Poor away form is killing our promotion dream

If we had made the most of our domination in the first half at Millwall, I would probably be celebrating earning three points. Instead I'm supposed to be thrilled that we have come back from two goals down to rescue a point against a team who at the start of play was fourth bottom.

It's just typical that after completely outplaying Millwall in the first half, we still found ourselves a goal down after Neil Harris (yes, him again.) put the home side up with a free kick, needlessly conceded by a silly tackle from James Perch. And it looked like it was game over when Millwall got a second eight minutes into the second half. In fact Forest reverted to type after that and were pretty poor until the genius that is Colin Calderwood decided that it might be a good idea to bring on some wingers in the form of Arron Davies and Kris Commons. Of course, they made an almost immediate impact as within six minutes of their introduction, Forest had pulled a goal back through Chris Cohen, and suddenly they were back in the game and looking like a decent attacking outfit. If at least one of Davies or Commons had been on the pitch from the start instead of Perch, we might well have won this game. As it was we had to be content with just a point thanks to Nathan Tyson's 88th minute equaliser.

The point takes us back into second place, but as we have no game this weekend owing to Bristol Rovers' progress in the FA Cup, we will only be there for a few days as we're only level on points with third-placed Carlisle, who now have a game in hand on us.

Calderwood made some drastic changes tonight, eschewing his beloved 4-3-3 formation in favour of a 4-4-2 diamond. He even dropped captain Ian Breckin to the substitutes' bench, something Forest fans have been campaigning to happen for ages, and the restoration of Kelvin Wilson to his rightful place in central defence, and the recall of Julian Bennett at left back meant that we had the same back four that had earlier in the season kept so many clean sheets. Wilson was given the captain's armband, but whether he will be our permanent skipper from now on remains to be seen, but as he is such an inspiration in the back four, he could be an ideal candidate for the job, despite his young age.

We've got some really difficult games coming up now, starting with the visit of runaway leaders Swansea to the City Ground next Tuesday night. They are eight points ahead of us and have played one game less. I can't see us catching them, even if we beat them next week. So one automatic promotion place is gone, and who fills the second, in my opinion, will be the team who performs the best away from home. That rules us out then. My money is still on Leeds, but don't discount Walsall or Doncaster. Even though we are second for the moment, I think we are destined for the play-offs, and I fear we will be in for yet more heartache. I still haven't got over last season yet. May 18th 2007 was the worst night of my life...ever, and I do not want to have to go through anything like that again. But such is the nature of football - and particulary the nature of Forest - that I know I will have to face more devastation one day. But surely we poor fans are due a bit of happiness soon?