A gritty away performance...but a point is no good to us

I know I said I would be delighted with a point at Leeds, but having taken a deserved lead and then conceded a penalty late on, I feel disappointed. The fact that Doncaster won again and are now six points clear of us in second place makes it even worse.

Many fans would have criticised Deadwood's decision to play five men at the back with Ian Breckin coming back into a three-man central defence, but to be fair Forest did play very well and were very threatening going forward. Nathan Tyson and Will Hoskins sounded like they got better service than they did on Saturday, and Forest did cause the Leeds defence a lot of problems. We deserved to take the lead when Julian Bennett scored his second goal in four days when he headed home from a Kris Commons corner twenty minutes from time. And Bennett was a hero again at the other end when he headed off the line to deny Leeds an equaliser, but unfortunately Forest could not hold on and were under severe pressure in the closing stages. The Reds finally succumbed seven minutes from time when Wes Morgan conceded a penalty, and Jermaine Beckford equalised from the spot.

A point at Elland Road on another day would probably have been a very good result, but while we can be proud of Forest's performance away from home (for once!), we really needed to win to keep the pressure on Doncaster, and keep the sides below us from leapfrogging us. Carlisle have done just that, and they happen to be our next away opponents a week today. We're going to have to aim to win our next two games now, as defeat at Carlisle could be really damaging to our promotion hopes. We should beat Swindon at the City Ground on Saturday, although I'm not taking anything for granted, of course, particularly as we have only just played them and got beaten at their place, but our home form is excellent, and on the back of this good performance at Leeds, we should be full of confidence. If we do beat Swindon, and then also get three points at Carlisle, it could be that we have cut Doncaster's lead. They can't keep on winning, can they? At the moment they are in a very enviable position, and although we have a game in hand on them – the Carlisle match – and we visit them in March, I think they may just have automatic promotion in the bag, as they are the only consistent team apart from Swansea.

I would take promotion via the play-offs in front of 40,000 Forest fans at Wembley any day over going up automatically, but I fear yet more semi-final heartache could be in store for us again this season, especially as I predict our opponents will be Walsall...