Seventyseven

One of my best days at a football match ever. Absolutely superb day, 500 Harborough fans making a right noise and demolishing a team a league above. Hopefully get one of the bigger teams now, but if not then I’m backing this team.

Cooper signed his brother at Forest. 0 goals in 13 games.

When Cooper joined we had the happy clappers trying to make out he was good as he gave a good press interview. And as I said at the time he is very polished at talking to the media, but don’t be fooled. He did a great job at getting forest up but was bloody lucky at keeping them up, they were terrible and I’m still at a loss how we finished behind them. A large amount of their fans kept him in the job as he was seen as a hero for ending 23 years outside the top flight, I get that to an extent but the club could see he wasn’t up to it. He had many shortcomings, that he doesn’t seem to have learnt from. Poor tactics, poor game management and poor subs. He was also very stubborn and played his favourites. Balde was signed on loan and couldn’t get a game ahead of Worrall or McKenna, he went to Sevilla where he’s been superb and linked with big money move to Liverpool. Same with Santos from Chelsea. He didn’t get anything out of Hudson-Odoi or Chris Wood who are thriving under Nuno. Just two away wins in 1 and a half seasons. The happy clapper Forest fans who wanted Cooper to stay can now see the difference in class they have with their manager, and we picked up the cast off. All very disappointing.

Absolutely spot on. No one watching these games can disagree with any of that. Those in rose tinted specs thought we were in good form after a couple of wins. The realists knew how lucky we were. Hey we will need luck from time to time but you can’t rely on it.

Said when he joined that he was very media savvy. He clearly spends time in this area, a very modern manager in this respect.

They did look very good and it shows what can be done with good recruitment. their defence cost £22M, Elanga 15m, Hudson-Odoi £3m. Anderson 15m (but of FFP navigating there with Newcastle but looks a bargain). I could go on but it’s annoying me. I think some are overdoing it on the first half. I mean it was better than the second by a mile. Aside from the goal their keeper didn’t make a save and they could have had 3 really. Yates said after the game that Nuno brought their wingers in more second half to give less room, that’s all it took yet Cooper had no answer.

Because a half decent manager can counter it, and then ours has no answer.

It’s been coming. That could have been 6 or 7. They were so much better than us, mikes ahead. the wins v Bournemouth and Southampton were needed and welcome but papered over the cracks, we were lucky. cooper isn’t up to this, he’s a championship manager. Cooper Out.

Initially thought that, but on reflection a very winnable game. Harborough have beat the top side in their league, beat 4th twice (including the cup) by putting 8 past them. And took points off 2nd and 3rd away. There isn’t that many ‘glamour’ ties so perhaps this is better than Barrow or similar away as stand a much better chance of getting through.

I’d always be wary of a random owner coming in a splashing cash on a non league outfit they’ve had no previous interest in. But fans are often blind to the obvious when doing well. We will see where it ends up. Short term promotion is likely (major error if not) but medium to long term it wouldn’t be surprising to see problems emerge. Time will tell.

We’ve seen this before quite a few times, can see where the Kettering project is heading.

Bury were given 600. Harborough have 1200 and the game is totally sold out as of yesterday. Looking forward to it.

It’s a myth as he used to manage an England youth set up (where he had to play youth!). He didn’t play the younger ones at forest much at all, Hudson-Odei has only got a run under Nuno, he didn’t play Neco Williams either instead preferring older immobile defenders. I think our current academy talent is better than what they had but not much chance under him.

Harborough Town now getting the results the early performances deserved. Made light work of Stourbridge yesterday in the cup, Stourbridge were one of the league favourites so no mugs.

Forest are pretty decent, their squad is looking good. Went mad with signings when got promoted but the gamble worked and they stayed up (partly due to us being a joke). Got a few better in last year like Murillo, Elanga and Hudson-Odoi (for about £30 for the lot) and got some even better players in this summer.

Elliot Taylor made one worthy save in that second half. Harborough well worth the away point against a side much much bigger than them.

This shortermism might work better if we signed a striker with a half decent scoring record…..

His goalscoring record is atrocious. cooper loves the Ayew family, he signed his brother whilst at Forest who returned…… 0 goals.

Genuinely don’t get how people didn’t see it like this. Absolutely spot on.

He’s not a shithouse. But works hard on PR. He’s not a daft bloke.

He’s very clever at the media side of things. He made all the same noises at forest about him taking responsibility (whilst implying he improved things second half) and he always used to say players were out injured and they would then reappear. They would have know Vardy was playing for some days. his PR offensive is working very well, hopefully it transforms into points.

Yes, perhaps. I’m still a bit scarred by that first half performance to be honest! Always need to give it about 10 games, things will be much clearer then.

That was last year. I don’t think there are any teams in this league who would have missed that many chances last night. it’s by the by though, we got a point. Just really can’t understand the excitement after getting away with it. But hey ho.

As I’ve said before, Cooper works very hard at the media image side of things. It’s partly why forest fans still like him. If these sorts of performances continue then him ‘taking accountability’ might get boring very quickly. Proper got away with that last night, now need to quickly improve.

Amazing take. We’d have been dead and buried by most teams in this league.