Trigger’s Broom

In what feels like the first rainy day since the invention of predictive text, my 3-year-old daughter and I take shelter in the ever excellent Nottingham Contemporary. The idea is that the gallery provide materials for children to create something inspired by what they’ve seen in the exhibitions. Among the string, fabric and lollipop sticks is an enormous pile of old copies of the Nottingham Post.

What caught my eye as we removed our wet coats was a smiling Fawaz Al-Hasawi gazing out from the back page. As I riffle through five or six years worth of local footy news the same smile beams back at me again and again. However, as my fingers flick and my daughter snatches, the accompanying text changes as words like ‘hope’ become ‘disappointment’, ‘excitement’ becomes ‘losing patience’ until eventually ‘empty promises’ and ‘fan disgruntlement’ dominate the narrative.

Fawaz’ radiant smile is eventually torn up into what I’m reliably informed are wheels for a racing car and I can’t help but think back to the cringeworthy East Midlands Today feature on Fawaz where presenter Natalie Jackson was given access to his fleet of million pound supercars. Did he ever consider turning the image of his face into bespoke hubcaps?

In one sense, of course, the Fawaz era seems lightyears away and yet the crisp and colourful newsprint was a reminder that it’s far from ancient history. Indeed, for all the joy and excitement of our thirteen new signings this Summer it is, arguably, two faces from the Fawaz era that have given Forest fans the most joy over the past week…

Adlène Guedioura first donned the Garibaldi red in 2012 and Danny Fox joined the club in 2014. Both have been heroic in their strength, poise and leadership in the opening home games as Forest strive to make the transition to genuine promotion contenders this year.

Others have captured the excitement of Tuesday’s game against West Brom far better than I could, but it must seem absurd to those who weren’t there how much lyrical we’re prepared to wax about what was, on paper, a 1-1 draw. It was simply incredible – a juggernaut of a game with our giant Algerian as its engine.

Saturday’s match against Reading was always likely to struggle by comparison but Fox’s dominance gave us something to sing about until, eventually, the deadlock was broken by our not-so-giant Algerian.

As pleased as I was for Soudani, there’s also something quite satisfying about the fact that our star performers haven’t just been the record-breaking signings but actually it’s been the familiar faces (two prodigal sons of the City Ground) that have captured the imagination.

In a classic Only Fools and Horses episode, Trigger reflects on an award he’s received for saving the council money, having supposedly used the same broom for his road sweeping job for 20 years. The broom, he unwittingly reveals, has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles in that time.

As happy as I was to see my daughter scrunch our erstwhile owner’s face into a ball for her art project, at the same time I didn’t want my club to become Trigger’s Broom overnight – a club where the only thing that remains is its name. Thanks to the mighty Guedioura and Fox that hasn’t happened and it’s our smiling faces that have graced the back pages this week.

Gareth Watts (@TokyoBeatbox)