MOTM: Nottingham Forest 3-0 Bolton Wanderers

It’s becoming an impossible task in picking a MOTM every week when we’re not winning. Truth be told this match is harder than most because we were out of the game from the 12^th minute. A hesitant Ben Amos eventually came for the ball only to see hit knocked past him and take the man instead. Red card and the resultant penalty leaves us 1-0 down.

We were under siege pretty much the entire match but a couple of players did stand out. Liam Trotter: much maligned by fans and on the day but can’t help but feel the already deep ingrained dislike of him obscures his uses. Silva had some flashes of brilliance which were often snubbed out by his own players not being on his wavelength.

This week however it’s going to Gary Madine - ‘Goal Machine’. He got a shot on target which was celebrated as if we’d scored but not just that, there were other reasons too. He actually won a lot of his headers and flicked them in to dangerous positions. What was obvious is that both Feeney and Silva were not around to capitalise, they were nowhere around him. In fairness to them, they were busy dealing with the onslaught at the other end but even so on the rare occasions they were up the pitch, they were both nowhere near.

He kept doing this and winning them all evening. This made even more impressive that he was being fouled by Mills and co on a handful of occasions but got sod all of the referee.

The final reason I’m giving it to Gazza was he was the first over to applaud the fans, who were outstanding. The travellers outshone the home crowd by a country mile and it appears the players appreciated this. But while all the other players were exchanging pleasantries before coming over, Gaz’ was straight there, by himself. Whether you think so or not, it’s brave to face a group of vocal fans who’ve grown real tired of the shit on the pitch. For his efforts, he was treated a rendition of ‘Gary Madine, Goal Machine’ and roundly applauded.