Away On Saturday: A Boxing Day battering...

Nottingham Forest 2-4 Doncaster Rovers
Coca-Cola Championship
Friday 26th December 2008

Rovers players celebrate during this season-changing win (Photo: Dan Westwell).

As the curtain came down on Colin Calderwood's two-and-a-half-year tenure at the City Ground in the dying embers of this very memorable match, it was undoubtedly a turning point in both Doncaster Rovers and Nottingham Forest's seasons.

Heading into the Boxing Day meeting, Rovers were languishing at the foot of the Championship table with just 18 points from 24 games and Sean O'Driscoll's team hadn't scored more than once in a game all season up to this point. Not many outsiders, therefore, would have expected to see such a drastic change in fortunes during the remainder of the season. Forest, meanwhile, who themselves had come up from League One the previous year, weren't exactly doing much better. They were also in the relegation zone - albeit with three more points to show for their efforts since and the pressure was so tense for Calderwood that it was very much public knowledge in the build up that he might need to win this game in order to save his job.

Martin Woods battles with Rob Earnshaw early in the game (Photo: Dan Westwell).

As 30,000 packed into the City Ground and often-arrogant referee Phil Dowd, led the two teams out from the tunnel, what unfolded was remarkable simply because on a bright but wintry afternoon with a chilly breeze, Rovers seized the initiative to such an extent that the writing was on the wall for Calderwood's future by the half-time interval.

Paul Heffernan (who, looking back, was remarkably making just his fourth league start of the season), made it 1-0 quite early on when he peeled away from his marker on the far edge of the six-yard box and saw his downward header be too precise for Forest 'keeper Lee Camp.

The 'monkey on the back' of Rovers having not bagged more than a solitary goal in a game all season was then removed - cue celebrations for that alone, just after the half-hour mark as Martin Woods capped off a fine and flowing passing move with a looping chip from the edge of the box to make it 2-0.

Grumbles, groans, moans, criticism and abuse from the City Ground natives were more than audible at this point, whilst one or two home fans had already left their seats to go to the concourse - clearly disgruntled with what was happening before their own eyes. By contrast, Rovers fans were singing deliriously with delight in the away end as it was promising to be a red letter occasion and one of those 'I WAS THERE!' type moments of which there were so many during the 2000s.

Forest fans' misery and anger then increased further just before half-time as they fell further behind - cue chants of 'Calderwood Out' from irate home supporters! The third goal actually owed much to a shade of good fortune as Richie Wellens' 25-yard free-kick wasn't particularly well struck, but it caught a wicked deflection off the defensive wall - thus resulting in the ball flying in the opposite direction to the one in which the wrong-footed Camp was going before it nestled in the net.

It was all over by half-time! (Photo: Dan Westwell).

Throughout the half-time break, there was celebration, disbelief, joy, chants and singing from the travelling army of around 3,000 Rovers fans who were in attendance. It was as if the season had finally begun and the grey clouds of despair and frustration which had built up over several weeks had been lifted during the space of just 45 minutes. Thousands of Forest fans, meanwhile, felt so incensed that many of them never returned to their seats to see the second half; instead they were spotted flocking up the banks of the River Trent in their droves! The first three goals all happened infront of the Trent End which no doubt rubbed salt into their gaping wounds.

Heffernan then made it 4-0 shortly after the hour mark with something of a 'poachers goal' as an earlier shot (possibly by John Spicer) was blocked on the line after another fine passing exchange, only for Heffernan to convert with another header from the edge of the six-yard box on the rebound.

The result was a foregone conclusion by this stage, but Forest did pull a couple of goals back in the final quarter of proceedings; one of which was an own goal by Sam Hird whilst the other was a strike by Joey Garner, but the damage had already been done and it was far too late for a comeback - and the inevitable seemed absolutely inevitable for Mr Calderwood.

By the time the visiting supporters coaches arrived back in Doncaster around 6.30pm, news had just filtered through that Forest were looking for a new manager and it surprised nobody.

Colin Calderwood bows out from the City Ground (Photo: Dan Westwell).

A story which I found out a few years later (when Calderwood was interviewed for the Mansfield job), was that he'd inadvertently been told he was leaving on the morning of the game. Forest, at this particular time, had a somewhat ditsy cleaner who had a habit for taking things she'd heard on the grapevine a bit too literally and one such thing was that the manager would be sacked soon. Therefore, she'd preceded to buy him flowers/chocolates/wine (something like that) as well as a card which said 'Sorry you're leaving us' and presented it to him a few hours before the game.

Knowing the lady in question, who also used to scare Joe Kinnear by moving a garden gnome around his office when he was boss - thus causing him to become paranoid as there was no explanation to it, Calderwood saw the funny side and explained he'd be going nowhere and that his imminent departure was 'just rumours' and speculation.

Six hours later, he'd been sacked and the cleaner was probably very confused by now.

Calderwood was replaced by Billy Davies, who kept the club in the Championship - even if his two tenures at the City Ground are probably more worthy of serialisation in a national newspaper, let alone a solitary blog post, due to all the many problems which he caused.

The result was a massive turning point in Rovers' fortunes as Burnley, Southampton, Sheffield United, Blackpool, Sheffield Wednesday, Bristol City, Derby County and Charlton Athletic were all beaten over the next 10 or so games - thus meaning that safety was nigh on confirmed long before the end of the season.

Nottingham Forest: Camp, Moloney, Wilson (Davies), Lynch (Tyson), Morgan, Perch, Anderson (Bennett), Cohen, Earnshaw, Garner, McGugan. Unused Subs: McCleary, Thornhill.
Doncaster Rovers: Sullivan, Mills, Hird, O'Connor, Chambers (Roberts), Woods, Stock (Wilson), Wellens, Spicer, Heffernan, Guy (Coppinger). Unused Subs: Lockwood, Taylor.