Nottingham Forest

Fixture	FLC, 21 August 2012, 1945 Huddersfield Town 1 – 1 Nottingham Forest
Venue	The John Smith Stadium (formerly The Galpharm, also The McAlpine)
Weather/Conditions	Clear & mild – Heavily watered pitch made for slippery playing surface
Away fan experience	Alfresco enclosure occupied by snaking queues for the refreshment kiosks, where service was painfully slow. Huddersfield’s strict policy towards persistent standing observed by most fans, meaning a good view as high as the 20th row and beyond was possible, though the diehards still made their ‘stand’ in the centre block. Car parking haphazard, though this being Huddersfield’s first home game of the season a big attendance was expected.
Facilities	Food from main kiosk poor, stodgy pies almost as cardboard-like as Dingles.  Good beer though.  Better food (hot dogs & chips) available from mobile kiosk, but queues equally as long.
Programme	Classy – one of the best seen and interesting read with several miscellaneous stats. Good write-up on visitors’ new players covering main points of interest. Inevitable Joel Lynch feature.
The Match	With Forest playing 4-4-2 (at last!) with Blackstock partnering debutant Cox up front we literally battered Huddersfield for 70 minutes.  Should really have been at least 2 goals up by HT, denied by Town ‘keeper Smithies and the woodwork.  Ultimately a case of failure to kill the game off which cost us and just when the points looked safe with less than two minutes stoppage time left, a rash challenge by Harding on the edge of the box gave Town’s leading marksman Jordan Rhodes the unexpected pleasure of levelling from the spot.
Highlights	Cox’s full debut crowned with a well deserved goal, though in reality it was no more than we deserved having battered Town for most of the game.
Lowlights	Conceding such a late penalty when it looked like I might be seeing our first ever win – and clean sheet – at this venue.
Hero	Cox showing class, Maloney finding the space, and Reidy holding it all together.
Zero	Harding – an unnecessary challenge resulting in the penalty in the dying seconds.
Entertainment Value	6.5/10 - Some good flowing football throughout.
Promotion Rating	2 – Though these are games we should be winning if promotion is to be a realistic target.
Misc	Definitely should have won this after dominating for such long periods, and it all looked a little desperate towards the end, especially with defending so deep.  Still, it’s early enough for this experience to be learned from and for a team so recently assembled the standard of football being played as a team already eclipses every performance last season bar none.

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