South Notts NFFC

I can only speak for myself here but I've enjoyed watching your rise and wanted you to win the league. It's always good when the usual cartel gets shaken up and I feel similarly now about Villa. Variety is good for football although it's difficult to see anything like that happening again. Miracle stories like yours or our European Cup winning teams are reasons why we watch the game.

I agree and that in general Forest fans do 'care'. Where I think the problem comes from a Leicester point of view is that we don't 'care' as much as some Leicester fans would like us to. Again, I'm generalising as some fans on both sides will feel differently to this. My perspective over the years has been (again, in general) that Forest see Derby as rival #1. Leicester see Forest as rival #1 and want Forest to feel similarly and don't like it when we don't.

Yes I agree your location can dictate who you 'hate' the most. Notts is a long county and those in the North Nottinghamshire towns like Retford and Worksop are much closer to Sheffield than the city of Nottingham and there's the whole miner's strike history there too. Having lived in several parts of the county and having followed Forest for 40-odd years I'd say if you were to do a poll now amongst every Forest fan you'd find that the large majority see Derby as our biggest rivals and take more joy seeing their demise than any other club. Then there's yourselves, Sheffield United (but not Wednesday), Wolves, Liverpool (for those fans from the 70s/80s) and then I suppose Notts County. I actually like to see Notts do well as it's good for the city generally to have two clubs on the up but some Forest fans would prefer to see them fade into insignificance. Partly due to their hatred towards us and there's also a lack of gratitude there. When County have been in the absolute shite on and off the pitch Forest have made efforts to help them out only for their former fool of a chairman Alan Hardy to try and drum up a rivalry between the clubs by having a pop on twitter, I'm not sure Forest have sent a player on loan there since. Don't bite the hand that feeds you... I do think these things can be dynamic though and a lot depends on circumstances. If Forest and Leicester both spend years playing each other in the Prem that could be the new de facto EM Derby. If County suddenly started doing well and playing us more then a real rivalry might develop there too.

That would be my prediction too. Cooper will set up to counter I'd imagine and so will Nuno. We would probably be better off benching someone like Elanga who needs space to run into.

Over-exaggerating an injury was a big 'Cooperism' whilst here. It was basically every week that he'd say someone was out for weeks only to see them in the line up, and vice versa. In fact it got to the point where you basically took anything he said about a player's fitness with a pinch of salt.

Our defence has definitely been our strength this season and as I mentioned in a previous post it's mainly down to Milenkovic who I have no idea how we managed to sign. He's a champions league level CB without doubt. I agree about our wide players, bar his winner at Anfield Hudson-Odoi hasn't been like he was towards the end of last season and Elanga can be very hit and miss generally. Luckily for them Chris Wood basically seems to score in every game at the moment but at some point others will need to chip in. I wouldn't be against Jota playing instead of Elanga as he's looked lively each time he's come on this season.

It's been the complete opposite to last season, where we were on the wrong end of a 3-2 score in 7 games as well as there being a few 2-2s. I can explain this difference using only two words, Nikola Milenkovic. The impact he has had has been absolutely incredible.

Every season Everton look awful and every season they wriggle out of it somehow. They are the turd that won't flush.

Wolves looked poor against us as well and really got away with one thanks to an unstoppable screamer. From what I've seen generally though I'd say they have enough about them to wriggle clear. Ipswich and particularly Southampton look absolutely doomed already to be honest.

True but before that you lost Kante, Mahrez, Maguire, Fofana, Chilwell and Drinkwater at basically one a year. It's nign on impossible to keep replacing players of that level.

I wasn't expecting prime Barca or anything but they surprised me just how bad they were. We weren't great at times either and yet still fully deserved to win. If Eze gets injured they're doomed.

There's only so long you can get away with selling off your best players. Southampton found this a few years ago as did yourselves. Unless your recruitment is ridiculously efficient like Brighton it will catch up with you eventually. This league is brutal like that.

We were a whisker away from signing him too and I'd imagine he was coming to start ahead of Wood. What a close shave that was.

Case in point, Palace just brought off former sheepshagger Will Hughes to a chorus of boos. On comes Schlupp obviously a former Leicester player and there's no reaction at all. I would love to see us get something on Friday but not because it's Leicester, but because it's another vital point(s) in the quest for Premier League survival which for me is still the aim.

Alright, alright. You've caught me out. I, along with every other Forest fan, despise everything about Leicester City.