Angry Birds

At last! It may have only been Wycombe but we produced a performance and a result that we all craved prior to kick off at Adams Park. It wasn't the hope of progressing in the cup that was the main motivation but more the hope that it could just give us that much needed springboard to really get us motoring this season. And it was the basics that we wanted to see; defenders defending, midfielders breaking up play and actually moving the ball forward and strikers putting the ball in the net. We had achieved all within a couple of minutes.

It was a rare opportunity for four of us to visit a new ground this season. My count has stagnated over the last couple of seasons so it was nice to be given the chance to tick another one  off. We departed Sandicare at a little before 3pm with Mitchell at the wheel. With the stadium miles from anywhere we opted to park up in the town centre upon arrival at 5pm where we found a couple of decent hostelries. It would have been nice to have a bit more time to explore what appeared to be a decent little town centre but that's seldom going to be possible on a Tuesday night such a distance from home.

Travelling back on ourselves we opted to use the park & ride to take us the remainder of the way and avoiding the apparent parking difficulties around Adams Park. It was easy to see why such problems exists; even the bus dropped us a five minute walk from the ground. It sits on the end of a road which housed various industrial businesses with no other real way in or out. The ground is only really in view at the last moment sat innocuously behind some huge warehouse. Behind it is just hills and trees. The habitat of the Angry Birds!

For a league cup second round game between two complete non-rivals, the stringent searches at the turnstiles were ridiculous. The steward who got lucky with me was a nice chap but he had no concept of the limits of a standard pat-down. It was more akin to a sports massage with every inch of my body rubbed and  checked for an offending item that we both knew didn't exist. God knows what he's have done if he'd found a knife or a gun. I would have been a goner! PL's was even worse with his manhood allegedly being er... manhandled! He later described it as his highlight of the season to date!

A healthy number of Reds mingled about in the away end come kick-off. I would guess somewhere close to a 1,000 maybe. We must have made up well over a third of the crowd too as the apathy of the cup kicked in for the home support. They must have wished they hadn't bothered after five minutes when McGugan made it 2-0 with a penalty that just about went in. A few Forest fans sang away to our left: 'This game is over, we wana go home'. Knowing Forest that was probably a tad premature but they were most probably going to be right. Plus, I think we all wanted to see them play well for the first time this season. And they did.

Despite high hopes for a hatful of goals to come along, there was to be no more goals in the first half. It was probably just as well as we had other things to contend with...

It all started quite comically. A few unidentified birds (the size of a large wood pigeon but definitely not a pigeon) swooped down and found themselves in various funny escapades around the ground. One was pissing about in the Forest box in front of us and had a whale of a time just wandering about and lapping up the appreciation of the away fans. Things went a little awry though when Findley broke down the right into its path. Despite it being a bird, you could almost see the panic etched onto its face! Picture it if you will... a Wycombe defender chasing Findley who is seemingly chasing this damn bird in the direction of the corner flag! The speed of this thing was incredible; head back running for its life in the most hilarious way possible. Just out of play it remembered its wings and took off and out of the ground. Nobody, well certainly not me, was even remotely interested where Findley and the ball ended up!

Every few minutes after this a few more would appear and they began to hurtle down taking a similar path each time. Down the side stand to our right and towards us. En route a few would tail off and just fly, without any fear for their safety, into the stands. And they really did just land anywhere! Peoples heads were the main target! As the first one crashed into the away end there was sense of bewilderment, panic and sheer excitement. Some bloke down at the front had copped one on his noggin and people were on their feet trying to get a glimpse of the action. More would follow and unfortunate football fans were subject to horrific attacks all over Adams Park. Reports began to circulate that W H Smiths in town had been looted and that dozens of cars had been smashed up. Terry the Kit Man was knocked down by a couple of the winged scum but as he was helped to his feet they were actually robbing the kit from his bag!

Naturally , PL was terrified. He was convinced one was coming for him but fortunately for him, and most unfortunately for us, it never happened. The situation worked itself up into such a frenzy that when more incoming birds were spotted in the distance a large roar went up in anticipation of more attacks. The birds didn't have it all their own way though. One found itself in a Forest fans lap having crash landed into him. The guy picked it up and launched it into the air towards the pitch! It took sanctuary within the advertising hoardings in front of us until a steward tried to snare it in a bin liner. The bird was having none of it and dashed for freedom; spilling onto the pitch and away! For whatever reason, their appearances were limited in the second half and there was no carnage quite on the scale of what had gone before.

Instead, attention turned unfortunately back to the game and we were apparently still 2-0 to the good. Things looked like petering out until a superb Findley goal made it three. That set up a cracking last twenty minutes or so as Forest, with the game all but won, setting off for more goals. We even got to see Kieron Freeman who looked liek he had been playing for years. 'If Freeman scores, we're on the pitch' we sang. He nearly did as well if he hadn't lost his footing as he went to pull the trigger.

And that was that. Raddy wrapped up a fine performace slotting home after great work from Garner. League Cup 3rd Round here we come. As Mitchell explained: 'We've got one hand on the cup already'!