Legendary club Nottingham Forest relived the glory of its magnificent past as it humiliated Manchester City 3-0 in the third round of the FA Cup. While Mark Hughes was without the services of Stephen Ireland and Robinho, it is little consolation for the Citizens and could very well cost the manager his position.
While Man City had been dumped out of the Carling Cup earlier in the campaign the hope was with the new year a page had been turned and the success in the FA was imminent. However Man City task was uphill from the start as they lost Shaun Wright-Phillips to a hamstring injury after eighteen minutes in. While early efforts by Daniel Sturridge and an Ecuadorian international Felipe Caicedo were turned aside by Forest ‘keeper Paul Smith, Nathan Tyson made no mistake when a positively dreadful defensive blunder by Micah Richards eight minutes before the break resulted in the former Reading-man volleying the ball home from eighteen meters.
Forest’s new manager Billy Davies, sitting in the stands, must have wondered which squad was the Premier side as his side took a 2-0 lead when another defensive error, this by the normally reliable Pablo Zabaleta resulted in a Chris Cohen cross into the box for Matt Thornhill. With the resulting effort was heading off-course Wales international Robert Earnshaw sent the ball in three minutes before the break.
Finally in a match scarred with some highly unprofessional errors, Forest added the third with fifteen minutes remaining as veteran Dietmar Hamann’s sloppy throw-in to Richard Dunne as hi-jacked by the highly promising Joe Garner and dispatched into the net.
With the scoreline now 3-0, hope slowly evaporated from Eastlands and the club was “reminded” by supporters of disappointment as they left the pitch.
