Lady luck is in our Camp at last

Forest have complained a lot of being unlucky this season, but I don't think anybody can argue that we didn't have more than our fair share of it in the crazy dying stages at Pride Park.

My heart sank when the referee pointed to the penalty spot after Derby had scored what looked to be a stoppage-time winner. I've no idea why the goal was disallowed anyway. Luke Chambers was accused of handling it, but whether he did or didn't, Derby had scored a legitimate goal. Then Lee Camp superbly saved Nacer Barazite's spot-kick, which would definitely have won the game for them as there were just seconds left. I went from being absolutely distraught to ecstatic in the space of seconds. But then Derby scored again through Miles Addison, it looked like they had got justice. But bizarrely the referee Stuart Attwell again disallowed it for no apparent reason at all. And we nearly committed the greatest robbery of the 21st century when Paul Anderson was clean through on goal at the other end only to scuff his shot. To be honest, even though three points certainly would have come in handy, if we had won after all the controversy at the other end, people would have been saying we didn't deserve it, and I would have to agree. We did play well, don't get me wrong, but I can't deny that Derby should have had the three points.

With all that happened right at the end of the game, it's easy to forget about the goals that had been allowed. We started the second half very brightly and were rewarded for that when Emanuel Villa put through his own net following a corner. But Villa made up for it by scoring at the right end to equalise from a Kris Commons free kick eleven minutes later, and when Lewis McGugan was sent off for a rash challenge, I decided that if we could hold on for a point, it would be a good result all things taken into consideration.

The referee was card-happy, booking five of our players and sending off McGugan, and it resulted in both Carl Fletcher, who was replaced by Chambers at half time, and Joe Garner being substituted to protect them against being sent off. Both kept rubbing the referee up the wrong way, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before one of them was shown the red card, so Colin Calderwood was right to take them off. But it's just a shame that in Fletcher's case it meant that James Perch had to go back into midfield and Chambers replaced him at right back. We had looked comfortable in defence in the first half, but Chambers was exploited a lot on the right hand side and really struggled. Perch had been ok there, and it makes me wonder if things had stayed as they were, we might have held on for a vital win.

Still, I am very happy with a point, and we could so easily have been cut adrift by ten points after the trips to Palace and Derby. To get four points from them is very good after losing all our previous six games on our travels. I think we are definitely improving, and now it doesn't feel like a lost cause any more. In previous relegation battles that I have known supporting Forest, we have gone down with not much of a fight, but I think there is definitely a lot of fight in this team. We are looking like a good side with Anderson and Garner. I just pray both can stay fit, because they are very injury prone. The defence is also getting a bit better, and I think this is largely down to the presence of Camp in goal. He has been brilliant for us since he joined two weeks ago. I hope we can sign him permanently. I just feel a whole lot more confident with him in goal and now understand why Paul Smith was dropped.

As for Calderwood, he has saved his job for the time being. I would love to see him succeed here, because believe it or not I don't actually hate the man. The only thing that matters is Forest, and if he is successful, then Forest are. We are now five points adrift of safety, which at this stage of the season, early in November, is not that terrible. If we're still in the relegation zone in a month's time and we're five or six points adrift then, then we should start panicking, but we have some big games in November against struggling sides. Norwich and Barnsley visit us on consecutive weekends, and we also go to Doncaster, who are now bottom instead of us (yippee). First of all, though, we have to somehow avoid a good thrashing next week at home to Birmingham. I think everything rests on how well we defend. I fear a good hammering will set us back and we will lose all our confidence again. That must not happen. If we do lose, then we must keep our heads held high and move on to the next game, because Birmingham are a very good side, and we are still trying to adapt to life back in the Championship. We have undoubtedly made a lot of progress in the last couple of weeks. Having Anderson, Garner and Rob Earnshaw in the side has without a doubt been a huge factor and also playing 4-4-2 to accommodate those players has also helped immensely. Even though we are second from bottom and five points adrift, I think we have a good side now, and we are no longer the no-hopers of the division. I think that honour now befalls Doncaster, and maybe even Charlton who are just above us. They, however, will probably get out of it as Alan Pardew will almost certainly be sacked after they lost 3-0 at home to Barnsley.

We just need to find two other teams who are worse than us, but nobody apart from Doncaster and us have been on dreadful losing streaks yet, so it's difficult to gauge at the moment which teams are going to be in the relegation mix in the last few months of the season. I keep thinking of that home game on the final day against Southampton, who are also struggling, and my stomach churns. To save our Championship status on the final day with a win over the Saints would be as good as beating Yeovil last season when we were promoted. But if it went wrong...no let's not even go there.