Forest felled by Richards double
A sequence of 13 home games without defeat came to a despairing end for Nottingham Forest at the City Ground last night. A chorus of boos on the final whistle from the home fans among the club’s lowest Coca-Cola League One crowd of the season, 16,237, taunted Forest after Barnsley had cantered to a 2-0 victory that lifted them to fourth position in the table.
Pitiful defending allowed Marc Richards to open the scoring in the fifteenth minute and the Barnsley forward benefited from similar deficiencies 16 minutes later, punishing the ponderous Wes Morgan with a fine swerving finish from 30 yards. Despite investing £1 million on players during the January transfer window, Forest were patently second best and the margin of defeat flattered them.
Barnsley were profligate with a number of first-half chances and Paul Hayes shot against the crossbar after a smart one-two with Richards a minute after the interval. Forest’s woe was compounded when Nathan Tyson was dismissed for a second yellow card in time added on, the Forest player’s lunge on Jacob Burns epitomising his team’s frustration.
DAVID McVAY
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Southampton bid
Consortiums, it seems, are like Southampton buses — none for ages, then two come along at once. News broke on Wednesday that a group of four Hampshire business people were preparing to bid about £3 million for a third of the club with a view to replacing Rupert Lowe as chairman. Yesterday, it was learnt that a second consortium is to offer the full market value of just under £10 million for the entire club.
The original consortium is now believed to be seven strong, after receiving offers of support since breaking cover. Its planning will probably include a raised offer for more of the club. The winner in any bidding war could be Lowe, who stands to be offered more than the value of his holding — understood to be about £625,000 — to step aside.
Yesterday, the club announced half-yearly losses of £1.4 million up to November 30, despite the sale of Peter Crouch to Liverpool for £6 million last summer.
NICK SZCZEPANIK