Forest have been useless away from home for years now, which is why I have stopped going so much because it's just a waste of money, time, and energy. We've now managed to win just one in our last eight games on our travels – hardly the form of a team with automatic promotion aspirations. I think we're going to have to rely on our home form to stay within a chance of sneaking into the top two, because I can't see us becoming a good travelling team unless we get rid of Deadwood, and I just can't see that happening until the end of the season at the earliest.
Quite frankly we don't deserve to get promotion. There are much better teams than us like Swansea, who now have a five-point lead, Leeds, who very soon will overtake us, Doncaster, and even Walsall, who are on a brilliant run at the moment. I am not even sure we will make the play-offs at this rate as we're only a couple of points ahead of seventh place. As long as we keep winning our home games, I think we will manage to stay in the top six, but what if that comes unstuck, too? What then? We're unbeaten in eleven games at the City Ground, but when Swansea visit a week on Tuesday, I fear a good thumping could be on the cards, much like Scunthorpe meted out last season.
I feel so fed up with Forest right now. Even our wins at home are tinged with apathy as I know that it will be all undone in the next game when we will more than likely be awful. We take one step forward, then one back. So we just stay where we are, not getting anywhere. Except that while it might appear that we are not getting worse and worse in that we are not falling down the table (yet), the Club is deterioating off the pitch as we hemorrhage yet more supporters, who sickened to the core by the state that this once-great Club has been reduced to, have now become ex-season ticket holders, reducing home attendances to around 15,000 when you discount the away supporters. That figure will be eroded still further next season as we almost certainly face a fourth consecutive season in League One. Especially if they continue to charge extortionate prices, and especially if Deadwood is still here.
He should have been given his P45 after the Yeovil capitulation last May. Only promotion will save him from getting the sack, surely? And even if we do go up, I am seriously worried about Deadwood being let loose in the Championship. I can't see us being anything more than relegation candidates with him in charge. His team selections and tactics are baffling. What is his obsession with leaving his best players on the bench? He seems to be frightened of dropping players and just waits for them to get injured or suspended. Leaving Kelvin Wilson on the bench yesterday was a very odd decision. He's our best defender by far, and you need him in the team at places like Swindon. The fact that we have kept so many clean sheets this season is down to the presence of Wilson. So why he wasn't recalled to the starting line-up, I don't understand.
Playing James Perch in midfield was also a mistake. Perch's best position, if any, is probably at right back, where he had been playing in the last couple of games in place of Luke Chambers, but as Sammy Clingan apparently had picked up a knock in training, Perch switched to midfield, where he once again had an awful game, just like most of his team mates. He managed to score an own goal to give Swindon the lead in the first half, as did Ian Breckin eight minutes from time, who restored justice for Swindon, after Chambers had very much against the run of play equalised for us shortly after the hour mark.
It was a pretty bad day all round for Forest fans as all the other teams apart from Leeds won their games. Swansea and Carlisle both won, as did Leyton Orient, Walsall and Doncaster, who beat Leeds at Elland Road. Consequently, we have slipped down into third place, and while we are only a point away from second at the moment, and our automatic promotion chances are far from dead in the water, we are going to have to overcome our travel sickness quickly, because the likes of Leeds, Doncaster, and Walsall are not going to be sympathetic and will trample all over us, leaving us trailing in their wake.
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