Wait long enough in football and you will eventually see almost everything. Calvin Bassey is a defenders’ defender. He stops opponents scoring. He is quick and good in the air. He is very good at looking authoritative when holding his arms out to craft the offside line. He is not a habitual goalscorer. But, a year less a week since his only other strike for Fulham, the 25-year-old headed his first goal at Craven Cottage and so Nottingham Forest joined the short list of Falkirk, Volendam and Manchester United as teams he has scored against.
At least until the 1987 League Cup final, when Charlie Nicholas ruined the factoid, commentators loved to point out that when Ian Rush scored, Liverpool never lost. Bassey is even better than that: whenever he has scored, whether it’s in the Eredivisie or the Scottish League Cup, his side has won. Which, on Saturday, felt only right. They were much the better side for long periods and that Forest had somehow gone in level at half-time felt an aberration.
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