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.