Lunch time on boxing day

We didnt get a nosebleed in their half and didnt collapse after going behind. Cooper would have gone for damage limitation.

I don't know if it was a Cooper / Nuno change, but we probably played more balls to Wood's feet today than we have his entire time here. I've heard countless times "Wood can't do the things that Taiwo does so we have to play differently with him in the side", but that looked like a pretty good Taiwo impression to me.

So 17 points from the first half of the season. Match that in the second half and I think we'll be safe.

Obviously switches to mostly top teams at home and bottom half away, so improved away form is vital.

Of course it was different, Cooper would have gone for damage limitation. We had more possession and a lot more shots on target than almost all Coopers games in the premier. Also there was fight, spirit and desire all missing under Cooper.

Now in the unusual position of wanting a Sheff U win - would maintain the 5 point gap between us and the relegation spots, and secure WTIH status for another year. Wilder isn't as unpleasant as Yorkshirebottom so I can live with it.

I think part of it as well was that Elanga's pace had their entire back line terrified - they were trying to push up to keep the pressure on us in our half, but the centre halves had to keep shading towards Elanga to give Burn some help, and that created extra space for Wood and MGW.

I expect a coach to try to win a game and not fear conceding at the cost of scoring. Coopers football was ultra defensive and shocking to watch.

Gets them to the WTIH point after only half the season. The annual reminder of just how jawdroppingly bad Derby were.

Morgan, in particular, was superb in the second half. They couldn't get the ball off him and his close control is fantastic.

Funny moment in the post match interviews with Wood and Morgan, the interviewer said something like "Chris, that second goal in particular was not a typical Chris Wood goal" and the two of them gave each other a confused/amused look before he gave a typical footballese answer. I think it was Dyche who said that Wood is continually pigeonholed as some kind of battering ram striker whose primary threat is in the air, when that's not what he is at all.

MGW was superb and I don’t know if it’s a NES vs SSC thing, but where he’s struggled to be effective this season, today he was clearly designed to be in the thick of it, harrying his man constantly. As he did a good job of that, he was winning the ball in good areas where his touch, flicks, and close control were assets which they are not, so much, when he’s out wide or receiving the ball in space. So we had our most talented attacking player able to do creative things, with three players ahead of him.. perhaps a big reason why we looked a more constant and coherent attacking threat than we generally have done.

It was Dyche, yes. He can score goals with his head (qv Blunts game earlier this season), but because of his build people assume he must be some sort of Antipodean Niall Quinn… which he certainly isn’t.

Too early to tell and not enough sample size yet, but it can be interesting what a different pair of eyes and a slight change of emphasis can do - I was listening rather than watching, and at one point the Beeb guy said something along the lines of “Forest have a clear plan snd are executing it perfectly”. In recent times that wasn’t always the case under SSC. I think he knew how he wanted to play, but sadly his ability to get the players to do it consistently across 90 minutes seemed to desert him towards the end. By the sound of it, our players had clear heads today, and played like it.

Only time will tell whether this was a rare example of it clicking, or a season-turning performance.