But if that was what it took to get rid of Colin Calderwood, then perhaps it was needed. I have never felt so shocked in my life at what was unfolding in front of my eyes. Not in my worst nightmares, would I have envisaged such a heavy beating at the hands of Doncaster who were bottom of the table at the start of play. In the end there were 'only' two goals in it, but if Donny had grabbed two more – and they looked more than capable of doing so – they could have leapfrogged us in the table on goal difference.
I've been through some very dark times supporting Forest, and that had to be one of the lowest moments I've experienced in 20 years of following them. There have been plenty of awful displays from Forest over the past five years. That pathetic 3-0 home drubbing against Plymouth in our relegation season springs to mind, not to mention the capitulation against Yeovil. But this defeat ranks right alongside them. I've no idea what went wrong, but it was a complete train wreck from start to finish.
The defence was a shambles. Joel Lynch was abysmal. Every time he got the ball, he seemed to give it away. Why on earth we signed him I don't know. He couldn't even get into Brighton's team in League One. To think that if Calderwood was still here he would probably have signed him permanently.
Lynch wasn't the only bad player, though. Most of them were. The only ones who could take any credit were Brendan Moloney for at least trying to set up attacks, and second half sub Nathan Tyson, whose solo run resulted in an own goal, which saw the start of a mini-comeback in which we grabbed two goals.
As if things couldn't get much worse, we were forced to play most of the second half with ten men after Julian Bennett, who had come on at half time, went off injured with a suspected cruciate ligament injury, which could well sideline him for the rest of the season. I actually don't blame Calderwood for using all his subs, though, but what I do blame him for is dropping two players from the winning side that disposed of Southampton. He broke one of football's unwritten golden rules: Never change a winning team.
I just sat there with my arms folded when we pulled two back. People in front of me were cheering, but they were probably being ironic as Doncaster's fans were also applauding. I felt really embarrassed as my brother's brother-in-law had come all the way over from Australia to watch the game. He doesn't even like football, but my brothers wanted to show him an English football game. He'll now return to Oz with the impression that Doncaster are head and shoulders ahead of Forest. What a sad, sad state of affairs.
Our car journey home was solemn, and I hardly uttered a word for the whole two-hour journey, but just as we were approaching Bedford where I live, one of the football commentators on Radio 5 Live said there was breaking news...Nottingham Forest have SACKED Colin Calderwood. I immediately turned off my MP3 player as this piece of news was the only music I needed to hear. I was absolutely delighted and the depression of the Doncaster defeat was swept away in an instant. The day hadn't actually been too bad after all. All the other results went our way, which meant we were still only a point away from safety, and we had finally got rid of Calderwood. If somebody told me that the only way to get rid of him would be a humiliating home defeat, I might have taken it. The long-term future of this football club is the most important thing, and if one or two defeats have to be endured to reach our long-term goal then bring them on.
So now that the Calderwood era is over, the big question now is who will take over the reins? Will we go for a short-term appointment until the end of the season, or will we bring in somebody permanently immediately? Billy Davies is reputed to be the hot favourite, and I am not totally against that idea, although a little concerned that he can be quite arrogant and unlikeable. But he can't be all bad if he did so well at Preston and Derby in the Championship. He obviously knows one or two things about tactics. I do worry that we would be swapping one dour Scotsman for another, but he has fought relegation battles at this level before, rescuing Derby and then winning them promotion the following season. I think he may be capable of keeping us up, but as a long-term option I am not so sure. I don't think Robbie Earnshaw will be too thrilled, as it was Davies who was in charge at Derby when he was frozen out. Earnshaw must be wondering what he did in a previous life as he was so happy when he joined Forest. I really hope that he and Davies can draw a line under what happened at Pride Park and start again.
My choice like many other fans would be for Psycho and Nigel Clough, but I don't think that will ever happen. Psycho is being groomed for the England manager's job, and Nigel will probably want to work his way up through the divisions. He's on course to get promoted with Burton Albion to League Two, and it's quite feasible that Forest could even be playing Burton in a league match in a few years, the way things are going.
John Pemberton will be in charge for the trip to Norwich on Sunday. As reserve team manager he has done really well. Forest won the title last season, so he must be doing something right. The problem with Calderwood was that he was tactically very naïve. Pemberton will hopefully be in favour of putting round pegs in round holes. That would certainly be a step in the right direction. As Earnshaw said in his post-match interview the players didn't really know what they were doing. And if that is not proof that Calderwood had lost the dressing room, I don't know what is.
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