The City Ground – Forest

The City Ground – Nottingham Forest

Altogether now we hate ???????.. For those of you too young to remember this was the opening line of a song sung by every team, at every ground, on every Saturday of a season. Those were the days. Nottingham Forrest *were / *are (*delete as necessary, depending if you are a Forrest fan) a MASSIVE club. As massive as both Citeh and the other most massive club to have graced the 3rd Division in recent years – Wednesday. It should be a pleasure to play these teams and we should be grateful that they have graced us with their presence in the lower leagues, however it isn`t a pleasure and the only thing we`ve been grateful for over the years are the points we`ve taken off these teams. “Come to see the Forrest” – actually no we haven`t we`ve come to see our little old team play oh massive you.
Not that I`m bitter of course, but I`m old enough to remember 76-77 season when they pipped us to promotion by a single point. I remember last season away too, “Listen to them, you`d have thought that they`d just won the FA Cup” was the quote by some old boy wearing a Cloughie green sweatshirt making a direct reference to the Pool fans leaving the ground. “Actually we have and Cloughies dead” may not have been the best response for me to have given and the verbal sparring that followed it proved me right.
Yes they`ve won the European Cup, twice but they aren`t a team that I can take too, and I don`t think many Pool fans do either.

How to get there
By car – From the North – Leave the M1 at Junction 26 and take the A610 towards Nottingham. This takes you to the Nottingham Ring Road (A6514). Take a right turn, and head down the Ring Road Southbound. You will pass the QMC Hospital, and the Ring Road will turn into the A52. Keep going on the A52 over Clifton Bridge, past the Nottingham Knight Island and join Lings Bar Road at the next island. Carry on to Gamston island and turn left into Radcliffe Raod (A6011). Take a right into Colwick Road and you are at the ground.
From the South- Leave the M1 at Junction 21a (Leicester East) and follow the A46 dual carriageway towards Newark. After around 20 miles take the A606 towards Nottingham. At the first roundabout that is the junction with the A52, take the 4th exit onto the A52, signposted towards Grantham. At the next roundabout turn left onto the A6011 towards Nottingham. The ground is about a mile down this road.
Street parking is available but this time around I`d recommend the cricket ground car park, was about £3 last season and they seemed to get away a lot quicker.
Virgin lovers – come out of the main station entrance, turn left and then left again. Follow the road down to the dual carriageway and then turn right. The ground is about 3/4’s of a mile down the dual carriageway on the left, just over Trent Bridge. A 20 minute walk in total.

Where to drink
Last season I used the Larwood + Voce. I get there quite early but as the evening wore on the atmosphere did change as fans from both clubs began to fill it. In the end it had become quite standoffish and the OB were aware of this as they did regular walkthroughs of the pub. The Stratford Haven down the road from the Voce is another favourite for away fans. Good old Hooters a quarter of a mile from the train station will put a smile on your face if nothing else. Inside the ground ale should be available for away fans.

The Ground
The away end (Bridgford Stand) holds up to 4750 away fans. We will never fill it as we`ll never play them on a Saturday afternoon. A decent view is to be had from behind the goal. The ground itself is quite impressive, and despite it being a midweek game there should be a decent crowd.

Plod + Stewards
The Old bill will be out in force. Forrest have been to the Seaside twice since we played here last season and were given a warm welcome both times. The genuine football fans were put off by the OB`s insistence that our games will be played midweek following last seasons trouble and I expect the same for us upon our return.
The stewarding last season was quite low key but again I found them to be rather petty over the fact that some fans choose to stand rather than sit in the their seat.

Fear Factor Rating 7.

One thing Tuesday won`t be like is a box of chocolates. There`s definitely no love lost between these two teams and the off the pitch activities shouldn`t distract from what should be a good game of football between two of the top sides in this league this season.