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Cure is required for Reds goal woe: MATCH REPORT AND SLIDESHOW
NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1 v BARNSLEY 0: AND the award for Barnsley centre-forward most likely to score goes to 100 per cent defender Stephen Foster.
They went to 4-3-3, chucked on every forward at the club bar Michael Coulson, even pushed keeper Heinz Muller into the Forest box for a free-kick in time added on.
Centre-half Foster's header on to the crossbar was as good as it got in a game where Barnsley weren't really half bad if you don't count the 1-0 scoreline.
It's goals that are the issue and at the City Ground, Nottingham, they were the missing link.
Barnsley turned up in their nice new white away strip and the only blood spilled was supposed to be that of Forest manager Colin Calderwood when the board-room suits dropped the axe for not winning a home game since August.
Calderwood lives to fight another day thanks to Joe Garner's goal on 36 minutes and Donny are bottom of the league again.
Barnsley were 1-0 down and should have been 3-0 up at the break.
One chance, one goal was the score as far as Forest were concerned as they sipped half-time tea.
It was Nathan Tyson who had the assist with a great centre from the left which Garner headed down and in from well inside the box.
Muller hadn't made a save before he had to retrieve ball from net.
This morning's inquest at Oakwell is likely to point guilty fingers at Bobby Hassell, who should have stopped the supply line, and Denis Souza and Foster, who should have got to Garner.
"As a back four you have to stop crosses. We didn't stop the cross and they've got a free header in the box," Davey complained.
"It was a great cross and great header and you should probably give them a bit of credit for that," he added.
Maybe so.
But even Calderwood hadn't the foggiest how his team hadn't gone behind by then.
"Our poorest 20 minutes," he rated the spell immediately before Garner's header. And he knows a thing or two about poor with only three wins to his credit this Championship season.
Forest keeper Lee Camp had a huge game for the Caldwerwood cause. He was in action as early as the fourth minute, parrying away a shot from Jamal Campbell-Ryce after a clever pass from Anderson de Silva.
Camp saved the best for last. Deep in time added on, de Silva blasted a goalbound free-kick through a penalty-box throng (which included Barnsley keeper Muller). Camp deserved credit for even seeing it never mind stopping it.
No matter how good the keeper, Barnsley were guilty of messing up in the area.
Nothing new there then and that's why Davey made his deadline-day move for loan signing Jamie Cureton from Norwich.
The surprise was Cureton sitting on the bench on Saturday, the same spot he'd occupied for Norwich seven days earlier.
"I was tempted to start Jamie Cureton," Davey admitted. "But we had a good result against Burnley. I think you've got to be fair to your players.
"I started with the team from the other day, put Anderson back in with Martin Devaney being injured. I felt the strikers have done well over the last couple of weeks."
So Kayode Odejayi got a shirt and a start on the right with orders to join in with striker Jon Macken as and when.Simon Whaley was on the left and Campbell-Ryce alongside de Silva and Hugo Colace in the centre of midfield.
It worked and chances arrived in the Forest box.
Campbell-Ryce then set up Macken with a top cross from the right. Macken's glancing header dropped inches wide.
Another opening arrived for Macken moments later when de Silva threaded a pass through to him deep in the area. Only a great saving challenge from Brendan Moloney, on his debut for Forest, held up Macken and spared Camp.
The goal changed everything and Forest emerged after half-time transformed and the punters in their biggest crowd of the season at last got behind them.
Lewis McGugan began to look the best outfield player on the park and not just for smashing a 20-yarder on to Muller's crossbar.
Muller was active moments later parrying a top-drawer Joel Lynch blast from 25 yards over the bar.
Cureton came on with Whaley taken off. Maceo Rigters joined in too as Odejayi's afternoon finished early.
Cureton had half-chances; nothing like the first-half Macken miss or the last-minute Foster header on to the bar following a Campbell-Ryce cross. Davey reckoned he was pleased with what he saw of the 33-year-old who simply has to start against Reading on Saturday instead of Odejayi.
"He's a finisher, a sharp striker in and around the box," Davey declared and he sure wasn't talking about Odejayi.
"I felt that if I put him on he'd get a chance. A bit of good footwork and he got a couple of good shots off which is what Jamie is all about."
The real worry after losing at Forest is where the next point is coming from. Next up at Oakwell is third-from-top Reading with trips to Swansea and Wolves to follow.
"Before today if you'd looked at the next four games you'd have said Nottingham Forest was the easiest. It doesn't work like that," Davey claimed.
"We've had a fantastic run over the past 10 games and we've got 19 points. We want to continue to do that. If I can get 19 points from the next 10 I'll be happy.
"No disrespect to Nottingham Forest, who are a big club, but we should have finished them off today."
Too right.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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