DERBY TO FACE UNITED AGAIN

 

 

The last time Nottingham Forest made the FA Cup 4th round was in the 06/07 season when the then L1 team got caned 3-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. To find them winning a 4th round tie you have to go back to 04/05 when they were in the Championship and saw off then lower division side Peterborough 1-0 at the City Ground. Forest's East Midlands rivals Derby County have a better recent record, they made it this far last time round, when they were in the Premiership, only to get caned 4-1 by then lower division side Preston at Pride Park. They did a better job in 06/07 though, they may have been only a Championship side back then but they did beat lower division Bristol Rovers at Pride Park.

This time round, a Forest vs Derby encounter is an all-Championship affair with both sides at the lower half of the table. They had already fought out a 1-1 draw at Pride Park and the draw for the next round set the eventual winners up with a home tie against MUFC. So, cue an FA Cup 4th round replay at the City Ground involving a few subplots. Firstly, current Forest manager Billy Davies was untill recently County's gaffer. And then you have Nigel Clough. The current Derby manager isn't only the son of legendary Forest(and Derby) boss Brian Clough, he also played for Forest under his Dad during the early 90s. Encounters like this are never easy to predict.

Forest certainly weren't hanging around though. Chris Cohen collected the ball from a corner and curled it into the net to give the home side an early lead. Nathan Tyson was then taken down by the Derby goalie in the 14th minute and slotted in the resulting penalty. Derby were in no mood to give up though and managed to pull one back in the 27th minute when Gary Teale crossed to Rob Hulse who headed the ball in. The rest of the half proved to be fast paced with both sides having opportunities but when the whistle blew it was still Forest that held the lead but the Rams were certainly not out of the picture and a turnaround looked doable.

It was again Forest that had the opening chance of the second half but this one didn't go into the net. It didn't take the wind out of Derby's sails either and in the 60th minute the match was level after another Teale cross fell to Paul Green who had been left unmarked to score. Forest then ran into injury trouble which was the last thing they needed and though Forest did have some decent counter attacks but Derby still had big ideas of their own and in the 74th minute Kris Commons outsmarted a Forest defender before striking in the winner. Forest got off a late attack in an attempt to force injury time but the shot was scuffed wide and Derby took the glory.

Elsewhere, well the fourth round collected another Premiership mug when Championship Burnley beat West Brom 3-1 at Turf Moor. Arsenal's fate is up in the air after their match against Championship Cardiff at the Emirates Stadium was cancelled due to the white stuff that's appeared down south. That match now won't take place till after the fifth round matches are done. There were also two all-Premiership replays taking place, the first of which saw Everton beating Liverpool 1-0 at Goodison Park after extra time. The other result worth looking at saw Blackburn beating Sunderland at Ewood Park, again, after extra time. That gives nine Premiership sides a garunteed spot in the next round with a possible 10th joining them.

And so we have the fifth round coming up and United face Championship side Derby at Pride Park. First impression, a reminder of that big FA Cup stat that says that no lower division team has knocked United out of the FA Cup in the Fergie era. Then you remember that this is a rematch of the Carling Cup semi final earlier this season, specifically the embarrassing first leg. If history repeats itself this time around, there won't be a second leg for us to undo the damage. Which means that Fergie would be better off playing it safe by picking the strongest XI possible for this match. However if we do that then there shouldn't be any problem in reaching the quarter finals.

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