Big Interview: Joe Worrall ‘Nobody Is More Proud To Wear This Jersey Than Me'

Big Interview: Joe Worrall ‘Nobody Is More Proud To Wear This Jersey Than Me’

- John Wragg

JOE Worrall has been a Nottingham Forest fan all his life, but the closest he’s got to glory was when he was six years old sitting next to Brian Clough.

Worrall saw Forest dive into the third tier of English football, their lowest point, for three years.

He watched them end that sentence and now he is part of the campaign to get the club back in the top flight for the first time in 21 years.

He’s 23 next month. Worrall, and his family, have had to survive all these lean years on videos of the days when Forest were kings, not only of this country but of Europe.

This season has looked promising.

Worrall has been at the centre of a Forest defense that would have given even Scrooge, a permanent fixture at this time of year, a run for his money.

Four goals conceded in six games. Sitting pretty in fourth and looking for third. There was a consistency to build promotion on. Until last Saturday that is, when they lost 4-0 at home to Sheffield Wednesday.

It was Forest’s biggest home league defeat for eight years and their biggest league defeat anywhere for two years. They were four down by halftime.

“That’s why the manager (Sabri Lamouchi) made no substitutions,” says Worrell. “It was ‘right, you got us into this mess, you get us out of it’.”

Being home that night wasn’t easy. When you are a Forest fan and you play for them, being turned over like that, well, you know what Jeremy Corbyn felt like when the election results came in.

“The games before that, you could argue we got away with some results,” says Worrall, reliving what happened before pledging it will get better.

“We got it hammered to us on Saturday and it’s embarrassing to be on the pitch. You just want to bury your head under the turf.