released by Hamburg. I was most impressed with Britt Assombalonga last season at Peterborough as he had a powerful menace about him as he went about his work in the forward line and he will not give defenders a moments rest. Still £5.5m is a hefty price-tag and a club record which he will have to handle. Pearce has also brought in some season professionals such as Matty Fryatt who was signed from Hull City on a free transfer and Chris Burke who was one of Birmingham's better players last season. Another winger on the club's books now is Michail Antonio who moved from Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday in August, Lars Veldwijk from Dutch side SBV Excelsior and defender Michael Mancienne signed from Hamburg SV should be back in the side this week, so Pearce has added depth to the squad. 

Other signings include the loan moves of Jack Hunt from Palace, and more free transfers - Luis Laing, Danny Fox and David Vaughan. Meanwhile, Pearce was unhappy about Jammal Lascelles and keeper Karl Darlow being sold to Newcastle even if they are loaned back for the season. 

But the talk this summer has been on whether the club can hang on to Henri Lansbury who struck a wonder goal against AFCB at the City ground last year. Burnley have had one bid turned down but they could come back for the 23-year-old who currently has a knee injury. The list of players that have left the club over the summer though is pretty long and it may take Pearce a while to get the new players to click. For that reason it might be a good time for the Cherries to play Forest who did win their first game against a Blackpool side that was pretty much conjured up on the day.

The player that I still believe is a diamond for them is Jamie Paterson who showed just how good he was around the December time when he hit a rich vein of form and basically tore West Ham apart in the FA Cup. Still he was only an unsused sub against Blackpool and played 57 minutes mid-week against Tranmere Rovers, and again was an unused sub for the Bolton draw. Pearce has lots of choice but perhaps that will be his weakness in who to play if he does not know his best team yet.

Look out for my contribution to Seat Pitch's website where I answer a few questions about the Cherries and fan's hopes for the season and AFCB's prospects against Nottingham Forest.

AFCB and Forest - something in common

You can look up and down the leagues and see clubs that have appointed managers who frankly have no great connection with the club or the local people what so ever. No matter how hard they try, many of those managers just never quite fit in and are not taken to the hearts of the fans. But every now and again you can look at a club from the outside and see that the manager has not only played for the club but is part of it and knows everything about it from the boot room to the person who orders staples and the programme seller who stands out in the rain. 

Forest and AFCB both have managers who not only symbolise their club spirit but actually breathe it in and are often the first thing fans will think about when they think of when their thoughts turn to their club. I know it's a good thing too. Whether Stuart Pearce does well or fails at Forest in his current term as manage,r the fans up there will always love their physco just as Bournemouth fans will always hold Eddie Howe in the highest esteem. But why does it work out well at some clubs and not at others when former players take up the manager's robes? Some are definitely better fits than others. Even when some mangers know the problems at a club it is not always so easy as to be able to sort them all out.

Stuart Pearce has already had a bit of a spat with Forest chairman Fawaz Al Hasawi over player sales and there is no guarantee that any chairman and manager are not going to fall out over such things. Yet, Pearce was quick to move on and heal any wounds. The new era for Forest has not really taken hold yet and even last spring when they might have made the play-offs, Stuart Pearce felt family commitments meant he could not take up his post until this season. Is the Forest record still broken or is it about to find its song again? If the reception that Pearce received at the City ground is anything to go by on the first day of the season against Blackpool we know that Pearce will have all the backing singers he needs from Forest's huge fan base to mount a challenge. He has had a good start with four points from six, but now it gets difficult.

Both Stuart Pearce and Eddie Howe have the words to rouse football fans and make sense of what is in all honestly a mad pursuit that we all love. But isn't it best to share that mad world every match day with a manger who cares just like you? I think it is, and for that we can at least say to Forest fans we have something in common with them.

Championship managerial changes are afoot

The chairmen are getting jittery again at some clubs. While Southampton in the Premiership will grab the headlines in their search for a new manager, there are others now in the Championship that are looking to make a change starting with Leeds Utd. The Yorkshire club will be looking for something different having seen Brian McDermott fail to get any consistency with all the problems at Leeds going on in the background. Forest have already opted for Stuart Pearce. Blackpool are looking for an inspirational manager, while Charlton have also made another change at the top with Bob Peeters from Waasland-Beveren, a Belgium side, coming in for Jose Riga. For AFCB though it is stability that we need and Eddie Howe remains the perfect fit.

New challenges for Eddie at AFCB should hold his interest.

I am looking forward to seeing what Eddie can do with some money behind him. I believe that is a challenge that Eddie is enjoying as he has not had such a transfer kitty before and while it is far from the biggest in the Championship, it is something that the Cherries have not been able to even dream about in past years. While Eddie Howe can see that there is more growth to come at Bournemouth he will hopefully remain in place, even if other clubs would like him to join them.

Each time there is a managerial vacancy though Eddie Howe's name tends to pop up which is a little disconcerting. As a bright, young manager though it should not be surprising that he is automatically connected to such vacant positions. But there is much to keep Eddie at the Cherries and he has plenty of time to ponder further moves down the line once he has built up his stock. That elusive title is something I believe drives him having missed out on the League Two and One titles and he is building a team that should aim be competitive even though they are fighting against massive parachute payments that some of the clubs will have.