{"id":14614,"date":"2026-10-19T13:16:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T12:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14614"},"modified":"2026-10-19T13:16:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T12:16:43","slug":"noni-wins-it-as-arsenal-labour-at-the-city-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14614","title":{"rendered":"Noni wins it as Arsenal labour at the City ground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id='n2zzbT-8RbhZu-md8DYUew' class='gie-single' href='https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2300834559' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;' rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'n2zzbT-8RbhZu-md8DYUew',sig:'CMEYIWIJbjJaMKZpipSj45foxokaFFE6rKjR8gNJpG0=',w:'594px',h:'394px',items:'2300834559',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Nottingham Forest away is one of my favourite away days. It isn\u2019t usually for the football. We\u2019ve suffered through some godawful games in the last few years, with the last two being 0-0. But there is something about this old fashioned little ground, built in 1898,&nbsp; in West Bridgeford (capacity 30,000 or so) just over the bridge by the Trent river, just down from Trent Bridge cricket ground (increasingly a haunt of mine), surrounded by terraced housing and with a storied past. The clubs have very long links as well. We always get a big chunk of the lower tier, which used to be the Bridgeford stand but was renamed the John Robertson stand in May of this year. All the away fans are lower tier, as at the Emirates, and very different to other places I could mention. It all helps the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another reason is how easy it is to get to for us. It was a day of glorious autumn sunshine as we left St Ives. 90 minutes later we were parking up on the drive of one of the terraced houses just the other side of Ratcliffe road. Into the ground, and a very pleasant sit in the sunshine from our seats by the corner flag as we stared at our phones and digested the early game results. The team news was in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Raya<br>White, Gabriel, Konsa, Calafiori<br>Rice, Guimaraes, Odegaard<br>Saka, Havertz, Eze<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bench: Meslier, Timber, Lewis-Skelly, Mosquera, Zubimendi, Merino, Madueke, Dowman, Gyokeres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The teams came out and we were off. That pleasant sun was right in our faces and made it very difficult to see. That was actually a blessing, as the football, from both sides, was awful. Forest dropped back into a very low 5-4-1 block, which was very narrow, with Delap up top their sole attacker fielding long balls from the keeper and defenders, by passing midfield completely. It reminded me a bit of John Beck\u2019s Cambridge United team of the early 90s. We were just stodgy and couldn\u2019t find a way through them. Eze doesn\u2019t seem to be enjoying the left wing and only had one run of note (he was promptly hacked down). Kai was bang off it, no energy or imagination. Saka was double teamed and usually ended up passing back inside to Odegaard or White.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crowd started off in a lively fashion. We reminded them that we knew what we are, and that was the Champions of England. They replied that Champions of Europe, we\u2019d never sing that. As one, we instantly replied, in time honoured fashion, Champions of Europe, you weren\u2019t even born. As a traditionalist, I like it when these historical exchanges are reprised. Everyone knows their place. But as the half wore on, both sets of fans grew quieter as the grimness of the fare put before that became apparent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We will draw a line under the rest of the first half. At half time, Arteta replaced Eze with Noni to give the team more width. He immediately made a difference, receiving the ball wide and&nbsp; putting in excellent left foot crosses. On 66 minutes, Arteta made a triple change. Merino for Bruno, Timber for White and Gyokeres for Havertz.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We immediately looked better. Quicker, more direct. Gabriel headed over from a corner (I\u2019m getting worried about Nicolas Jover. How is Mrs Jover going to feed the children without all those set piece bonuses?). Odegaard laid in Timber on the right, who cut back a lovely ball to Rice who from a great and unmarked position, blazed it over.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, on 80 minutes, it happened. A ball was scooped into the box and headed away. Rice alertly won the second ball and fed Noni on the left wing, right in front of us. He cut inside, into the area, clearly with one thing on his mind and unleashed a powerful right footed shot which took a deflection and went into the top corner (it may have been beating the keeper anyway, it was hit so hard).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Arsenal faithful (who were much louder in the second half) went mad. Uber limbs all over. Noni\u2019s song rent the West Bridgeford air. We decided to tell the Forest fans that it was one nil to the Champions, in case they couldn\u2019t see the scoreboard. Now all we had to do was see the game out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It wasn\u2019t that easy. My muttering became louder and more intense as we repeatedly pushed forward leaving only a couple of defenders at the back. In the last ten minutes we were caught on the break three (count them) times. Murillo went on a mazy run and we were lucky as he placed his bending shot just wide of the post with Raya beaten. Chris Wood dithered inside the area and Rice made a good block. Finally Delap (who was very good throughout, much better than I had seen him with either Ipswich or Chelsea) was laid in by Hudson Odoi and we were only saved by a thundering block by Ezri Konsa. A corner ensued right at the end of injury time. Their keeper came up. But Michael Oliver blew up for a foul, and from our free kick, blew time. More pandemonium as the team came over and celebrated in front of us. Declan pushed Noni forward to take his bow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Noni was a deserved man of the match. He was superb. Vik had his best game bar a goal for us. He won every one of the balls knocked up to them ran with energy and determination, controlled that ball well and laid it off. Konsa and Gabriel were given a tricky game by Delap but defended manfully. We won after really not playing well at all. But we found a way. Despite their lowly position, Forest are not a bad team, as our recent results show. But we found a way. That\u2019s what champions do. Isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A fifteen minute walk away from the away end is Trent Bridge cricket ground. Part of Trent Bridge is the fabled Trent Bridge Inn. On the other side of the street lies the Bombay Bridgeford, our favourite restaurant on the Premier League circuit. There a delicious chilled pint of Cobra, some excellent food and warm hospitality awaited us. As we enjoyed our meal, in the packed out curry house, we were able to overhear people in red and white scarves and replica shirts bemoaning those last three wasted chances and, generally, crying into their beer. Shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our car was a gentle stroll away. After another 90 minute run we were home by 9.30. Another excellent away day. COYG.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Nottingham Forest away is one of my favourite away days. It isn\u2019t usually for the football. We\u2019ve suffered through some godawful games in the last few years, with the last two being 0-0. But there is something about this old fashioned little ground, built in 1898,&nbsp; in West Bridgeford (capacity 30,000 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14618,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14614\/revisions\/14618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}