Often Partisan

Return of the Eck – Forest Preview

Today sees the return of Big Eck to St Andrews as Blues look to try to complete back to back wins for the first time this season. It promises to be a fiery day as it’s the former manager’s first return to the club since he left in the summer of 2011.

Forest

The tricky trees come to Blues in indifferent form, having won two, drawn two and lost two of their last six Championship games. However, under new manager Alex McLeish Forest have only won one game in six and the pressure is already on after the unexpected sacking of Sean o’Driscoll; they also have not won away from home since November.

It nearly wasn’t to be for Eck either – there were rumours that he had walked on Thursday night after a deadline day that saw him miss out on three players including George Boyd from Peterborough after he apparently failed an eye test. As such, Forest have only made the addition of Kuwaiti keeper Khaled Al-Rashidi in the last few days and he is expected to be on the bench today.

Blues

Blues had a surprisingly good deadline day, only losing Jack Butland (who is to remain on loan until the end of the season) with Bournemouth striker Wes Thomas also coming on loan. Thomas goes straight into the squad and joins the returning Jonathan Spector in the mix for a place in the 18.

I suspect it’s unlikely that we will see many changes from the XI that beat Burnley last week as Blues find themselves with a chance to register back to back wins for the first time this season. Forest might be in 10th position, seven points ahead of Blues but recent uncertainty within their camp coupled with some unhappy fans mean that this could be a chance for Blues to seize the initiative.

The hope today is that Clark goes for it, remains positive and the crowd stay onside despite the potential distractions of McLeish and possible protest before, during and after the game against the owners. I think this is a winnable game and for the first time in a while I’m feeling positive about it.

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18 Responses to “Return of the Eck – Forest Preview”

  • Mickey07 says:

    Don’t get to excited it will be a powder puff affair with eck just getting a few things shouted at him but that will be it,everyone will be going ome thinking “was that it”…anyway hope we just get the points.

  • andy says:

    I think we can all expect to see a hostile reception for McLeish but we should also show some respect. The guy, along with his Blues team, gave us our greatest day, the first and possibly only Major Trophy in our lifetime.

  • GoodyBlueShoes says:

    BCFC 2

    Nottingham Forest 2

  • glyn rees says:

    I remember the return of Savage and my god what a receiption that was, it visibly shook him as he said after scoring the winner. 3-0 BLUES we are on our way Kro4ever

  • Retired&weary says:

    I do hope that Blues fans behave like grown ups today, after all we did have some good times under Big Eck’s reign. Yes, he should have got the sack when we were relegated after wiining the cup & being in a fairly secure position at the time. CY of course couldn’t afford the pay off, so Eck did us a favour by resigning, & Villa did us an even bigger favour by paying us for him!
    To be fair the cup win was followed by the loss of our 2 most influential players to injury – Zigic & Ferguson (he did play again eventually, but was not fit). Then Gardner lost the plot against Wolves (or was it the Ref who lost it?) – small margins.
    I didn’t get round to comment about the transfer window yesterday, but I must say I was very disappointed to see the best player to come through the ranks since TF being virtually given away.
    I know PP managed expectations a few weeks ago, & so there was an air of resignation & relief yesterday. To me, however, It was like we had sold TF for £50k when he was 17 or 18. At least I had the best 10 years of my time watching Blues seeing him play. For younger fans it was having a Dugarry for 10 years not 6 months. At least we did get a record fee for him when he went & he did go on to achieve great things.

  • Blue Steve says:

    Totally agree a winnable game today. I’d like to see this team:-

    Butland

    Caddis Davies Caldwell Robinson

    Burke Spector O’Reilly Hall

    Zigic King

  • DoctorD says:

    Good times for a change
    See, the luck I’ve had
    Can make a good man
    Turn bad

    So please please please
    Let me, let me, let me
    Let me get what I want
    This time

  • Richard Granfield says:

    I hope Eck doesn’t get abuse today.He did what he thought was right for him at the time.
    It turned out that it was a disaster for him,but that’s life.
    All fans need to accept that in the professional game (players and managers) there is no loyalty.
    If we as fans are offered a job with more money 9 times out of 10 we would take it,

    • Blue in Spain says:

      It was just the way it was carried out, resigning by email, Villa trying to get out of paying compensation, thats what left a bitter taste. It also looks as if him and Villa haven’t learnt either,as Villa did the same for Lambert, and it looks like mcleish was lined up before O’Driscoll was even sacked. Still it looks like his job at Forest isn’t as rosy as he first thought!

  • skareggae72 says:

    I hope McLeish gets a good amount of good natured banter & stick today,& that it stays decent.
    A protest,i don’t think we need one after the desperate looking firesale failed to happen,although we now find ourselves in the situation of bringing through other clubs young players(JB)-best wishes to Jack anyhow,especially internationally.

    Is it written that Chris Burke will get a late winner today,when it looked highly likely he would be playing against us today,& probably been man of match,but thankfully a paltry £300k was refused-unlucky Alex!

  • Matt says:

    Prediction:

    He’ll get boo’d when he walks out for the first half. He’ll get boo’d when he walks back in for half time. Repeat in the second half. When Forest sing “Alex, Alex, Give us a wave” we’ll reply with “The ginger is yours……” and that’ll be about it.

    Love him or hate him, I had the best days of my Birmingham City supporting life under that little ginger judas and as such I’d actually like to give him a round of applause for that.

    His choice to leave to was badly timed, badly delivered and badly advised. If any of us got headhunted by a competitor company we would most likely go if the offer was attractive, the fact that he did the same in an open jobs market is no different. Sure, we thought he owed us some loyalty, just like our bosses would if we suddenly up and walked out. Life isn’t fair, take a ticket and join the “I’d like to bitch and moan” queue.

    He gave us a day out at Wembley we’ll never forget. He won us a major trophy. He took us to Europe. He damn near sank the V*lla and the effects are still being felt this year. He’s hardly setting the world alight at Forest despite a massive backer with immeasurable funds.

    Why would we boo that?! It’s like your Mrs dumping you then going and getting really ugly, fat, spotty and dating some utter loser.

    We’ve Got Lee Clark….. The Ginger Is YOURS!!!!!

  • zenzero says:

    God people are spelling Reilly wrong now (O’Reilly), bad enough weve had Clark as manager for nearly a year now and people still spell it Clarke.

  • Tilton10 says:

    The hope today is that Clark goes for it! 29 games into the season and he hasn’t done it yet! Lets try and win it instead of substitutions to rescue it! KRO!

  • sam says:

    If he d gone anywhere else after us id clap him today for the memories but
    going to the villa he instantly lost my respect !

  • Blue in Spain says:

    Great win… and Burke, who’d have guessed!

  • Flying Doctor says:

    Best chant today was “We’ve all been on a European tour” Oh, the irony.


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