Owls (1) 1 Nottingham Forest (0) 1

Att 32,4?? 

Wednesday: 
Pressman; Nilsson(Pearce 30), Walker(c), Palmer, Worthington(Watson ~65); 
Bart-Williams, Hyde, Jones, Sinton; Jemson, Bright;  subs: Woods;

Forest:
Crossley: Lyttle, Cooper, Chettle, Pearce; Stone, Phillips, Bohinen, 
Webb(Bull), Woan; Glover;  subs: Black, ?

Waddle was again out for Wednesday, but in compensation Collymore was missing
from the Forest side, who fielded a five man midfield with only Glover up
front.  The West stand was given over to Forest totally, and they filled it,
but the North west terrace wasn't used.  Nevertheless the third nearly
full Hillsborough in a row.

Des lost the toss again to his old mate Stuart Pearce and the teams changed 
ends before kick off.  It was clear that Forest had been given orders to get 
stuck in as within the first 8 minutes three times the ref had to speak to
Forest players for bad challenges.  Fortunately for them it was three 
different players so no-one got a booking for it.  It was from the third
of these challenges, by Cooper on Bright, which the opening goal came.

Worthington took the free kick and Bright managed to get away from Cooper
at the near post and head in.  He can't stop scoring at the moment, that's
six goals in six games. 

Wednesday were finding it difficult in midfield, as you would expect being
a man down and missing the something special that Waddle tends to supply.
There was no movement up front and you could clearly see Hyde giving the 
forwards a bollocking when he had the ball but had noone to pass to and
evemtually had to pass the ball back from about the half way line.

Still, Wednesday had a chance to go two up and what a miss !  The ball was
crossed in and Crossley rose with Bright, but Bright got to the ball first
and headed it sideways across goal.  Jemson was at the far post coming in,
and from *within* the six yard box failed to keep the ball down and hit
it over the bar with an open goal facing him.  OK, so it was a rising ball 
and the angle wasn't the best in the world, but that was a worse miss than
the one on his debut against Southampton !!!

After this attempt the rest of the first half was all Forest.  Wednesday
weren't getting a look in in midfield, and but for Pressman would have gone 
in level or even behind.  Perhaps Forest's best chance of the half came from
a free kick on the left of the Wednesday box.  It was taken short and blasted 
towards goal.  Pressman managed to stop it but couldn't hold it, and I think
it was Palmer who cleared the danger.

On thirty minutes disadter struck.  From a Forest corner Nilsson went down 
injured and was moved to behind the goal to be treated while play carried
on.  It wasn't long before he was stretchered off to the dressing room.  How
bad an injury it is I'm not sure, hopefully the stretcher was to prevent 
further damage, but he must be doubtful for Tuesday's game.  Pearce came on
and Des switched to right back for the remainder of the half (not three across
the back as the Sunday Times correspondant seemed to think).

It was a case of holding out until half time, with Webb passing the ball
well, and Phillips getting the ball early in his own half and being given
acres of room to run at the Wednesday midfield.

At the start of the second half Palmer was playing right back with Pearce
and Walker in central defence.  Carlton definitely played a defence oriented
role as he didn't puch up much all half.  He made the odd run, but on the
whole didn't support Bart-Williams down the right.

Wednesday's best chance of this half came from a free kick (?) when the ball
ended up rebounding off the far post, but they rarely threatened the Forest
goal and it was a case of trying to keep them out until time.  Not really
Wednesday's forte :-)  I think it was from this chance that Forest broke
down the right, with little Wednesday defence.  Stone played an early ball
to the far post for Glover to shoot, but Pressman came out well and blocked
the chance with his feet for a corner.

Worthington had picked up a knock and the ref wouldn't let him be treated on
the field, so he was treated on the sidelines.  Forest were breaking and 
Worthington was ready to come back on, but didn't wait for the referees
permission to do so, and so ended up with the only yellow card of the game.
He was obviously in difficulty but signalled to Trevor that he could
continue.  That only lasted about 5 minutes though as there was 25 minutes to
go.  Watson came on and Sinton switched to left back with Jemson playing
on the left wing.

You thought that Wednesday had weathered the worst of the pressure and maybe
as in the Spurs game were going to come through with a narrow victory.
Frank Clarke, knowing he had to score, brought Webb off with 13 minutes 
left and brought on Gary Bull to play a more orthadox 4-4-2 formation.

On a couple of occasions with Bull chasing the ball Pressman managed to see
it to the touchline before the player got there.

With only five minutes left Forest missed a golden opportunity to equalize.
Stone found himslef running into the box with no-one anywhere near him, and
when the cross came over all he had to do was keep his header down and it was
a certain goal (about 6 yards out).  Fortunately for Wednesday he put it
over the bar, and you thought maybe we would get lucky.  Not to be the case.

With only two minutes left Forest got a corner.  The ball was played long
and Cooper got his head to it.  It seemed to loop over Pressman's head
and Jones on the line headed it, but only inot the top of the net.  Whether
it had crossed the line by then I don't know.  I'd really have to see the
goal again on TV to find out.

On reflection it was a fair result as Forest dominated the match for long
periods and each side had a glaring miss.  The good news for us is that I 
can't see the side performing that badly again for a while.  Midfield was
truely abismal at times, and there were enforced changes due to injury.
Bart-man is going through a sticky patch, but at least Sinton is coming back
to something like he was before injury.

The question is will we have a squad left by the end of January with such
appetizing fixtures as Wimbledon away (x2), Forest away, United at home !!
And will Phil King get a shock recall to full back ?