Time to stand up and be counted

I don't think anybody will be complaining if we get promoted to the Championship carving out uninspiring 1-0 victories, but we are going to have to play a lot better than we did against Swindon because better sides will punish us for not making the most of our possession.

We really struggled to create chances as everything was going right through the middle of the pitch. I am sure we would do so much better if we used proper wingers in a 4-4-2 formation, but Deadwood won't hear of it. The 4-3-3 system has worked at home in the main, but I still think the straightforward 4-4-2 is the way for Forest to play. But Deadwood seems more concerned with keeping a clean sheet than anything else. Well, what do you expect from a former centre half?

I've lost count of how many clean sheets we have kept this season. I think that's largely down to Kelvin Wilson and Wes Morgan, who really have forged a great understanding. Wilson has got a lot of the plaudits, but I think Morgan has been excellent, too. He has really bounced back from that terrible mistake he made against Yeovil. When Ian Breckin was in the team for a while, we were conceding lots of goals away from home, but before that, we were quite solid. Breckin is still handy to have around, though, as a reserve defender, and when we play five at the back, he is not likely to be so much of a liability.

We didn't really get a good rub of the green in front of goal yesterday, but thankfully Nathan Tyson's goal from a tight angle proved to be enough as Swindon offered nothing going forward, which seems to be the case for a lot of teams who visit the City Ground. It's just a crying shame that Tyson now faces another spell on the sidelines after injuring his hamstring yet again. Still at least we have Junior Agogo back from international duty. He put himself in the spotlight over in Africa and rather inevitably has sparked speculation that he could be leaving Forest in the summer. That will depend on whether we get promoted or not. I am sure he would be satisfied with playing in the Championship, considering that last season he was plying his trade in League Two.

We better hope that Agogo and Will Hoskins will work well together as a partnership. Hoskins was out injured yesterday, but he should be back for the big game at Carlisle on Tuesday. Now that Carlisle have a game in hand on us owing to the cancellation of their match at Crewe this weekend, it's absolutely imperative that we don't lose. I don't think we have anything to fear as long as we treat the game with the same respect as we did with Leeds. Our poor away form has got to come to an end at some stage. We've just got to stamp out the dreadful performances like at Bournemouth and really give our all in every single match now. If we can do that, then there is no reason why automatic promotion should be beyond our grasp.