The Nottingham Forest team returned to their home ground after their victory over Everton. Five days later, they would face their opponent, Middlesbrough, in the second round of the league tournament at the City Ground stadium.
They were not a very strong opponent. The Forest team was in good form, so they did not take Middlesbrough seriously.
The Middlesbrough manager was no longer McClaren, who Twain had a bad relationship with. He had gone to be the manager of the England national team. The feud between the two men did not show any signs of reduction since McClaren's departure, and Twain would attack McClaren's work in his special column in the newspapers. He was very good at finding flaws in the small details that others, including McClaren himself, did not pay much attention to, and then made a splash, and used it as an "ironclad evidence" to attack McClaren.
