Davies baffled
BILLY Davies today described the decision to deny Nottingham Forest a last minute equaliser at Barnsley as 'incredible.'
Referee Kevin Friend ruled out a 90th-minute strike by Robert Earnshaw, after Luke Steele had fumbled the ball, for a foul on the keeper.
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Robert Earnshaw's effort is ruled out
The Leicestershire official also awarded a penalty against Earnshaw earlier in the game, after Emile Teixeira had gone down in the box.
"Wait until you see the footage of it – it was incredible. Incredible," said Davies. "But he has ruled out the goal.
"As for the penalty, Earnshaw claims that he never touched their player. There was also an infringement in the build-up to it.
"These things happen when luck is against you and luck is against us."
The 2-1 defeat at Oakwell leaves Forest eight points behind second-placed West Brom, but Davies has refused to rule out automatic promotion following a match his side might have won if not for several missed chances, including two from Dele Adebola in the first half.
"There are plenty of positives to take out of the game. They have given us great hope and inspiration with the energy they played with and the chances they had," he said.
"The difference between winning and losing is taking those chances – but I thought Dele led the line brilliantly. I thought the whole team deserve great credit.
"We have to keep working away. I am saying to you, let's see what happens. I have seen eight, nine and ten point gaps turned around in the space of four or five matches.
"Unthinkable things happen in football. The most important thing is that we wait and see what happens.
"You are talking about a young side and a situation where these players are going through something they have not been through before.
"They are doing all they can to win matches. We are in a healthy position and, if they keep giving us that level of performance, we will win a lot of matches."
Davies recognises the need to turn around Forest's form away from home, following a sixth straight defeat.
"We have to stop the rot away from home. But this was a different ball game. We were hungry and showed a lot of desire. I thought we were first class," he said. "The standing ovation we got from our fans at he end told you everything."
10 Comments
by Chris, London
Friday, March 19 2010, 1:23PM
“It is true that the left back has been a problem all season for us and it really should have been sorted by now. Shorey was never the quickest of players but what he did bring was a huge calming influence to the back four, this breeds confidence very quickly and its obvious to see we have not had the same balance since he left. But ifs and ands as usual, I am suprised no-one is available to come in on loan from the Prem, we have been a bit unlucky this week but I'm sure hopefully with a home win tomorrow then away win will not be too far away.”
by Sour Grapes, The Fruit bowl
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 10:33PM
“"These things happen when luck is against you and luck is against us."
Erm, hang on Krankie. Are you saying you didn;t have the rub of the green against Swansea?!”
by Sour Grapes, The fruit bowl
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 10:32PM
“"These things happen when luck is against you and luck is against us."
Erm, hang on. Are you saying you didn't get the rub of the green against Swansea Krankie?”
by Steve, Nottm
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 8:33PM
“If you want to see the 'goal disallowed' go on youtube and search Forest vs Barnsley”
by Stuart, Leicester
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 5:37PM
“I would like to get promoted, who wouldn't? And yes, I will be gutted if we don't. However, we would need to sign about 10 players in the summer of premiership quality to stand a chance of not coming straight back down.
We have a tiny squad, which has a mix of really exciting and distinctly average players (the latter refers to the likes of Garner, Lynch, Smith, etc). If we go up with this squad, we come straight back down and probably end up in a similar situation to that of Derby, Boro, Sheff Utd.
If we don't go up this season, we strengthen in the summer, building on the potential of the squad we have, eliminating the desperate need for January signings and providing the strength in depth to cover injuries, etc. We finish top, with a more experienced squad and only have to make 3or 4 additions in the promotion summer.
Then we stay up, get into the top half, get into Europe, win a couple of trophies and eventually mega-rich Prem and Euro champions within 10 years.
EASY!!!”
by HackneyRed, London
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 5:35PM
“Typical refereeing from our friend, Friend.
Whether this incident is shown on the "highlights" by the BBC or not I'll wait and see.”
by Billy Stone, Cheltenham Races
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 4:10PM
“Looks like Billy is getting the excuses in now the luck has run out and the wheels have come off !”
by MattD77, Notts
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 12:31PM
“I agree and disagree with what has been said so far...
YES not signing playes in January is hurting us, as you can see from our form since January.
YES we need a Left Back - and hav not had a decent permanent signing since Pearce!!
YES the AP has helped reduce the flow of "end of their career" freeloaders we had running through ouor club over the past few seasons
NO we don't want to just lob the other players in to see what they can do, as it will cause more damage than good, as they are not match fit due to the ridiculous notion of scrapping the Reserve Team!!
We still have players who are not good enough at this level - Moussi, Garner and Lynch being the ones that immediately spring to mind, and have players who are too fragile or injury prone - Tyson im staring at you!!
I think Billy should look at his squad, and pick players to play in their natural positions (other than LB of course) rather than players he wants to play.
Anderson & Cohen are often on the wrong sides for my liking (and Anderson wasn't even in the starting line up last night!) and have to cut in which kills a flowing move, and provides weaker balls to the front men.
Cohen also goes wandering and never stays wide.....not his fault he is a central midfielder, and a damned good one too.....but this leaves massive gaps when we are defending in midfield.
Anyway, we are in a brilliant position in 3rd - who would have thought after last leason - and I think people need to relax a little, and enjoy the ride, as it has been quite a while since we have been able to do that!!”
by CraigNFFC, Notts
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 9:13AM
“We looked poor last night I thought. Raddi ran his socks off, Dele did well up front, and Dex looked like a goal threat as soon as he came on.
Earnshaw played ok but didn't really receive the ball in right areas.
Boyd however was very poor, its clearly not helping him not having a natural left-back in support but even so, he wasn't in the game at all.
Tyson didn't have the impact he's capable of and Ando from the start would've been better, at least it would've helped us keep the ball down.
Maybe its time to throw in the likes of Garner, McGoldrick, and Chambers to try a new approach. Maybe Gunter on the left and Chambers playing right back might work - you may look Gunter's attacking threat but keep the back four back and let the 6 in front worry about going forward.
Its such a shame that we've not managed to strengthen, its hard to ignore the fact that this away run wouldn't have even started had we at least signed (even on loan) a left back.
It might not have been a Shorey quality LB but surely there are half decent LB's out there which can play better than Perch who has to cut inside everytime.
Match Talk reported on morning an incredible stat of something like when we had Shorey he played like 9 games where we won 7 and drew 2... or something close to that. Moral of the story... WE NEED A LEFT BACK!!
Bottom line is that if we go up we need automatic more than WBA since we need the extra month to get as many things in place for life in the Prem having not been there for so long.
If we do get automatic with the current squad it will be a miracle and we'll have gotten away with it again. The "it" being not signing anyone, the only bonus being we can buy better players from the get go... i wouldn't like to be in Newcastles shoes where they have sooo many average championship players... i realise they are at the top of the league at the moment but thats still down to the ex-prem players they've got rather than the likes of Leon Best et al who they've signed in Jan.
We got away with it last season in Jan but as a result don't have people like Rob Jones on the books taking up space and money... a player who isn't even getting in Scunny's side!!
People wonder whether the AP stop certain signings... they clearly think twice about some, and so far (lucky or not) we've benefitted by not having loads of crap players.
Recently its clear from reports that Billy has been ringing around and getting knock backs on players... wasn't he doing the ringing around back in January then? Why does it suddenly seem as though we've gone from "heres a list of people i want" to "i'm ringing every man and their dog at the moment"?!
Just get a LB... any LB will probably do and there must be some out there!!”
by Gary, Hougham
Wednesday, March 17 2010, 8:01AM
“Fact is; we are now looking at the gap to those below us rather than the gap to those above.
Fact is; the failure to strengthen the squad will cost us that automatic promotion place.
Fact is; if certain people at the top at Forest had done their jobs better and backed an overachieving manager when he wanted it, we would be looking towards an automatic promotion rather than now, hanging onto a playoff place!
Mark Arthur and co have failed us all! Simple as that.”