Calder could be the man for Forest after all

If I was writing this a couple of seasons ago, or maybe even last season, I'd probably be moaning about an embarrassing FA Cup defeat to lower League opposition.

But now there seems to be a winning mentality at the Club again, and judging by last night's comfortable 3-1 victory over Lincoln in the first round replay at the City Ground, Forest at long last have finally understood that they must treat all games with the same respect. Brian Clough certainly did that during his time with the Club, always picking the best team available to him in the Cup competitions, rather than give some of the reserves a run out. And Colin Calderwood resisted the temptation to rest some of his key personnel and stuck with virtually the same eleven who disposed of Crewe on Saturday.

The win was our fourth on the bounce at the City Ground, and this can only be good for our confidence at home. Before the Tranmere game we were struggling a bit in front of our own fans and were drawing too many games, but we have put that behind us now, and now our attention is focussed away from home with three matches in a row, starting with another trip (groan) to Luton in the second round, in a fortnight.

The prospect of being drawn against a top Premiership team in round three will be a good incentive to beat Luton, but the Hatters will fancy their chances against us, with their recent win over us still fresh in their memories. To be honest, I'm more nervous than excited about playing another Premiership team. If we are on the receiving end of a mauling, it won't do our confidence the power of good. Still, if we end up being drawn against Derby, everybody, including me, will be licking their lips at the thought of pitting our wits against our fierce rivals.

Talking of the Sheep, I'm a bit depressed that they've appointed Paul Jewell as their new manager. If anybody can pull off a rescue act, he can. He's done it with Bradford against all the odds, and he did it at Wigan. He'll certainly have a good go of it with Derby, and they have plenty of time on their side to turn it around. They are only four points adrift of safety with less than half of the season gone. As much as I hate to say it, I think he'll keep them up, and we may have to wait a good while longer before we meet them in the League again.

But still, I don't want to worry about what other teams get up to. Forest are stressful enough! But for now, they are doing pretty well, and there is not much to complain about at all. The football is good, we have talented players, we're getting good results consistently, and we're only a point away from the top of the League.

Obviously, the anti-Calderwood bandwagon has stopped rolling for now, and more and more people are coming round to the idea that maybe, just maybe Calderwood is not such a bad manager, after all. He still makes the odd mistake, but he seems to be learning from them, and his post-match interviews are a lot more interesting these days. Even when we win games, he finds things to complain about, whereas last season when we lost games and had played badly, he would say we had played well!

Calderwood will probably be awarded Manager of the Month for November as Forest had a 100% record in League One this month. I believe this will be the second time Calderwood will have won this award with Forest - the first coming in his first month with us last season. Let's hope for Forest's sake that we won't have to wait over a year until he wins it again!