Nottingham Forest 0 Scunthorpe United 4: Old boy Laws helps Forest to look on the bright side
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sympathy for a vanquished adversary is not an emotion many managers care to show, yet Brian Laws could not pretend it did not pain him a little to see his Scunthorpe side embarrass his old club on Saturday.
Forest were awful yet Laws, who had six years at the City Ground after Brian Clough signed him in 1988, sought not only to mitigate on their behalf but loyally insisted they will still win promotion in spite of a toothless performance that made Scunthorpe look a much likelier prospect.
Scunthorpe! The period during which Laws wore the Forest shirt was almost a decade on from the zenith of the club's achievements. "Forest will always find it tough against teams with less money and less potential because they [Forest] are the team to beat," he said. "Players are inspired by that and by playing at the City Ground, where the pitch is like a bowling green, and I thought our players today were very inspired. But Forest are a very good side and I still predict they will be promoted."
Scunthorpe kept the ball on the ground and tore Forest apart, although the goals scored by Clevedon Taylor, Andy Keogh, Iain Morris and Billy Sharp said as much about the home side's abject defending as the incisiveness of the visiting attack. Forest, however, remain top of League One and a defensive record of only six goals conceded in the first 12 matches of the season suggests this was an aberration rather than the portent of a downturn.
Colin Calderwood, their manager, is banking on that. "Hopefully, we have put all our bad performances into one basket in one day and it will not happen again until Easter," he said.
Goals: Taylor (28) 0-1; Keogh (36) 0-2; Morris (66) 0-3; Sharp (90) 0-4.
Nottingham Forest (4-4-2): Smith; Curtis, Breckin, Morgan, Bennett; Southall, Perch, Gary Holt, Commons; Lester, Grant Holt (Harris, 56). Substitutes not used: Pedersen (gk), Thompson, James, Hughes.
Scunthorpe United (4-4-2): Murphy; Hinds, Crosby, Foster, Williams (McBreen, 83); Taylor, Sparrow, Baraclough (Mackenzie, 84), Morris; Keogh, Sharp. Substitutes not used: Lillis (gk), Byrne, Mulligan.
Referee: I Williamson (Berkshire).
Booked: Nottingham Forest Commons, Lester; Scunthorpe United Hinds, Baraclough.
Man of the match: Sharp.
Attendance: 22,640.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments