On a chilly, dank East Midlands day, where the sky drew to a close just above the lip of the Main Stand, Nottingham Forest produced a typically clinical performance as they secured a 12th win of the season to put them fourth in the Championship.
From the start there was a predictable rhythm, Blackburn were left to pass the ball, that light grey cloud pushing the red shirts back towards their goal, but with no real urgency, no surgical through balls, the porridge of sideways passing.
Forest have averaged just under 47% possession this season. They have had one shot on target versus Wigan. They won 1-0. Forest had five shots on target today. They won 3-2. You get the point. The stats make for bleak reading but while Lamouchi’s philosophy may not be the prettiest or the most entertaining, it is clearly effective.
At which point, enter Lewis Grabban. It seemed fitting that this decade must start like the last, as he scored two in this win. Grabban scored 126 goals in the last decade, who plays with the air of a man casually rearranging his sock drawer, quietly ambling around until he simply flips the switch and enters the Goal Zone.
His second here, and 14th of the campaign was exemplary of the Forest play. They had barely touched the ball before this goal. It was defence into attack in seconds, with Grabban linking up with Ameobi who gave him a beautiful cross to attack in return. Ameobi has been an astute signing, a player who spends his minutes on the pitch running about like a baby giraffe, the gangling legs, the height and speed, all excitement and fizz.
Forest are a well-grooved machine, set up from the back forwards. They are seemingly building on these better defensive displays, with the third best defence in the division, an unfamiliar tale of recent years for the Reds. For Blackburn this was a reality check, a team arriving on Trentside with only one loss in nine games but a squad not quite there yet. They showed flickering glimpses here but overall lacked the quality, with no real defensive plan, no real talent on display.
For Forest, it is a string of three wins, albeit against teams they should beat in the circumstances, and on the horizon are trips to Brentford and West Brom who sit third and second respectively. They are the real tests. They are the games that club captain Ben Watson must fire up his team, an incredibly experienced Championship holding midfielder, who again today was hidden away behind the high hedge on the last remaining patch of green.
“E-I-E-I-E-I-O, up the football league we go” the Forest fans sang, a club who haven’t tasted the top flight since 1999, and who have a long way to go to even attempt at going up. Of course, they face tough competition, but there is reason for optimism at this ghost of a sporting giant.
Sabri Lamouchi has the opportunity to burnish the clubs sacking reputation with a successful season here. No manager has managed a whole season since Billy Davies in 2009. No, really. The Frenchman has proven his tactics are working so far, with Forest sitting ready and waiting for the tides to turn, producing a fragile little blueprint of how the next decade may play out, throttle cranked, results wrung out of bloody-minded will.
Let’s hope it’s a decade of change, not least for the Forest fans, who have risen these tides of uncertainty and mediocrity more successfully than anyone else.
Alex's Sports Column 