Why the smell of success may not be so sweet at the City Ground this weekend

IF anyone notices an unexpected, lingering odour at the City Ground on Saturday, there is a perfectly normal explanation.

Forest are not planning to open up an Italian or French restaurant to bolster their match-day income, nor do they fear an imminent plague of vampires.

But visitors to the stadium this week will have noticed an overpowering smell of .. garlic.

Indeed, yesterday, you could almost taste it, if you stood by the side of the pitch. Outside of Paris, nowhere in the world can have smelt more strongly of the stuff.

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But then, there was a man on a tractor spraying hundreds of gallons of garlic extract all over the pitch, for most of the afternoon.

Being the kind of person who intentionally brought a house with a patio, to avoid any kind of mower related nonsense, I'm not familiar which such things.

But the ground staff, in between holding their breath, happily informed us that there is no better way to prevent certain types of fungus growing in grass.

Apparently, the cocktail they were using had been mixed with lavender to take the edge off. If so, I'd hate to experience the pure version. Hopefully the overpowering, eye-watering whiff will have dissipated by Saturday.

But, if it hasn't, you can expect sales of garlic bread to treble in Felicini shortly after the final whistle.