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Season 2002-03 
Nottingham Forest (a) Friendly




Date:
Wednesday 31st July 2002, 7.45pm.

Venue: The City Ground

Conditions: Warm and pleasant

Admission: £10

Programme: £2
 



 

Nottingham Forest  3 - 1 Newcastle United
Teams
 

Goals

16 mins Within a minute of Shay Given denying David Johnson, the same two players were in direct opposition and the goalkeeper could only parry a strong header, allowing the striker to head the ball home with an energetic leap. 0-1

26 mins
A delayed reaction from the away section as Hugo Viana lobbed the ball into the net at the Trent end, many of those watching expecting to see it clear the crossbar.

Nolberto Solano was the provider with an excellent ball forward that tempted Darren Ward off his line in an unwise dash. 1-1

Half time: Forest 1 Newcastle 1

46 mins Johnson again it was who caused panic in the United area, and when his shot deflected off Nicos Dabizas it fell kindly for Jack Lester to fire home from a central position 12 yards out. 1-2

79 mins
With the visiting defence in something approaching disarray, Marlon Harewood's shot came back off Given to Eugene Bopp, and he had no trouble in returning the ball into the net. 1-3


Full time: Forest 3 Newcastle 1

We Said

Sir Bobby commented:

"I've no complaints - Forest thoroughly deserved their win.

"They were the better side on the night. They played some very good football and didn't really have a weakness and I am sure Paul Hart is very pleased with their display. 

"I won't take anything away from that but they are a week ahead of us in their preparations - and they made it show.

"I'll be more concerned if we don't perform in our first game against West Ham."

They Said

A contented Paul Hart said:

"Winning pre-season games is not vital but it can't be bad to beat such a very strong Premier League side like Newcastle. We had to work hard for the win but I was delighted with the effort the players put in and I thought we played some good stuff.

"It's good for the spirit in the squad but it has to be remembered that it is just part of our preparations for the real thing that starts at Portsmouth in just over a couple of weeks time."

Match Stats

Newcastle suffered their second successive friendly defeat on this ground - the last being the Stuart Pearce testimonial when we went down by the odd goal in 11....

Both Titus Bramble and Hugo Viana completed their first full games for the club, while Jermaine Jenas made a first return to his former employers and home town club when coming off the bench.

Missing from the Dutch party were Laurent Robert and Andy O'Brien, who both picked up knocks. Jamie McClen, Christian Bassedas and Brian Kerr turned out for the reserves at Hartlepool two days earlier. Wayne Quinn appeared in neither. 

Pre-season goals:

Ameobi 1
Bassedas 1
Dyer 1
Griffin 1
LuaLua 4
Marcelino
1
Robert
4
Shearer 4
Solano 1
Speed 1
Viana 3
OG 1

Pre-season pitch time (in minutes):

Acuna 45+45+45+45+0=180
Ameobi 45+45+45+0+23=158
Bassedas 45+45+45+45+0=180
Bernard 45+45+45+45+76=256
Bramble 0+0+0+45+90=135
S.Caldwell 45+90+45+45+14=239
Cort 0+0+0+45+0=45
Dabizas 45+0+0+45+76=166
Dyer 45+0+45+45+14=149
Elliott 45+45+45+45+14=194
Given 45+45+45+45+90=270
Griffin 45+45+45+45+0=180
Harper 45+45+45+45+0=180
Hughes 45+45+45+45+90=270
Jenas 0+0+0+0+76=76
Kerr
45+45+45+45+0=180
LuaLua 45+45+45+45+67=247
Marcelino 45+45+45+45+0=180
McClen 0+45+45+45+0=135
O'Brien 45+45+45+0+0=135
Quinn 45+45+45+45+0=180
Robert 45+45+45+0+0=135
Shearer 45+45+45+45+90=270
Solano 45+45+45+45+90=270
Speed 45+45+45+45+90=270
Viana 45+45+45+45+90=270
 

Waffle

Following their Dutch training camp and a quartet of leg stretchers against obliging opponents, Newcastle had something of a rude awakening in their first domestic pre-season game on Wednesday.

Second tier Forest were good value for their victory, the pace and movement of David Johnson caused the visitors problems all night, Nicos Dabizas in particular struggling to contain the striker.

A useful workout or a worrying defeat? Whichever way you look at this reverse, there weren't many positives to take from it.

A decent enough 1-1 at halftime, the second half was truly mundane, and we seemed to lack the ability or more pertinently the desire to step things up in anything like convincing fashion.

Perhaps the best news was that Kieron Dyer's withdrawal after just ten minutes was due to him suffering from a bug, not shin pains or any hairline fractures of the foot.

Other plus points were probably confined to new boys Hugo Viana and Titus Bramble who did enough to suggest that our summer spending was money reasonably well invested.

Hugo Viana worked mainly down the left in the absence of Laurent Robert, but he was busy all over the pitch showing some good touches and approach work, although like most of his colleagues the final ball required some refinement....

His goal was the one jewel to take from this lacklustre display: Nobby Solano striding forward purposefully and for once delaying until Viana was in position to receive a superbly-weighted lob.

As keeper Ward came out, Viana flicked the ball over his head and it dropped into the back of the Forest net.

United had gone behind when Given made a stunning save from a corner but David Johnson headed in the rebound. Given almost gifted Forest another, leaving his goal unattended after a poor clearance - Brennan promptly pinging a 40 yard effort off the crossbar.

The other Forest goals came at the start and end of an uninspiring second half, both scrappy affairs but underlining the home side's determination in the box once we hadn't properly cleared.

In between Alan Shearer was denied what seemed a perfectly good goal by the linesman, the number 9 diverting Gary Speed's shot past Ward before the flag went up belatedly.

Bramble, had a decent night at the heart of the defence bar one dreadful blunder in the first half. Memories of Michael Owen and Anfield last season were rekindled when Bramble fluffed a clearance leaving a one-on-one that Owen certainly wouldn't have missed.

Hopefully the final score damaged one or two egos and focused the minds of some others - anyone who doubted that footballers don't care about these games should have noted the behaviour of Shay Given at full time, flinging his towel and water bottle in the manner of a batsman at neighbouring Trent Bridge run out when on 99.

For Forest, veteran Des Walker had a remarkably impressive game. "You'll never beat Des Walker" might be stretching things a little nowadays but he probably still has enough pace to make the front of the pensions queue at the Post Office.

Niall Mackenzie

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