FA Cup Fifth Round Draw
 Sun 25 Jan 2009



If Nottingham Forest beat Derby County in the FA Cup Fourth Round replay at The City Ground on
Wednesday, February 4th, they will meet Manchester United at home in the next round.

The game will take place the weekend of February 14th.

Tags: FA Cup

Nottingham Forest can confirm that Billy Davies will not be at Pride Park for tonight's FA Cup fourth round tie with Derby.

Davies is instead staying in Glasgow to be with his teenage son William has today undergone a major operation.

David Kelly will take charge of the side for the game against The Rams, assisted by first team coach Julian Darby.

Tags: Billy Davies

It is FA Cup Fourth Round weekend with Forest making the short trip into Derbyshire for a crunch match with rivals Derby County.



Billy Davies believes tonight's FA Cup clash will be a test of nerve for his Nottingham Forest players.

There's expected to be a white red atmosphere at Pride Park for the fourth round tie – with the return of former Derby boss Davies adding extra spice to the occasion.
And as he finalised his preparations for the short trip down Brian Clough Way, Davies said: "I'm finding out about the players every day, in every training session and every game we go into.

"I asked questions of them last week when we played Plymouth with regard to having the courage to play at The City Ground and having the belief to grind out results.
"I've said to them this week that we've got to step into places like Pride Park, stand up and be counted, work very, very hard and show how well we can play."
Enjoy the game where ever you have decided to watch it and hopefully come 6.20pm on Sunday we will be in the hat for the Fifth Round.
 
Forest v Sheffield Wednesday
Forest are back in action on Tuesday night at The City Ground (7.45 p.m.) with another electric atmosphere expected.
The South Yorkshire contingent is expected to bring a travelling support of up to 4,000 fans as Forest look to extent an unbeaten run in the league stretching back to Boxing Day.
Forest v QPR, 'Kids for a Quid' tickets are also on sale from the morning of Saturday 24th January from the ticket office and online.

Source: NFFC

Tags: FA Cup, Derby

Attendances boosted in family areas
 
The Football League’s ‘Enjoy the Match’ campaign has had an immediate and positive impact upon the behaviour of fans on matchdays.  This has helped to produce a significant rise in attendances in family areas between August and December 2008.
 
Attendances in family areas are up 12%, compared to a rise in total crowds of 3% across League football as a whole.  This has generated more than £1.5m in additional ticket sales.
 
The Enjoy the Match campaign was launched at the start of the 2008/09 season.  It aims to encourage even more families to attend matches at their local League club by creating a family friendly environment at grounds.  This includes the eradication of abusive language and aggressive behaviour from family areas.  Of The League’s 72 clubs, 68 have already pledged their support to the campaign.
 
Recent research shows support for the campaign is widespread, with 91% of fans agreeing that by eradicating abusive behaviour, Football League matches are more appealing to families, and consequently 95% agreed that the ‘Enjoy the Match’ campaign is important.  65% of fans who are aware of the campaign feel it has already made a difference to behaviour in family areas.
 
Commenting on the results, Football League Chairman, Lord Mawhinney, said: “These findings are encouraging.  They show that fans support our efforts, both to get more families attending club games, and also to grow the supporter base.
 
“Our aim is to build the next generation of Football League supporters and this initiative is a positive step in that direction.”
 

Tags: Football League, Families, Enjoy the Match

In the first 'Coca-Cola' Football League podcast of 2009 Mark Clemmit is joined by new Nottingham Forest Manager Billy Davies, who discusses his return to the management hotseat after an absence of 13 months.
Hartlepool United's Ritchie Humphreys talks about his life with Pools and time at former club Sheffield Wednesday, as well as his plans for when his playing days come to an end. Birmingham City's new signing Robin Shroot reveals why swapping life at Harrow Borough for the Blues has meant he now prefers to get a lift into work and Barnet's Director and former Manager Paul Fairclough reveals why the time was right to move upstairs at Underhill.
Between now and the end of the season the Coca-Cola Football League Podcast will feature all 72 League clubs, so make sure you listen to the show this week and every week.
http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/Home/0,,10794,00.html
Click here to listen to the latest episode in full now

Tags: Billy Davies

Nottingham Forest manager Billie Davies' third game in charge will be against his former club Derby County after drawing them away in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup.

Forest went through to the next round after a convincing win over Premiership side Manchester City.

Derby only just scraped through after being 2-0 down to non-leauge Forest Green, finally beating them 4-3 after a late penalty.

The game will take place on the weekend of January 24th.

Tags: FA Cup

William McIntosh "Billy" Davies (born 31 May 1964) is the new Forest manager.

Playing career
As a schoolboy Davies was associated with Manchester United and was offered a contract by then manager Dave Sexton, but left without ever playing a first-team game.
He started his professional playing career at the Scottish club Glasgow Rangers where he spent six years before a brief spell with Swedish team IF Elsborg. He later played for St Mirren, Leicester City and Dunfermline Athletic before finishing his playing career with Motherwell back in his native Scotland.

Management career

Motherwell
Davies went on to manage Motherwell and he took them to the brink of European Football but was subsequently sacked after poor form saw Motherwell gain just 3 points from 7 matches at the start of the 2001-02 season.

Preston North End
Following his dismissal as Motherwell boss, Davies moved south to England and took on the role of assistant manager to former Scotland national coach Craig Brown at Preston North End. Following Brown's departure in 2004 he was installed as caretaker manager [1] before being given the job on a permanent basis.
Davies took Preston to the brink of the Premier League via the play-offs in May 2005 but lost in the final. Despite a difficult start to the 2005–06 season, Preston went on an unbeaten run, from September until February, which saw them go 22 games unbeaten - equalling the record set in the 1888 season by the double-winning 'Invincibles' side, leading some sections of the media to dub them 'The New Invincibles'. This helped the club qualify for the play-offs for a second successive season although Davies and Preston again failed to win promotion when they were knocked out by Leeds United after losing the semi-final second leg.
Davies's success at Deepdale saw him linked with a number of other jobs. He was interviewed for the position at Charlton Athletic when it was announced that Alan Curbishley would be stepping down after 15 years as manager, but Davies was unsuccessful and the job went to Iain Dowie instead.[2] Davies then accepted an offer to manage Preston's Championship rivals Derby County in June 2006.[3]

Derby County
In Davies's first season as Derby manager he led them to third place in the league and then won the play-offs after defeating Southampton in the semi-finals and then West Bromwich Albion at the New Wembley, ending Derby's five year absence from the top flight. Despite signing a one year extension to his contract, Derby struggled in the Premier League, gaining only six points from fourteen games. After criticising Derby's board for lack of investment, Davies left Pride Park in November 2007, with the club bottom of the league. Things got worse under Davies's successor Paul Jewell, as their early win over Newcastle was their only win of the season as they went down in bottom place, also setting new lows for goals and points.[4]
Davies was later linked with the managerial positions of the Scottish national team after Alex McLeish stepped down to take charge of Birmingham City[5] (he would eventually withdraw his interest from this post),[6] Leicester City (after Gary Megson defected to Bolton Wanderers, as well as Dundee and Hibernian. He was also considered a candidate to become assistant manager to Everton boss David Moyes, a role which came vacant when Alan Irvine left to take charge of Davies's old club Preston.[7][8]

Nottingham Forest
On 31 December 2008, it was announced on the official Nottingham Forest website that the club is in negotiations with Davies to succeed the recently sacked Colin Calderwood.[9] He was confirmed as their manager on 1 January 2009.[10]


Club awards
Preston North End

• Football League Championship Playoffs

• • Runners-up (1): 2004-05
• • Semi-finalists (1): 2005-06

Derby County

• Football League Championship Playoffs

• • Winners (1): 2006-07

Individual awards

• SPL Manager of the Month (1): November 2000

Source: WIkipedia

Tags: Billy Davies