Whilst most of you had opened your 2009/10 pre-season in a slightly warmer climate I began mine with a very wet Wednesday night in Nottingham. Early worries that the game might be in doubt because of the conditions were eradicated when Dele Adebola cut me up in his black BMW at a set of traffic lights on the way to the ground. (Obviously ruining any chance of winning my man of the match award).

 

With only Main Stand and Trent End open to Forest fans I took my seat in the Main Stand just to the left of the directors box where chairman Nigel Doughty and manager Billy Davies were seated in slightly more comfortable seats. After a quick look to see if anyone else of interest was in the directors box all I could see was Forest legend Steve Hodge, Doughty’s predecessor as chairman Eric Barnes and Notts County manager Ian McParland with a smile on his face probably because of Saturday’s result.

 

In spite of a late change to the line up where Nathan Tyson replaced Dexter Blackstock who pulled out after the warm up Forest had the better of the first half against their Premier League opponents. Forest playing in their new home kit for the first time included several of the new summer signings with Paul McKenna captaining the side that also included Radoslaw Majewski and David McGoldrick.

 

It was the midfield partnership between McKenna and Majewski which caught the eye more as their skills seemed to compliment each other perfectly and showed signs of being a potentially good partnership. McKenna is not the quickest player but is a type of player we have been lacking for years. He leads from the midfield and appears to have a good footballing brain and does the simple things very well. Majewski is a more skilful player appearing to have a lot of vision and ability.

 

Forest had the ball in the net early on when Tyson shot home (still at this point the person sitting behind hadn’t realised Tyson was starting and still thought it was Blackstock) after good work from Majewski and Garner who played right wing in his first game of the pre season. Majewski was again involved on 30 minutes in the move that created the first goal when his ball through to McGOLDRICK was headed home to give Forest a 1-0 half time lead.

 

Only one change took place at half time as McGugan replaced McKenna and the game had barely restarted when Beattie put Dave KITSON through to equalise. Both teams had a few more chances with a Tyson shot cleared for Forest and a Whelan attempt for Stoke being deflected wide. On the whole it was probably a fair result with Forest shading the first half and Stoke uping their game in the second and shading the latter period.

 

I was impressed with new boys McKenna, Majewski and McGoldrick and also Arron Davies put in a decent performance. The defence as most people are aware still needs work and hopefully extra bodies will arrive in that area shortly. Lewis McGugan has got undoubted ability but his second half performance was very frustrating as he seemed intent on blaming everybody else for things going wrong. But on the whole a very encouraging night as I headed home to be passed again by Dele Adebola (I’m beginning to think he’s stalking me).

 

On what I saw last night my starting line up for Reading would be

Camp; Gunter, Chambers, Morgan, Lynch; Anderson, McKenna(c), Majewski, Cohen (if fit) or Davies; Earnshaw, McGoldrick

Though I will have probably changed my mind after the Birmingham game on Saturday.

 

NFFC

Lee Camp; Chris Gunter, Luke Chambers, Wes Morgan, Joel Lynch; Joe Garner (Robert Earnshaw 70), Paul McKenna (capt) (Lewis McGugan 45), Radoslaw Majewski, Arron Davies (Paul Anderson 61); David McGoldrick (Dele Adebola 77), Nathan Tyson

 

Subs not used : Paul Smith, Jordan Fairclough, Tony Diagne, Aaron Mitchell

 

My Man of the Match : Paul McKenna

 

Attendance : 5,542 (Away Fans 588)

 

Goals

1-0   30 mins David McGoldrick (NFFC)

1-1   48 mins Dave Kitson (Stoke)