It was just three years ago that the Swans collapsed at Nottingham Forest 5-1 at the City Ground in a Championship fixture. Just fifteen months before that the Swans ejected the same side out of the FA Cup at home by the same score. Last night it seemed this would be a basic process for a team such as Premier League Nottingham Forest. For sixty minutes of this game you would have been proved more right than wrong.
Then stuff happened.
We won’t digress as the point of this report is to examine some of the emotions that Forest fans went through on their excellent forum, LTLF and we are not just saying that it’s a very professionally done website. So thanks to them. You wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the expectation pre match was that most Forest fans were fancying a win. ‘Dore On Tour’ another interesting vlogger on YouTube was up for it. Pre match interviews with fans in the away end spoke mostly of hammerings, 7-2, a cheeky joke maybe ? 6-0 was interesting with some going for 4-0 but not one mentioned penalties or a defeat. You wouldn’t expect that from any fan, especially those who travelled (regardless of distance) to watch their team away in Swansea on an awful night of weather. In fact the plaudits go to everyone who went, and many Swans fans had travelled further than Nottingham.
The game was very much going Forest’s way despite the Swans not getting a deserved penalty in the first half, but only on a second watch. The visitors were comfortable and looked like the game would be easy despite numerous Swansea attacks. The visitors were 2-0 up at half time and cruising.
Forest brought on Morgan Gibbs-White and Hudson-Odoi. Although in hindsight this post was made objectively, nothing wrong with it - you would have expected Forest to kill the game off with these additions.
From there Forest spawned numerous chances which on another day they surely would have taken ? In fact more informed quarters state that the last twenty minutes or so saw a very good and possibly mostly a first team in Forest colours. This prompted a post, we all make them in the heat of the moment.
It happens. But you wouldn’t have put a bet on the Swans to win this game, and as this site reported this morning it was surely a case of scoreline preservation ? However, the Swans scored through Cameron Burgess from a corner, and the heat intensified. Even the thought of a draw and the Swans scoring an equaliser wasn’t being greeted well.
Then they did.
Penalties seemed inevitable. The thought of spot kicks though wasn’t palatable for any Swans fan, Forest on the other hand were now knives out for Postecoglou. Surely though it was the players on the pitch ? The forum went into meltdown. They all do.
Even with a matter of seconds to go deep into injury time the Swans had decided they didn’t need penalties either. Cameron Burgess tapped in an unmissable chance (get it ?) and it was over, the Swans had won 3-2. This particular Forest forum didn’t steer towards the usual comments towards the opposition, and as you can read in our link they were more concerned about their own issues.
There were numerous others.
It was a great night to be a Swans fan, what it cemented in the minds of the players was they could actually fight and be rewarded, that keeps the club in good stead for their coming games. No matter the score, there’s always a chance. It also surely now gives the Jack Army confidence that the squad assembled this summer is of real consequence ? There has been a slow take up for games to date this season. Social and economic factors are the main reasons in the South Wales area. However, we see the Swans take on Birmingham City next at St Andrews this coming Saturday with a 12.30pm kick off. That’s the next big test, and potentially far bigger than they faced in the third round of the league cup last night.
⚽️ Match links
⚽️ Up for the cup ? And the money ?
⚽️ Dore On Tour