Cups don't count when promotion is the name of the game

I was expecting us to get knocked out of the League Cup last night at Chester, such is Forest's track record in recent years of losing to lower League sides. So I am quite surprised, although not exactly relieved, that we are in the next round and have a chance of being drawn against a Premiership club.

To be honest, I couldn't care less about the cup competitions any more. I haven't done for years, actually. Mainly because we've had more urgent matters to deal with, like trying to get promotion or escape relegation, but it's not just that. Forest never do very well anyway, and if they were to get to the semi-finals or even the final, they'd only lose and leave us all nursing broken hearts.

Perhaps, when (or if) Forest ever get back in the top flight, the FA Cup and League Cup will become more important to us as we obviously have no chance of winning the title, but for now, the only thing that matters is getting Forest back in the Championship and staying there.

Even though we still haven't managed to score a goal this season yet, at least we have proven ourselves adept at taking penalties (if you forget Grant Holt's miss late on).
The last penalty shoot-out that we won was against Tranmere four years ago in the same competition.

We didn't look like scoring until Junior Agogo came on as a substitute, but Colin Calderwood insists that he is not fit enough to start yet, so for the moment we are relying on Scott Dobie and Holt, neither of whom played very well at Chester.
This partnership is doomed to fail, so the sooner Nathan Tyson and Agogo are 100% fit, the better for all concerned. Our season may not effectively start until mid-September at this rate, as Tyson is still a month away, and even then there is a good chance he won't be the same player when he returns.

It's just a shame that Southampton have knocked back our attempt to sign their 19-year-old striker David McGoldrick on a season long-loan. He sounded ideal - he managed to score six goals in twelve appearances while on loan with Bournemouth last season. He was also born in Nottingham, and was said to be quite keen on playing for his home town, but if Southampton don't want him to go, then that's their prerogative. We'll just have to try and find someone else now, as there is no way on hell's earth that we can continue with the dire Dobie if we have serious ambitions of finally getting out of League One this season.