Home sweet home, but we've got to start playing away

I'm writing this in extreme pain as I somehow managed to pour boiling water down my trousers this afternoon. But that's another story for another day. I'm here to talk about Forest's victory over Millwall, so I best get on...

It was a dreadful first half performance, but they were miles better after the break and completely dominant. I don't think Millwall managed to muster a decent shot in the entire match. The only time Paul Smith was tested was when one of our own players passed the ball back to him. But we weren't exactly firing on all cylinders ourselves. Although Will Hoskins looked promising in the early stages when he produced a good save from the Millwall goalkeeper, he and Nathan Tyson didn't get very good service at all. It's just as well that we can rely on our full backs Julian Bennett and Luke Chambers to pop up with the odd goal now and again. Bennett gave us the lead three minutes into the second half with a header and ten minutes later Chambers scored his sixth of the campaign, from a few yards out, to make it a comfortable 2-0. Although having said that, it didn't stop me worrying when four minutes of injury time were declared, with recent late capitulations still fresh in my memory.

This latest victory at home sees us back into third place, keeping within touching distance of Doncaster, who are still four points ahead of us, although we do have a game in hand. We now boast a 14-match unbeaten record at the City Ground, which we last achieved in the 1995-96 season - when we were in the Premiership. In League One, I don't think it's anything to write home about. Any team with the kind of backing we get at the City Ground should find it quite easy to beat anybody. We had a pretty good record under Gary Megson as well, if I recall. But go away from home, and it's a completely different story. And until we sort out our away form, we will be going nowhere.

The only trouble is, our next away game happens to be at Leeds United on Tuesday night! They're currently going through a bad patch themselves at the moment, having taken only one point from the last five matches, but the big game atmosphere and the rivalry between the two sets of supporters will really gee the home side up, while Forest as usual will freeze. If we get a point at Elland Road, I will be absolutely delighted. But if they play anywhere near as bad as they did against Bournemouth last weekend, we will be in for an embarrassing hiding. At least if Leeds do win they won't be able to overtake us in the table anyway.