League tables can – and do – play havoc with the imagination. Dreams get ignited and nightmares flare up. Only two games into the Premiership season and the media would have us jostling for our team as ‘top four’ contenders or ‘relegation material’. And it’s still August, so still time for sunshine-lazy days and wallowing in fresh memories of summer holidays!

Forest, with a start of perfect symmetry, (and, many would say, predictability) have lost and won by the same margin to position themselves mid-table. Sheffield United, city of steel in decades past, tested the metal of the Reds with a strong second-half comeback on Saturday but ‘The Blades’ were finally put to the sword with Chris Wood’s late headed winner. Time for the City Ground to erupt. One United team defeated, now for the next.

That would be Manchester United, licking their wounds from a weekend loss at Spurs. It’s been a stuttering start for the ‘Busby Babes’ (there’s a blast from the past, referring to the young team managed by Matt Busby so tragically decimated in the Munich air disaster of 1958) and Forest might fancy their chances of snatching at least a point from Old Trafford. But strange things can happen at that ground. Ask Wolves’ fans.

Trailing 0-1 last week, yet more than matching the home team for possession and shots recorded, there came an incident when Wolves must have thought their time – and luck – had come. New United keeper, Onana, made a challenge that was dubious, to say the least, but no penalty was given. Which would have been an end to the story had it not been for an intervention a couple of days later by Howard Webb, who is the chief refereeing officer. He apologised for the decision on match-day and suspended the referee and VAR officials for one game.

Webb is keen to make the decisions taken in a match more transparent. Whether punishing officials for one game makes any difference remains to be seen but at least he’s on the case. What’s the point of VAR technology if it’s not going to encourage a referee to at least review a contentious incident? He might also like to take into consideration the issue of time: wasted and added.

During the Alex Ferguson era, time took on a fantasy force in its own right, nicknamed ‘Fergie time’. Extra minutes clocked-up when the chips were down for United became a feature of games on home territory. Can I prove it? I doubt it. Time ‘added on’ was such an opaque feature of matches back then. Who knew how much time had been added for what stoppages? I remember, even as an amateur player, decades ago, being ignored if I asked a ref how much time was remaining in a game or told, ‘Long enough’. It was treated like secret information.

At least we now have electronic boards indicating how much additional time is to be played but there’s more to be done. Fans – never mind the players – have a right to know what’s going on and how time is being managed. Go to a rugby or basketball game and you’ll see what I mean. We see the clock start and we see it stop when necessary and we see how much time is left to the point where we can count down the minutes and seconds.

All of this is, of course, off-the-field-business and the players won’t be distracted by behind-the-scenes issues. That said, you’d have to be a player with cloth ears not to be aware of what’s rumbling around in the red half of Manchester. The club is still in protracted talks with goodness knows who about buy-outs and take-overs and they have only just clarified the very serious matter pertaining to Mason Greenwood after months of deliberation. Following a collapsed case against the player, accused of numerous sex offences, his career was put on hold. The public, the fans, and the man himself, should not have been held in suspense for so long. Correctly, Manchester United now accept that the player’s future cannot be with the club but it’s been an open moral wound and has done little to credit the game with any integrity.

Forest are well away from all of these back-page stories and will be preparing for Saturday’s match. Brighton are top of the league, Brentford are riding high, and Forest are one place above Manchester United. That’s enough material for my fantasy football imagination to take hold. Revenge is in the air. The Reds lost four times to United last season and are still smarting (as we all are) from that statistic. The time is ripe for a Forest victory. They know they have to perform more successfully on the road if they are to improve on last season’s achievements. What better way to make a statement of intent than to secure three points at Old Trafford in however many minutes it takes?

*Article provided by Stephen Parker (Nottingham Forest Correspondent).

*Main image @ManUtd Marcus Rashford in action for Manchester United against Wolves.