A journey up to Nottingham from the Sussex coast that took four hours seemed to take half the time on the way back after a Chris Cohen own-goal secured a fantastic 1-0 victory for Albion at Nottingham Forest.
A penalty miss from former Albion player Robert Earnshaw added to the euphoria among the 3,140-strong travelling support. As I predicted before the game, Roberto Di Matteo went with five in midfield, with Marek Cech and Chris Wood effectively being replaced in the starting line-up by Joe Mattock and Graham Dorrans.
We started the game brightly, with Forest goalkeeper Lee Camp forced into a save from a Chris Brunt free-kick. However, we rarely troubled Forest before the break from this point, with the home side having most of the possession and carving out one or two decent opportunities. The main source of amusement came from Billy Davies who seemed to have a complaint about every decision given against his team, and consistently left the technical area to remonstrate with the fourth official. Thankfully for the grass around his technical area, though, the referee was of a similar standard to the official for the Newcastle game and gave very few decisions our way. Forest finished the half the stronger, with Jonas Olsson making a superb last-ditch challenge when Paul Anderson seemed certain to score, and Dele Adebola sending a good chance behind the goal into the Albion fans. At half-time, the general consensus of opinion was that we needed to improve, and that Shelton Martis and Jonas Olsson needed to get the ball forward, rather than play risky passes across the goal.
After the break
At half-time Craig Beattie replaced Robert Koren, who had been a peripheral figure for much of the first half. The big Scottish striker made an immediate impact with him having the first of many altercations with Forest right-back Chris Gunter after a strong run down the left flank.
The home side thought they had taken the lead, but an effort from inside the area, was rightly disallowed for offside with the linesman's flag going up before the ball had even reached the Forest player. Then, seven minutes into the second half, we took the lead. There seemed nothing on when Albion captain Jonathan Greening picked up possession down the left wing but he quickly changed feet, put in a superb cross with his left foot that seemed to hit a Forest defender, before rebounding off the unfortunate Chris Cohen and trickling over the line to send the Albion fans behind the goal into euphoria. Although the ball may have skimmed Luke Moore's head, there was no way the striker was going to be able to claim the goal with all the Albion players running to Greening, as it was he who made the chance.
The confidence of the players seemed to grow with Graham Dorrans missing a gilt-edged chance to double the lead after connecting with a Greening free-kick on the volley. Unfortunately, the ball bounced before the goal, and ended up with the Albion fans behind it. Although Gianni Zuiverloon was replaced by Leon Barnett after picking up an injury that could rule him out of Tuesday's trip to Peterborough, our defence still looked solid.
Forest pressure
However, from this point onwards, Forest had most of the possession and nearly got an equaliser when Dele Adebola fired a shot over the bar, after Scott Carson had spilled a long range shot. Robert Earnshaw came onto the pitch to a mixture of applause and abuse from the travelling support and had soon won his side a penalty. Although the decision looked soft, you see penalties given like it every week so it was no surprise that the referee pointed to the spot after a cynical lunge by Marek Cech, who had replaced the tiring Chris Brunt. Thankfully, Earnshaw hit the penalty wide of Carson's right-hand post, which led to choruses of "Earnshaw is an Albion fan" from the Albion supporters.
Forest spent most of the last fifteen minutes camped in our half and they thought they had got the goal they deserved when a low shot was parried by Scott Carson. It seemed as though the Forest player had to finish the rebound but Jonas Olsson appeared from nowhere to slide
the ball to safety. The big Swede had also been in the right place at the right time just moments earlier clearing a dangerous-looking ball across the box to safety. The fourth official signalled five minutes of injury time, and although the time seemed more like five years, we negotiated it relatively comfortably to secure our first league win of the season.
On reflection
All in all, it was a disappointing performance that you would expect to be punished should it happen again. The first-half especially was poor with our only real chance coming in the fourth minute. However, we would have probably lost this game last season as Di Matteo seems to have toughened up the defence and made us much tougher to beat. Jonas Olsson in particular was superb making several last-ditch challenges and winning a fair few important headers. To go to a team like Nottingham Forest, play badly but still win shows the quality in the squad, and the fact that on our day, we are one of the best teams in The Championship.