Chapter 172: A Timely Loss Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On March 13, during the 36th round of league matches, Nottingham Forest beat Crystal Palace on their home turf. The match was not won easily, and there were situations in which some Nottingham Forest players were unable to run during the match. The physical fitness coach told Tang En not to worry about it, and that it was a very normal reaction to the increased workload in physical fitness training. Once this phase passed, he said, all would be well.
Tang En was not actually worried about the problem, as long as they won their matches.
Nottingham Forest, who had won three consecutive matches, saw their rankings soar. They went from seventeenth place to fourteenth, and were only eight points away from Wigan Athletic, who was ranked sixth. Moreover, they had two less matches than WIgan Athletic. This meant that, even if Wigan Athletic won all of their remaining matches, as long as Nottingham Forest won their next two rescheduled matches, they would only be two points away from them—a matter of only one match.
Therefore, for the remaining matches, Tang En said that no matter how the team played during matches or what methods they used, as long as they won the match, it would be considered a good game. In order for them, the pursuers chasing from behind, to make their opponents feel pressure, Nottingham Forest could not be too particular about how they achieved their victories.
For the next few matches, Nottingham Forest played rather unsteadily, but Tang En did not care, because they continued to win.
On March 18, Nottingham Forest beat Burnley FC on their home grounds with a score of 1:0. After that match, Burnley's manager was extremely displeased with the decision of the referee presiding over the match; he felt that the referee had blown the whistle on a goal that was perfectly fine. The referee had even sent one of their players off the field. Nottingham Forest had only managed to win by one goal, despite having the advantage in numbers. It was therefore no wonder that Burnley's manager wanted to complain.
But what could he have done about it? It was just his luck that his team was playing on away grounds.
On March 20, under their tightly-packed match schedule, Nottingham Forest beat Derby County by a large margin of 4:2 in their away match. Eastwood's performance was exceptional, getting a hat-trick and becoming the person who had contributed the most to the team's victory. During his commentary, John Motson said, "…Most of the time, Twain relies on the football team as a whole to play. However, even when the entire team is in poor condition, he always has a way of obtaining victory, such as a referee's wrong judgement, or a certain player's sudden exceptional performance."
On March 24, there was a rescheduled match. That day, Nottingham Forest would get back their lost time; because of the EFL Cup matches, the 33rd round of the league had been postponed until now. Nottingham Forest faced off against Bradford on their home grounds. In the end, Nottingham Forest won with a score of 2:1. Nottingham Forest, with one less match than the others, was ranked eighth with a total of fifty-nine points. In front of them were Westham United, with a total of sixty points, and Wigan Athletic, which had sixty-one points. Both Westham United and Wigan Athletics had played one more match than Nottingham Forest.
There was only a difference of three points between the league's eighth-ranked team and sixth-ranked team. Tang En's unremitting chase had finally been rewarded. As long as they beat Crewe Alexandra F.C. in their next match, and one of the teams ranked sixth or seventh lost, they would be replaced by Nottingham Forest.
Prior to this, in order to sustain a favorable situation for the team, Tang En had gone to great lengths and used all of the methods that he could come up with to encourage the team. He knew that they could not afford to lose. As soon as they lost a match, then a season, no, half a season's worth of effort would have gone down the drain. So this was definitely not a time when they could afford to be discouraged.
And once they were only three points away from moving into sixth place in the league, the team finally did not need his encouragement. Everyone could already see that they were very close to obtaining their goal. They knew that if they continued winning like this, they would be able to appear in the English Premier League next season, not the unpopular League One in which they currently played. They were not only fighting for the club, they were also fighting for their own sakes.
On the March 27 was the 39th round of the League, at City Ground Stadium. As soon as match started, the Nottingham Forest fans began singing and cheering the team on, not resting for a single moment. This intimidating home ground atmosphere made their opponents, Crewe Alexandra, shudder, naturally scaring them. Crewe Alexandra, which had a rather low rank in the league, did not even have the willpower to resist before they surrendered. Nottingham Forest won against Crewe Alexandra with a score of 2:0. At the same time, another match took place that also delighted Nottingham Forest's fans; Wigan Athletic was unable to handle the pressure that Nottingham Forest had put on them, and lost in their away match against Watford with a score of 0:1.
After thirty-nine rounds of matches in the league, amidst a storm of counterattacks brewed in Nottingham, Wigan Athletic was the first team that could not withstand it and failed to stand their ground.
By this time, the tempestuousness of Nottingham Forest had already attracted the attentions of higher-ranked teams. Which team would be the second to be pulled down by Nottingham Forest?
After the 39th round matches was completed, Westham United had defeated Gillingham in their home match, and was ranked fifth with a total of sixty-three points. Nottingham Forest, who now had sixty-two points, replaced Wigan Athletic, who also had sixty-two points, obtaining the last seat of the first group. They were now sixth in the league! This was a very attractive ranking, as it meant that, as long as Nottingham Forest maintained their ranking until the end of the season, they would be eligible for the play-offs.
At this point, Tang En had to think again. For the rest of the matches, should the team set its sights on maintaining their rank? Or should it ride the momentum, try to win as much as it could, and rise as high in rankings as possible?
Tang En was stuck in quite a difficult spot.
There was also another problem that had been bothering him for a while: although consecutive wins were worth being happy about, there was a hidden danger behind them: exceptional results would inadvertently exert an invisible psychological pressure on the players. Before every match, all they could think was that they "definitely couldn't lose." While having these thoughts for one or two matches could help them perform to the best of their ability, having these thoughts before every single match could give the team a mental breakdown.
"Victory" was a team's belief, and also their curse. Coming up with an appropriate way to deal with this problem was making Tang En's head hurt.
All of the matches in March had already ended, and due to Nottingham Forest maintaining their winning streak in the league, Tony Twain had been chosen as the best League One manager of the month, and Eastwood was chosen as the best player.
This was not a good sign; when Tang En was receiving the award—a bottle of champagne—he could not even squeeze out a smile. The huge amount of pressure on his heart was turning into dense, dark clouds, discreetly exerting their force on his heart.
Giving Tang En an award at that time was not an encouragement, but a curse: You may have been the best manager of the previous month, it said, but you will definitely lose your next match!
It turned out as expected. On April 3, during the 40th round of league matches, Nottingham Forest lost to Sheffield United. Tang En also had not wanted to lose the match, but all of the players on the team performed poorly. Tang En was in the technical area, powerless to do anything but simply accept the loss. The only thing that gave him relief was that his loss was not too miserable, a small loss of 0:1. The team had not displayed signs of completely breaking down.
During the press conference, Tang En attributed the loss entirely to himself, and was very low-key in front of the victor, Warnock. He commended Sheffield United's strength, and admitted the mistakes that he had made in his tactics, even though everyone could tell that they were not very serious mistakes. Tang En simply refused to mention the players' terrible performance. He was carefully protecting the players, even more than a mother hen watching over her eggs.
Still, the players were worried that Tang En, after returning from the press conference, would give them a tongue-lashing in the changing room. They themselves knew that everyone had performed poorly in the match.
Their no-loss streak, maintained ever since Tony Twain had taken over Nottingham Forest, ended just like that. Anyone else in Tang En's shoes would feel upset as well.
Tang En was, naturally, displeased, and seeing the smile on Warnock's face made him even more furious. He had lost to this old man time and again, and to the prideful Tang En, that was quite a humiliation. But what could he have done? He had used up all three of his substitutions, had used every trick that he had up his sleeve, and still had lost. The match had already ended; the whistle signalling the end of the match had been blown a long time ago, and even its echo had faded. So what good would getting angry do?
After Tang had En darkened his face and endured the old man's arrogant, non-stop boasting for a full five minutes, the press conference finally ended.
Tang En and Warnock merely touched each others' fingers and treated it as a handshake. Afterwards, Tang En paid no heed to the reporters around him as he turned around and left the press conference, walking towards the changing room.
Deep down inside, Tang En knew very clearly what kind of situation the team was in. In reality, even though they lost the match, things was not nearly as bad as he had originally thought. This was based on the findings that Walker found out about after contacting Bruce, who had told Walker the results from the latest round of matches.
Nottingham Forest, who had just lost a match, fell to ninth place with a total of sixty-two points, but they were only three points away from the team in fourth place. The teams in front of Nottingham Forest were neck-to-neck. In summary, Tony Twain's team had lost at the best possible time.
Once he had thought about that, Tang En's mood improved quite a bit. After pondering it again, he became even happier.
Hadn't he always been worried that the pressure on the team would be too great after all their consecutive wins, and that it could give them a nervous breakdown? Now that they had lost, that worry was no longer relevant.
Pushing open the changing room door, Tang En discovered that it was complete silence in there, which he was not used to. He thought for a moment that he had been so absorbed in his thoughts that he had walked into the wrong room.
So he walked out, closed the door, and saw the "AWAY" sign on the door. Only then did he finally confirm that he had not entered the wrong room by mistake.
Opening the door once again, he saw his players, all dumbfounded by his actions. Seeing this, Tang En suddenly could not hold it in and burst out laughing. "I thought I went into the wrong room." He pointed towards the door and continued, "So I closed the door to see what was written on it. You guys were so quiet that I got confused. What's wrong with all of you?"
"We lost, Boss." The players thought that Twain was asking the obvious, and that this was definitely the prelude to the ensuing storm. So they were rushing to admit their mistakes.
Seeing this scene, Tang En shrugged his shoulders. "Does anyone want to know why I thought I walked into the wrong room just now? Because I was thinking about a problem. Anyone interested in what I was thinking about?"
Nobody answered him, because nobody could see through the manager's plans. If one of them said something wrong, the first drip from the raging storm would land on his head. Nobody wanted to be that person.
Seeing that nobody was answering his question, Tang En felt slightly bored. He scratched his head and said, "I was thinking… that we did well by losing. It was... a timely loss."
After he had spoken, everyone in the room was shocked.