How can Calderwood defend the indefensible?

Before Saturday's horror show at Wolves, Colin Calderwood was insistent that our defence was good enough to cope in the Championship, and that he would not be making any moves in the transfer market to bolster the back line. Well, unless he is deaf, dumb and blind, he absolutely must sign a natural right back at the very least because if Luke Chambers continues in that position for much longer, we are going to be in big, big trouble.

Chambers never looked comfortable playing at right back last season in League One, and it was only his goalscoring ability from set pieces that really justified his place in the team, and the fact that Forest were so tight defensively meant that Chambers was adequate in the games where the opposition didn't really have much quality up front, but in the Championship, as our goals against column will testify with ten conceded in just four games, it is a very different story. The football is a lot more fast and furious, and our fullbacks, in particular Chambers, are being targeted as weak links, which seemed to be the case with Wolves, where their winger Michael Kightly tore Chambers apart, and made him look like a substandard non-League player.

It is time that Calderwood accepted that Chambers just cannot cut it as a right back, and he let him challenge for a central defensive position. He came to the Club with a good reputation as a promising central defender, but is now regarded as a laughing stock at right back. That's Calderwood's fault for playing him there, and not signing a proper right back last summer when John Curtis left. The transfer window closes on Monday, and Calderwood says that we will not be signing anyone, but the debacle at Molineux surely must have set alarm bells ringing. Julian Bennett wasn't much better than Chambers, and I thought he was going to be a good player for us this season. Bennett is now playing as badly as he was at the start of last season, and whether this is down to the fact that he is just not of Championship standard, or that he is not motivated enough because of lack of competition for his place, I don't know. I do know is that he has potential, unlike Chambers as a right back. But the fact remains is that both our full backs are at this moment in time not good enough, and they are costing us matches.

I think the centre of defence will be ok when Kelvin Wilson is playing alongside Wes Morgan, but Calderwood seems to love Ian Breckin, and even though Wilson was fit to start yesterday, following injury, he still couldn't oust Breckin from the team. Breckin is just too old and slow for the Championship, and he commits an awful lot of fouls, giving away stupid free kicks. That's not to say that I blame him and Morgan for the 5-1 drubbing, as it was largely down to the rubbish performances from Chambers and Bennett.

As for the rest of the team, well all the players had a bad day to be fair, even Guy Moussi, who looked out of sorts in midfield, and Lee Martin failed to make an impression at all. I forgot that Robbie Earnshaw was even playing as I don't remember hearing his name mentioned on the radio until he went off injured with a suspected hamstring injury. Hopefully it is nothing to worry about, and in a fortnight he will be fit and raring to go again.

I don't know if it's a good thing or not that we have two weeks until our next game, which is at home to Burnley. On one hand it would be good to get things out of our system with another match in midweek, but on the other, perhaps Forest need some time to work on their defending in training, because Wolves made them look like a bunch of amateurs who had never played together before.

I fully expected us to lose, but the manner in which it happened left me shell shocked at half time. The only saving grace was that we didn't let in more than one goal in the second half.