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published May 11th 2026 contact us match reports (1) match reports (2)
ltlf forums talkback trentend
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SEASON 2025/26 game 36 May 10th 2026
 Nottingham Forest 1Anderson 88  Spiffs 1Barnes 74
People have described this season as a slow motion car crash, and they are right. I should know, because I've been in one.
Many years ago I was speeding up the motorway in the fast lane when my car hit ice. At 80 mph I lost control of brakes and steering, and started gliding elegantly toward the slower lanes. The first car I hit was a little Renault. I bounced off him and arced my way up the camber and back down again towards an articulated truck. I struck a big rear tyre square on and spun across the carriageway. The car turned round, now travelling backwards, hit the central reservation barrier, flipped on its side, and came to a grinding halt. The only injury I got came when I fell from the driver's seat onto the broken glass of the passenger window. I tried to climb out, but was paralysed with shock. Help came in the form of a Scouser who ran across the carriageway, lifted me out, helped me to the hard shoulder, and stemmed the blood from my cut head with what turned out to be a pillow from his daughter's toy pram. I survived.
And that is what this season has been like for Forest fans, what with the club gliding out of control towards disaster for the most part, only to survive through a mixture of native spirit and, finally, a proper manager.
This has to be said. The person who has caused this near disaster has been the owner. Some people still blame Nuno, but they are fools. Some people were excited by Ange's chaotic regime, but they too were fools, or Australian. And there are still those who think that Dyche would have saved us, though they choose to ignore the damage he was doing to the team's morale. By the time Marinakis came to his senses, the team was heading for the Arnco barriers on the central reservation.
Vitor Pereira was our saviour. He certainly saved Marinakis's bacon. How anyone can deny his influence is beyond us. He took a dysfunctional outfit and transformed them into a properly organised, confident team which has not lost a league game since March 1st. He turned players many of us dismissed as useless into real contributors. Even without Murillo, Aina, Sangare, MGW, CHO, the team has survived on spirit and fierce determination. Look at yesterday's match. Half a Forest team was being overrun in midfield until a few Pereira tweaks sealed up the weaker channels and allowed Forest to play. And then the sheer guts required to come back and equalise was phenomenal. Sensible tactics and unquenchable belief - that's what Pereira has brought. Apparently he said to the players, "Only you could have done that. Only you." Just imagine how big that made them feel.
Fools talk about European failure, but wise men know that Premier League survival is infinitely more important.
It's up to Marinakis now to leave Vitor Pereira alone and let him at least fulfil his contract. Or he could be ruled by dreams of tinpot glory, make yet another mistake, and watch the slow motion car crash start all over again.
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