The 2003/2004 Nottingham Forest league Campaign


By Michael Lynch
May 11 2004

The Nottingham Forest 2003/2004 Nationwode Football league Division One Campaign was not a brilliant one. In a season in which we promised so much we only managed a 14th place final league position.

The Season as a Whole- So this season did prove to be a major flop for the Reds- the only positive to come out of it the appointment of Joe Kinnear for the managerial vacancy left by Paul Hart. I s'pose this dampened the disappointment slightly.

Anyway, why was this season such a flop? Although I feel that one player does not cause a whole team to lose, I think the injury to 'Johno' did have a was a major factor on our season as a whole. The fact that he broke his tibia against Sheffield United and the fact that this season wouldn't have happened as it wasn't for the Blades means that next season the Blunts will surpass Direby as Forest's biggest rivals for me personally!

The Final League Table

Team P W D L F A Pts
C Norwich 46 28 10 8 79 39 94
P West Brom 46 25 11 10 64 42 86
P/O Sunderland 46 22 13 11 62 45 79
P/O West Ham 46 19 17 10 67 45 74
P/O Ipswich 46 21 10 15 84 72 73
P/O Crystal Palace 46 21 10 15 72 61 73
Wigan 46 18 17 11 60 45 71
Sheff Utd 46 20 11 15 65 56 71
Reading 46 20 10 16 55 57 70
Millwall 46 18 15 13 55 48 69
Stoke 46 18 12 16 58 55 66
Coventry 46 17 14 15 67 54 65
Cardiff 46 17 14 15 68 58 65
Nottm Forest 46 15 15 16 61 58 60
Preston 46 15 14 17 69 71 59
Watford 46 15 12 19 54 68 57
Rotherham 46 13 15 18 53 61 54
Crewe 46 14 11 21 57 66 53
Burnley 46 13 14 19 60 77 53
Derby 46 13 13 20 53 67 52
Gillingham 46 14 9 23 48 67 51
R Walsall 46 13 12 21 45 65 51
R Bradford 46 10 6 30 38 69 36
R Wimbledon 46 8 5 33 41 89 29

Player Stats

P W D L F A Pts
League 45 14 15 16 59 58 57
Cup 5 3 0 2 3 7
Lge Lge FAC FAC C Cup C Cup Other Other
apps goals apps goals apps goals apps goals
N Barmby 6 (0) 1 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
J Beaumont 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
J Biggins 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
E Bopp 9 (6) 1 1 (0) 0 1 (1) 2 0 (0) 0
B Cash 0 (1) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
M Chopra 3 (2) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
M Dawson 29 (0) 1 0 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
C Doig 7 (3) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (1) 0 0 (0) 0
P Evans 7 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
P Formann 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
R Gardner 1 (1) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
P Gerrard 7 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
B Gunnarsson 9 (4) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
M Harewood 19 (0) 12 0 (0) 0 3 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
A Impey 14 (1) 1 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
E Jess 20 (13) 2 0 (0) 0 0 (2) 0 0 (0) 0
D Johnson 9 (7) 6 0 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
M King 22 (1) 5 2 (0) 1 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
M Louis-Jean 37 (0) 1 2 (0) 0 2 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
S McPhail 13 (1) 0 0 (0) 0 2 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
W Morgan 30 (2) 2 1 (0) 0 3 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
D Oyen 4 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
J Perch 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
A Reid 45 (0) 13 2 (0) 0 3 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
G Robertson 12 (4) 0 2 (0) 0 1 (1) 0 0 (0) 0
B Roche 6 (2) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
A Rogers 11 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
D Sonner 19 (9) 0 1 (0) 0 3 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
M Stewart 11 (2) 0 0 (0) 0 1 (1) 0 0 (0) 0
D Tarka 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
G Taylor 28 (6) 8 2 (0) 0 2 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
J Thompson 26 (6) 1 1 (0) 0 3 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
D Walker 22 (2) 0 2 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
D Ward 32 (0) 0 2 (0) 0 3 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
C Westcarr 0 (3) 0 0 (1) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
G Williams 37 (1) 5 2 (0) 0 1 (1) 0 0 (0) 0

Fixtures and Results

August
9 Sunderland (H) - won 2-0
12 Port Vale (A, Carling Cup) - drew 0-0 aet, won 3-2 on pens
16 Reading (A) - lost 3-0
23 Cardiff (H) - lost 2-1
27 Coventry (A) - won 3-1
30 Norwich (H) - won 2-0
September
13 Sheff Utd (H) - won 3-1
16 Burnley (A) - won 3-0
20 Crewe (A) - lost 3-1
23 Tranmere (A, Carling Cup) - drew 0-0 aet, won 4-1 on pens
27 Derby (H) - drew 1-1
October
1 Preston (H) - lost 1-0
4 Stoke (A) - lost 2-1
14 Rotherham (H) - drew 2-2
18 Wimbledon (H) - won 6-0
22 West Ham (A) - drew 1-1
25 Bradford (A) - won 2-1
29 Portsmouth (H, Carling Cup) - lost 4-2 aet
November
1 Millwall (A) - lost 1-0
4 Walsall (A) - lost 4-1
8 Watford (H) - drew 1-1
22 Wigan (A) - drew 2-2
29 West Brom (H) - lost 3-0
December
3 Ipswich (H) - drew 1-1
6 Watford (A) - drew 1-1
13 Crystal Palace (A) - lost 1-0
26 Norwich (A) - lost 1-0
28 West Ham (H) - lost 2-0
January
3 West Brom (H, FA Cup) - won 1-0
10 Sunderland (A) - lost 1-0
17 Reading (H) - lost 1-0
25 Sheff Utd (H, FA Cup) - lost 3-0
31 Cardiff (A) - drew 0-0
February
7 Coventry (H) - lost 1-0
14 Walsall (H) - drew 3-3
21 Rotherham (A) - drew 1-1
25 Gillingham (H) - drew 0-0
28 Bradford (H) - won 2-1
March
2 Wimbledon (A) - won 1-0
6 Gillingham (A) - lost 2-1
13 Crystal Palace (H) - won 3-2
17 Burnley (H) - drew 1-1
20 Derby (A) - lost 4-2
27 Crewe (H) - won 2-0
April
3 Sheff Utd (A) - won 2-1
10 Stoke (H) - drew 0-0
12 Preston (A) - drew 2-2
17 Millwall (H) - drew 2-2
24 Ipswich (A) - won 2-1
May
1 Wigan (H) - won 1-0
9 West Brom (A) - won 2-0

Player of the Season- Awarded to Andy Reid after a season of brilliant performances. Towards the end of the season he did slightly lose his consistency but was there to score those amazing goals when we really needed him to. Well done 'Reidy.' Good luck for when you inevitably venture on to new pastures.

Four-Word-Expletive of the Season- This award without a doubt goes to Danny Sonner. He's basically just crap! Why on earth Paul Hart felt the need to sign-up a player that was released by bloody Walsall escapes me? Another panic buy by 'Harty?'

Disappointment of the Season- This is an honour that Paul Hart really does deserve. We really did worship this guy and the team's on-pitch performances made us forget that he is the most annoying man ever. But in a season in which we promised to deliver so much 'Harty' let half of our prize assets leave, brought in some crap players, and was over reluctant to scrap his diamond formation which we didn't have the players for. Also, he praised his players after every game by saying the same thing: "The lads worked their socks off."

Game of the Season- Nott'm Forest 2-2 Walsall - I doubt everybody else will agree with me but in my opinion this was the best game this season. We managed to turn it around brilliantly, earning ourselves a draw on exactly 90:00 through a Gareth Taylor header into the bottom-right hand corner and I remember jumping a few inches off the ground when that one went in!

Most embarrassing moment- Derby County 4-2 Forest (via a coffee cup) - It was embarrassing just having Barry Roche in goal, but the fact that he was beaten by the only cup you will ever see at pride Park makes it even worse. If ever meet the man that discarded his expresso cup on the turf...

Fans of the Season- Any of you that went to Bramall Lane was brill! The atmosphere was absolutely immense and we out sung the Blunt at their own place. 5,000 of us made the trip and if I knew all their names I'd give every single one a special mention!