Nottingham Forest (A) Match Preview

After Wednesday's cup win over Liverpool (How good does that sound!) its straight back to league action and a tough away fixture at in form Nottingham Forest.


Forest have climbed to 2nd in the table and are in a excellent run of form that saw them beat West Brom last Friday night at the Hawthorns. They are currently unbeaten away from home all season in the league, so possible a good thing that we are playing them at their place!


As well as Nathan Tyson, they also have ex Royal Nicky Shorey in their ranks. The left back is on loan from Aston Villa and will be coming up against the Royals for the first time since he left the Madejski Stadium.

Reading manager Brian McDermott -

'The important thing now is to prepare for Forest. I will probably watch the Liverpool game again, but we have a game against a good side on Saturday and it`s important that we go into that with the same intensity.'

Royals winger Jobi McAnuff -

'We`ve got to replicate the Liverpool performance as we have to get out of this situation. To be honest we haven`t been far away on a lot of occasions, it`s just been a case of missing the goals sometimes.'

Former Royal, and now Forest left back, Nickey Shorey-

'It`ll be a shame if I get a bad reception, I had a great time at Reading and got on well with the fans. I left on a bit of a sour note when we got relegated, but I don`t regret that and feel it was the right thing for me to do.'

Forest are going to be without striker Rob Earnshaw but they are not struggling in that department, with Dexter Blackstock likely to lead the line. Julian Bennett is the only other long term injury for Billy Davies, who will restore his first choice players after resting a number of them for the cup defeat to Birmingham in midweek.

Left back Shorey will be remembered as one of Reading's greatest ever players, and took his rightful place in the Vital Reading team of the decade just gone. He will be hoping for a good reception from the travelling fans but will also be out to get one over his former teams mates and continue Forest's promotion push.

The Royals could be without star performer Gylfi Sigurdsson who has picked up a knock at Liverpool on Wednesday, so McDermott may have to make at least one change from the side that was victorious at Anfield. He could also choose to rest Brynjar Gunnarsson after his man of the match performance in that game and give a debut to Andy Griffin. Gunnar Thorvaldsson should be involved after getting international clearance to complete his loan move but he is likely to be on the bench. Brian Howard is pushing for a recall with kalifa Cisse the man most likely to drop out if he does come in.

Royals winger nearly scored one of the greatest goals ever against Liverpool and will be keen to give Nicky Shorey a hard time down the Reading right. The former Watford man has been one of our key players so far this season and if we are to pull away from the relegation zone, he will need to be heavily involved.

Saturday 8th August 2009, Royals 0-0 Notts Forest. Madejski Stadium.

This is possibly the hardest game we could have faced after the heroics at Liverpool, but if McDermott freshen's the side up I can see us snatching a point as Forest are a better team away from home.

Saturday 23rd January 2010, Burnley (H) FA Cup 4th round.

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