We've been handed a Lennon

I told you didn't I? I could have written last night's script it was so predictable. The only twist in the tale was that Forest didn't actually lose, although it certainly does feel like it.

You would have thought that after Saturday's spineless display at Luton, Colin Calderwood would have the guts to shake the team up a little bit – but no, his answer was to name an almost unchanged line-up, and worse, keep the same 4-3-3 formation. The team news left me feeling depressed even before we had even kicked off. Wes Morgan, despite being available, had to make do with a place on the bench, despite it being very obvious to just about everybody except Calderwood that Ian Breckin should not be in the team, let alone be captain of it.

If that wasn't bad enough, Neil Lennon's sudden back injury (or should I say 'back injury' – more of which later) meant that the midfield would now be too lightweight without any hard grafters in there.

Before the Doncaster game, Forest were playing a lot, lot better than they were last season and looked like genuine promotion contenders, but since then we've just gone into a downwards spiral, and the football has been more like a game of tennis. And I know I keep saying it, and I know it makes me sound like I have a personal vendetta against him, but I am absolutely certain that Forest's recent slump has everything to do with Breckin being in the back four. I don't understand how Calderwood can justify leaving Morgan on the bench when he and Kelvin Wilson formed a central defensive partnership that conceded just six goals in ten games. How long before Morgan becomes disillusioned and falls out with Calderwood? Then he'll never get back in.

Talking of fallings-out, although it's not been made official at the time of writing, it looks like Lennon has done a runner. His back injury, it transpires, was just a smokescreen to cover the fact that he has walked out of the Club after becoming disenchanted with life at Forest. Apparently he is not afraid to speak his mind in the dressing room, and may have unruffled one or two feathers too many. After he was substituted against Luton on Saturday, the word is he had a bit of a bust-up with Calderwood, and promptly decided that he would be better off nearer his relatives back in Scotland. Well, if that's the way he feels, good riddance to him. If he's anything less than 100% committed to Forest, I don't want him here, regardless of how good he is.

In the earlier part of the season, I thought Lennon was really making a difference in midfield, but in the last few games, something hasn't been right with him, so the fact that he has walked out isn't exactly very surprising.

Forest took a bit of a risk signing him in the first place as he has had problems with depression and his off-pitch behavior is less than exemplary. Remember in the summer when he was on the front page of a tabloid newspaper in Scotland after being caught cheating on his wife? To be honest, although it doesn't seem like it at the moment, Forest may be better off without him in the long run.

Now that Lennon has gone, it means Captain Fantastic (you know who I mean) is virtually assured of his place now. Calderwood is too much of a coward to drop him. There are other players more deserving of the armband. Luke Chambers skippered Northampton when he was just 20, so I don't think he is too young to do the job for Forest. After all Michael Dawson was only 21 when he was captain here. Kelvin Wilson could also do the job, but I don't know if he's vocal enough, whereas Chambers is. And then you have Sammy Clingan in midfield, who was given the armband in pre-season on a number of occasions.

One player who I would never in a million years make captain is Julian Bennett. Instead of just saying Gordon Bennett when I want to avoid swearing, I will just say his name instead. He is shocking! He is so thick as well, not just off the pitch, but on it as well. I know he is only deputizing for Matt Crockwood (er, sorry, Lockwood), but to be quite honest, it's like we're a man short in defence when he's playing. He had a good game once, though. Ironically, it was at Chelsea when all of his team mates had shockers. His one redeeming feature is that sometimes he scores...but that's about it.

Forest's failure to beat Oldham has now put them under even more pressure to get maximum points from their next two games. I never expected them to get all nine points from these three home matches, but anything less than seven points would be disappointing. Although the table might suggest Oldham would have been the easiest game, actually, I think it was probably the hardest. They have been a constant thorn in our side in the past few seasons, so in many ways we have made a bit of progress by not actually losing to them - although that does not excuse the dire performance last night. I've just got a feeling that Forest will find it a bit easier against Tranmere and Southend, particularly the latter as they have conceded double the amount of goals that we have this season.

The only real positive thing to emerge from last night was Arron Davies making his long-awaited debut. When he came on as a substitute, we suddenly looked a whole lot brighter going forward. Davies really looks a very talented player, and we know (to our cost) what he is capable of. When we signed him back in the summer, the plan was to have him and Kris Commons on the flanks causing all sorts of problems. I hope this still happens, but I don't know if Calderwood can be trusted to get his tactics right to suit them both. It's all very well having good players, but good players don't necessarily make a good team, and bad players don't always make a bad team. A good manager can make average players seem brilliant, and vice versa. Just look what Brian Clough did with Forest back in the Seventies. Need I say any more?

Just a bad day at the office...or something more sinister?

My dream is well and truly shattered. As I mentioned last week, it was one of my life's ambitions to see Forest play at Luton, and now I've fulfilled it, let's just say I am a bit underwhelmed. I am sure Forest's losing and generally playing like morons probably coloured my view of the place, but even an hour before kick off, I was already feeling extremely cheesed off after getting lost on my way to the ground.

I am not the brightest of people when it comes to finding myself around places. My spatial skills are practically non-existent, but it really shouldn't have taken me two hours to find the place, should it? Especially after three people had given me directions. But I was so shy talking to them, that I didn't take in anything that they said, and I just pretended to have understood. As two o'clock approached, I started to get really panicky about missing the match and all the worrying just made it harder for me to use my brain. Thankfully, just as I was about to have a nervous breakdown, I saw a boy wearing a Forest shirt and followed him all the way to the ground. I don't think I would have got there, otherwise.

I didn't enjoy the game at all, as I was worried about getting back to the train station. To be honest, in a way it was probably a good thing that Forest were bad, as if they played well, I don't think I would have been in the mood to celebrate. I suppose if bad things are going to happen, it should all happen at once. I think the only time I raised a smile was when the referee clattered into one of our players and knocked him over. The fact that it was the highlight of the afternoon tells you everything you need to know about Forest's 'performance'. Nothing went right for us. The defence was a nightmare, the midfield was awol and the strikers were completely let down by a lack of service.

The reason why the defence was poor was obvious: Ian Breckin was there. Worryingly, since Wes Morgan got injured, he has not only wormed his way back into the starting line-up, but also got the captain's armband back. One word. Why? He is nothing short of a disgrace as a captain, and he is a dreadful defender. The other players around him don't look half as composed when he is playing. Kelvin Wilson and Morgan were doing brilliantly before, so let's hope that when Morgan is fully fit, Breckin will be the one to make way again.

I know this was our first defeat in nine games, and Luton are a difficult team to play away from home, but sadly I don't think it was just a case of a bad day at the office. If Breckin doesn't get dropped again, I think there will be plenty more sub-standard displays like this one.

To compound matters, Leeds United, who started the season fifteen points behind us, have now leapfrogged us, and now look dead certs to win promotion. So that's one automatic promotion spot gone then. Who will take the second one is anybody's guess, but I am becoming less and less confident that it will be us.

We have three homes in a row coming up, starting with Oldham on Tuesday, followed by Tranmere and Southend. I daren't predict how many points we might get out of them, but needless to say we will be looking to win them all. If we can do that, then we will be in a terrific position, but how many times have we seen Forest throw away their opportunities? When it comes to the crunch, Forest are bottlers.

Breckin useless

Maybe I'm getting a bit greedy, but I felt rather downhearted after we drew 0-0 with Doncaster. I had no idea how the game was going to go, so I didn't expect us to win or anything, but I do think that given our domination, we could have beaten them on any other day.

The midfield seemed to be having an off day. Kris Commons reverted to his old lazy self, and Chris Cohen was quieter than usual. Doncaster to their credit defended very well and made it hard for us to play with fluency, so I'm not going to be too critical of the Forest players as I don't think it was down to a lack of effort. We always knew that Donny would be tough opposition, so it wasn't a surprise, and at least we got a point, which is a point more than we had at the start of play.

I know we kept a clean sheet, but I wasn't very happy with the defence. I never thought I'd say it, but I missed Wes Morgan. I hope he won't be out for very long with his knee injury as Ian Breckin is just terrible. I just cannot understand why he gets so much praise, because most Forest fans think he is awful. He keeps giving stupid free-kicks away, and all he is good for is heading the ball and not much else. I don't think he and Kelvin Wilson have a future together as a long-term partnership, put it that way. And why on earth did Colin Calderwood take the captaincy off Neil Lennon and give it back to Breckin? That's just insane. When Morgan is fit again, which I hope is very soon, if Calderwood doesn't put him straight back in the side, it will be mad.

We've got some really big games coming up in the next few weeks, and three of the next four are at home. We can still go top if we win our game in hand against Oldham a week on Tuesday, and then a week later we have Southend in front of what should be a near-capacity crowd as everybody gets in for a fiver. If we can get three points at Luton next Saturday, it will give us a good foundation for the next few games after that. Luton are certainly beatable, which surprises me as I thought they'd be strong promotion candidates this season, but they seem to be suffering from a relegation hangover. It's practically a 'home' game for me as it's just down the road from Bedford. Don't laugh, but it's been one of my ambitions to watch Forest play at Luton, although I never thought it would be in Division Three! By all accounts the place is a right dump, but if we get three points I shan't care much, and if we lose - well, at least I won't face a long journey home.

It's Cohen great!

The things I do for Forest! I'm still suffering from 'jet lag' after getting up at 5.30am yesterday morning to catch the bus to Oxford where one of my brothers met my mum and I, and drove us all the way to Cheltenham where my other brother lives. I'm just grateful Forest won to justify what was a very stressful trip!

Cheltenham were so poor that Forest didn't even need to break out of first gear to run out comfortable 3-0 winners, courtesy of a hat-trick from Kris Commons. This is becoming something of a familiar theme this season as Forest have picked up quite a few decent results even when their performance hasn't always warranted it. I'm not saying that the opposition have always been unlucky, though. That's not true. The only match where we have been outplayed this season was at Swansea, but we still got a point there. In most of the other matches we have dominated possession and completely shut out the other side. It's just that without Commons, we seem to struggle a little bit up front. He is now our top scorer with seven goals, and even though he is a midfielder, he is top of the League One goalscoring charts!

To say that we are a one-man team, though, would be very wrong. Commons does have a massive influence, but there are other players who are making a big difference as well. Chris Cohen is doing a brilliant job in midfield at the moment. He is very talented and even though Commons made all the headlines on Saturday with his goalscoring exploits, Cohen in my opinion just shaded it for Man of the Match. I don't understand why he is playing in League One, and what on earth he was doing at Yeovil last season. He is an excellent young player. He made some brilliant tackles in midfield yesterday, and was very creative as well. Our rich vein of form seems to have coincided with his arrival in the team. Let's hope he manages to stay injury-free for the rest of the campaign, because I think he is a crucial player for the team.

I jumped for joy yesterday when I saw that we had gone second in the table, but then I remembered that other sides were playing later, but we only slipped into third place by tea time, and we are just one point away from being first with a game in hand! Our goal difference is +12, which is a lot better than Tranmere's, so if we keep up our form over the next two or three weeks, I am sure we will hit top spot very soon. I can't see Leyton Orient staying up there, despite their good away point at Leeds. I think the only team we have to worry about is ourselves. Along with Leeds, we are the best team in the division by far, and even though we were top of the League at the same stage last year, I would never have said that last season.

Smells like team spirit

Forest must stop winning like this. I could get used to it! Four wins from five games and just one defeat all season. You could say we're on a bit of a roll.

I think we have the best team we have had since the 2002-03 season. There seems to be a real team spirit which has enabled us to grind out results even when not playing particularly well. Last season when we suffered setbacks, the players' heads dropped, and we never recovered, but this year there is a never-say-die attitude which has been missing for years. I think this has got to be as a result of having a genuine leader on the pitch in Neil Lennon.

Lennon is one of those players who gets on with the job quietly and without fuss. Just because his name doesn't get mentioned much in the match reports does not mean he is not playing well. Far from it. His contribution cannot be underestimated. I think he is a massive calming influence, and he should definitely keep the captain's armband whether Ian Breckin is able to get back in the team or not.

I have also noticed lately that our disciplinary record has improved drastically. We have only had nine bookings so far this season, and a few of them were as a result of dodgy refereeing. If we can avoid our key players getting suspended, it means we can have a settled side, which can only be a boost to our promotion chances.

I was delighted after beating Hartlepool. More so than after the Gillingham game, as Gillingham were very poor anyway, and never looked like scoring, whereas Hartlepool really made our defence earn their money, and either side could have walked away with the three points. Paul Smith was once again instrumental and pulled off a number of very good saves, including one with his finger-tip. He also spared Junior Agogo vitriol from the supporters when he saved from close range after Agogo gave the ball away in midfield to enable Hartlepool to break free.

Agogo made up for his earlier error by firing home the winner seven minute from time, and fortunately we were able to withstand some late Hartlepool pressure to hold on for the three points, which puts us within touching distance of the leaders Tranmere. If we were to win our game in hand, we would go top, but let's not get too excited at this stage of the season. We are only just into October, and it's where we are in May that counts. Nobody needs reminding that we had a seven-point lead in December last year, but blew it. Perhaps, though, this was because unlike this season, we were not playing well and the team was full of average players and there was a lack of leadership. This year the team is full of talented players, we have a decent captain, the defence is solid, the midfield is creative, and the strikers are scoring. In other words we have a team! Not a collection of eleven individuals who look like they've never talked to each other before, but a team! It's been a long time coming, but at last Forest look like they mean business.

Super sub Commons deserves first team berth

Well, I don't know about you, but I am more than satisfied that we managed to get a point at Huddersfield. With three wins behind us, Forest could afford to drop points, and although perhaps Huddersfield were in the end there for the taking after they were reduced to ten men, I still think it was a really good result.

To be honest, I thought Forest were going to be under the cosh, as they usually tend to be when they visit big stadiums, but it sounded like we were in complete control for most of the first half, our midfield working hard, and our defence completely snuffing out everything that Huddersfield had to offer.
It was just our final ball that was a complete let down, which was probably as a result of our 4-3-3 formation, which admittedly has worked rather well lately, but perhaps was not suitable last night.

It was a very dull game until just after the hour, when Colin Calderwood made a very strange substitution when Julian Bennett was replaced by James Perch. Bennett didn't seem to be injured, but he had been very poor. Even so with no orthodox left back being available to replace him, it did seem very strange that Calderwood was prepared to take him off. And what was even stranger was moving Chris Cohen out of the heart of midfield and into defence to take over from Bennett. And guess what, no sooner had the substitution been made then we had conceded a goal from out of nothing. If the referee hadn't taken the sting out of Huddersfield when he sent off Danny Cadamarteri for his over-enthusiastic celebration, having already shown him the yellow card earlier on, I don't think Forest would have recovered. As it was, another superbly executed goal from super-sub Kris Commons saved us a point, and with all but one of the teams above us dropping points, too, we didn't lose any ground in the promotion race.

Commons has looked very good every time he has come on as a substitute recently. Now whether this is down to his realising that he has to work really hard to hold down a place in the side, or whether he is one of those players who can never last the distance of a whole match, I don't know, but dropping him is probably the best thing that Calderwood has done this season, because since he was relegated to tbe bench, we've been playing so much better. The only trouble is, I don't think Commons is very happy playing only a bit-part role, and sooner or later he's going to get fed up, and start causing unrest. So maybe this Saturday against Hartlepool, Calderwood should throw him back into the starting line-up and see how he performs. If he reverts to his old self, then leave him on the subs bench for the next game. I think he definitely has to start against Hartlepool, and we should play 4-4-2, not 4-3-3. Either Grant Holt or Nathan Tyson should be dropped as they just haven't looked the part at all just lately. I have heard that both of them want to leave. Holt in particular doesn't seem interested at all, and Tyson keeps being played out of position, so no wonder he's not happy. And I don't think he and Calderwood get on, either.

Last season we were blessed to have so many good strikers at the Club, but now only Junior Agogo cuts the mustard, and we can't rely on just him to come up with the goods. We should really have signed someone before the transfer window closed. Unless we get somebody in on loan, it will be three months before we are able to sign another striker. We'll just have to hope that Tyson and Holt decide to knuckle down and start scoring themselves, even if it's just to impress prospective buyers.