Sir Paul and King Billy

I went to see Paul McCartney in Holland last week. A mind-blowing concert. I saw a fantastic musician, singer and songwriter. I saw know-how, to use a bit of horrible business terminology. I saw great passion still to play those old songs. They sounded fresh, almost new, even if we knew them well enough to sing along to nearly every word, all 30,000 of us. Careful as I am when I have a ticket to see a legend of this magnitude, I had said to myself that this may very well be a case of old glory, that it would never live up to my massive expectations. But it wasn’t, and it did. It was phenomenal. Easily the best concert I have ever seen. Nothing about it suggested any “former.” It was all glory. Paul played and sang for nearly three hours. Didn’t miss a note. The man is 67. To think he once wondered if we would still need him when he’d be 64! Younger bands should watch a show like this once a year, to get some perspective. That is you, Chris Martin. And you, Bono. You’re not fit to polish Macca’s guitar. I went home a happy man. I had spent nearly three hours a mere 12 metres away from a Beatle. Cloud Nine! Even if that is a George album. I have been playing Beatles, Wings and Macca albums ever since. I just can’t bring myself to put anything else on.

I have the same feeling about Forest at the moment. While the past eight to ten years often felt like we were supporting a team whose greatness was very much in the past, this season it seems much more about the here and now and even the future. Of course first hand I can only judge by the footage I can see on the BBC League Football show, but my opinion is largely backed by the reports I read, the forums I check and the mailing list that I am part of. We are playing some great football at times. Flowing, passing football that is a joy to watch. Robert Earnshaw’s first goal against Leicester was a prime example. The attack had everything. Pace, speed, vision, a dummy, a shimmy, and a fantastic finish to boot. It was almost like watching Arsenal. And at the back, we hardly give anything away, either. It’s been 13 games now since we last lost. I can’t possibly say how long we’ve had to wait for a run like this.

At first, we protected ourselves from euphoria by saying that it was only smaller teams that we were beating or getting points off. But then we beat Newcastle and drew Middlesbrough and Cardiff, both actual competitors for promotion, both away. Then followed a 4-1 demolition of Doncaster. They are a fair bit lower in terms of league position, true, but 4-1 is a big result. And it got even better last week. When number four plays number three, you can reasonably expect a tense affair, with not too much in it. But Forest brushed Leicester aside like they were playing the reserves team! 5-1 was not the result anyone expected. The bookies would have looked at you like you were a raving madman if you’d put a fiver on that one. We’re so good right now that the 0-0 in Sheffield against the Blades felt almost like a let-down, even if a point away at Bramall Lane is a more than decent result. We didn’t play well, some even said we were a bit rubbish, but we still got that away point. And if we needed proof that we don’t need to play our best football to win games, this duly came last Saturday, when a single David McGoldrick goal dispensed with Swansea at their place. We soaked up a lot of pressure and, admittedly, Swansea were unlucky and a bit careless in finishing, but again: job done. Another massive result that got us to within two points of the automatic promotion places. Where our away form was a big problem over the past seasons, it is now simply impeccable. We haven’t lost away. All season.

Talk on the mailing lists and forums is no longer about impending doom in the form of relegation. We now talk about what will happen if we make it into the Premier League. Are we ready or not? Would it be better to stay in the Championship for another season and keep building gradually? Or would the money be good and in any case, we would get the parachute payment if we went back down? It’s a whole different mind set. And it feels a lot better.

Just like Paul McCartney managed to ignite all those old songs with a spark and make them sound brand new, Billy Davies seems to have instilled a new energy, a new sense of purpose in Nottingham Forest FC. I was a bit cynical when he first came to the club, mainly due to his record in the Premier League with our neighbours The Unmentionables, and a nagging little voice in the back of my head still says we can’t be sure he can manage in that top flight, but right here, right now, King Billy is the man for the job and I doff my hat to him. I cannot remember feeling this good about our club since the last promotion season out of this same division, then still called, inanely, the First Division, which it blatantly was not. Proud, always, but it had become a sort of blind pride, against better judgment at times. But this feels utterly, utterly great. The same sort of great as standing a small pub’s length away from Paul McCartney. Long may it last.

Be good.
Red Devil