Well, a great result in the end against Sheff Utd. Must admit there were a lot of nerves and twitchy bums during extra time, but what a save from Samba towards the end that took us to a penalty shoot out. I have to admit, I think the best team on the night lost but the best team over the two legs won and that's how it should be. As you can all imagine, there is massive interest in going to the play off final on May 29th and Grantham Branch are happy to announce that we will be taking 3 coaches to Wembley. Seats will only be allocated to those who have tickets, and payment will be taken in advance as we do not wish to be carrying shed loads of money from bus fares down in that there den of iniquity called London. You can ONLY apply for a seat via our facebook page, and payment must be made on either Tuesday or Wednesday night, BY CASH ONLY, at Grantham Railway Club between 7pm and 9pm. Anyone not paying before then will lose their seat to someone on the waiting list. PLEASE SEE OUR TRAVEL PAGE FOR COACH DETAILS. A result for us in the play off semi final first leg at Sheffield, we now need to move on to Tuesday and prove what we all know, that Forest are the best side in the league since Steve Cooper took over. We are all dreaming but of course there is a lot of work to be done yet. COYR PLAYER OF THE SEASON After counting all of the votes, Branch Members have voted SCOTT McKENNA as our Player of the Season 2021/22. We have a lovely engraved trophy for him and I am in discussion with Forest now about how we can present it to him. With everything that's going on around the play offs at the minute, it may not be this season, and if it is it will likely be low key, probably at the Academy or the Stadium one afternoon. If this is the case, then I have already put the process in place to get Scott down to our Branch for a Q & A evening during next season. Fingers crossed but more important matters to take care of first. ======================================================== Tickets for the play off semi final HOME leg are now on sale on the Forest website to season ticket holders. The precise date and opponents are not yet known, but as we can only finish 3rd or 4th it will be either Monday 16th or Tuesday 17th with a 7:45 kick off. A disappointing performance and result last night at Bournemouth, not just by Forest but by the officials also!!! However, we are guaranteed a play off spot in either 3rd or 4th place. At the end of September we would have snatched anyone's hand off for a play off place and whatever the outcome it has been a fantastic season. ======================================================= FA Cup Quarter Final v Liverpool This game will take place on Sunday 20th March with a 6pm Kick Off. Our branch will NOT be able to arrange any tickets for this FA Cup game. Those wishing to purchase should visit the club website on www.nottinghamforest.co.uk and follow the advice given on there. We will be running a coach and details will appear on the Travel Information page. The away game against FULHAM previously scheduled for the day before has now been postponed and will need to be rescheduled. Details will appear on here. 3rd MARCH IMPORTANT MESSAGE REGARDING BOOKING TRAVEL/TICKETS PLEASE NOTE THE PREVIOUS MOBILE NUMBER (07880910122) USED FOR BOOKING COACH TRAVEL AND/OR TICKETS HAS NOW BEEN DISCONTINUED. Anyone wishing to to book should now ONLY book via thye Grantham Supporters Group Facebook page. Last nights committee meeting discussed the retiming of the HOME coach departure after a complaint. The change took place due to the extensive road works on the A52 leading into Nottingham which are scheduled to last for around 18 months. The committee took all comments into consideration, and after looking at comments from regular traveler's on our facebook page decided that there were more people wishing this to continue with the earlier departure than there were against it. The coach is currently being delayed on it's journey by around 15 minutes, but the committee felt that if it was to revert to it's previous time of half an hour later, then it would have a bigger impact as more traffic would have built up. Not wishing anyone to miss the kick off, the new time will stand for the rest of this season and will be reviewed at the AGM. 3rd FEBRUARY 2022 IMPORTANT MESSAGE RE HOME COACH TRAVEL DUE TO ROAD WORKS ON THE A52 CAUSING SEVERE ROAD CONGESTION, THE HOME COACHES WILL BE DEPARTING 30 MINUTES EARLIER UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE STARTING WITH THE FA CUP TIE AGAINST LEICESTER CITY ON SUNDAY 6th FEBRUARY. THIS IS A 4pm KICK OFF AND THE COACH WILL NOW DEPART FROM CORBY GLEN AT 1:30pm PICKING UP AT THE USUAL STOPS EN ROUTE AND THROUGH GRANTHAM. FOR NORMAL 3pm HOME GAME KICK OFFS, i.e. STOKE CITY AND BRISTOL CITY, THE COACH WILL NOW DEPART CORBY GLEN AT 12:30pm. PLEASE BE AT YOUR NORMAL PICK UP POINT EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT. ALSO, KEEP LOOKING AT THE GRANTHAM BRANCH FACEBOOK PAGE FOR ANY OTHER NEWS OR ALTERATIONS. COYR After the fiasco that surrounded the half trip to Bournemouth this game has now been rescheduled for Tuesday May 3rd with a 7pm kick off. Travel details will appear on the travel information page on this site closer to the date. WELCOME BACK Well what a couple of games we have had as we now go into the International break. QPR away was almost as exciting as the Bristol City game with our 92nd minute equaliser. Once again the travelling Tricky's, 47 of whom were on the Grantham coach, went back elated. But for a couple of stonewall penalty appeals which were proven on tv but which the referee turned down, we would once again have gone home with all 3 points, however such a late equaliser still felt like a win. From a branch point of view, we decided to support Lyle Taylor's Pink October appeal for Cancer research, and a number of us decided to dye our hair pink, (although some wore wigs, bah!!). We collected donations on the coach, plus a couple of friends also made donations and of course we must mention the mother of one of our members who baked loads of cakes which we asked for donations for on the coach. They were scrumptious so many thanks to Will's Mum 'Lady Chandler Towers'. better known as Karen, lol. We even managed en route, to get our legendary Chairman Bob Taylor to have his hair sprayed with Pink dye to take part, as well as wearing his pink deely boppers. We had a great laugh and raised over £215 for Lyle's campaign, so many, many thanks to all those who took part and/or donated. On then to Preston North End at home. Steve made slight changes to his formation and Forest gave the 27000 fans inside the stadium a real display of attacking football. Goals from Lewis Grabban (2) and a well placed volley from man of the match Jack Colback sent us fans home savoring a good display and a 3-0 win. We head into the international break now with a real hope for further progress for the rest of the season after only 1 defeat in 10 games. What a turnaround with the same squad of players, but playing a different system since Chris Hughton was relieved of his duties. Well after such a turbulent 16 months or so we're finally back, and we welcome all of you, old friends and new. Hopefully all of you have come safely through this pandemic without any problems. For those of you that haven't, we all hope you have fully recovered or at least are well on the way to recovery. NFSC Grantham Branch hold their monthly meeting on Wednesday's and there are some changes to the committee for this season. Details can be found by looking on the committee link on the MORE Tab. There have also been changes to out travel arrangements, both HOME and AWAY as we will be using a different Coach company. Details of all games can be found on the TRAVEL INFORMATION page. COACH BOOKINGS and TICKETS We will hopefully still be able to get some tickets for away games, but these will be limited and so we will be asking that, wherever possible, you get your own ticket as we cannot guarantee one. Regular away traveller's will be given priority for those few tickets we are able to get, and they will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Details of how to book coach seats are given on the Travel Information page. I will attempt to update this site on a regular basis and let's all look forward to an entertaining and very successful season. COME ON YOU REDS ===================================================================================================================== A disappointing game against Fulham but all of us who were there know it definitely wasn't a 4-0 game. Fulham are a good side, that is clear, but we competed well and but for some basic errors we may well have come out of that game with something. For me the game turned on Lewis Grabban's spectacular miss in front of the Trent End. Had that gone in and made it 1-1 the whole game would have changed. Anyway, we move on and it is away at QPR this Friday, another tough game but I'm sure we will be in with a good chance against one of our former managers, 'The Breadman' Mark Warburton. Some of our members who will be travelling on our coach will be dyeing there hair PINK in support of Lyle Taylor's Pink October Cancer awareness tribute. All donations to Cancer research will be very welcome so please dig deep, Anyone who is not travelling with us but would like to donate can do so by dropping off the donation at Marren Tiles, 63-67 London Road Grantham. Please specify that it is a donation for this good cause, COYR A number of our regular away travellers have decided to dye their hair PINK for the away trip to QPR. This is in recognition and support of Lyle Taylor's Pink October campaign to raise money for Cancer research. Most of us know someone who has been affected by it and anyone who would like to donate to this charity can do so by donating on the away bus to QPR, or by sending a donation to NFSC Grantham Branch, c/o Marren Tiles, 67 London Road, Grantham. NG31 6HW stating it is for the Pink Hair QPR trip, or of course by donating to cancer research itself. Well, (again), the crest of a wave ride continues after great victories at Home to Blackpool and a fantastic finale away at Bristol City. It's a long time since we had that emotion at the end of a game and it made the long journey home so much better. There is so much more commitment and a never say die attitude now. Steve Cooper has already worked wonders in such a short space of time and whilst we know we aren't going to win every game, at least we know they will be trying too, and that makes such a refreshing change. Long may it continue. Well, the old regime under Chris Hughton has now been consigned to history and a new chapter has started and what a start, first under the mentorship of Steven Reid with a wonderful performance at Huddersfield, followed by the appointment of Steve Cooper as new manager. He wasn't able to get the first home win against Millwall but a very creditable draw against a good physical side. However, we have been in raptures since with two amazing performances away at both Barnsley and Birmingham, scoring 3 goals in each with only the one goal against. We are now into the international break but let's hope the excellent form continues, the football seems so much more attack minded and positive already. We have two of our committee taking apart in a Q & A session with the new manager so we will wait to see what he has to say and how he plans to take the club forward. We have been very well supported on our away coaches so far and thanks go to all of you who have travelled with us. We are always happy to see new faces on our travels and hope that you will continue to join in our happy busses, come win loss or draw. We also run coaches to all Home games, the advantage of this is a direct journey to the World Famous City Ground with no need to find parking for your own vehicles and a rapid departure avoiding most of the post match traffic. Details can be found on our travel page on this site and on our facebook page. Special Thanks go to Sleafordian Coaches, our new transport provider who are proving a first class carrier with comfortable coaches and excellent drivers. ===================================================================================================================== |