One step forward...two steps back

I really thought we had a good chance of beating Sheffield United on Tuesday night and was looking forward to renewing our rivalry with them after three years outside of the Championship, but Forest were really poor, and they couldn't keep possession and ended up losing to a scrappy goal.

The Blades were dominant in the opening twenty minutes or so and Forest just couldn't get hold of the ball at all, and when they did they quickly lost it. It was very frustrating to watch, and United quite frankly looked a class apart from us at times in terms of the amount of possession they had. They really deserved to take the lead half an hour into the game when Brian Howard bundled the ball over the line following a poor Kelvin Wilson clearance.

Forest struggled to break the stubborn United defence down, and they resorted to playing a desperate long-ball game, which was quite laughable if it wasn't so sad with 5ft 8 Robert Earnshaw and 5ft 10 Joe Garner playing up front together. Not surprisingly Earnshaw hardly got a look-in, and was substituted, and Garner wasn't much better. But it's hardly their fault if they don't get any service. We need at least one 6ft+ striker to play alongside either Earnshaw or Garner. The trouble is both of them are very good players if used right and don't deserve to be dropped.

The only consolation was that both Doncaster and Charlton lost, and we stayed off the bottom, albeit on goal difference, but a win for Watford against Norwich on Wednesday night left us five points adrift of safety again. We have to beat Blackpool on Saturday, but it will not be easy. It is a very sad state of affairs that Blackpool will probably feel disappointed if they don't walk away from us with three points, but the grim reality is that they are a better side and will probably be in a higher division than us this time next year.