A fond farewell to 2009. Let's hope 2010 is just as fine

When Big Ben strikes midnight in a couple of days' time, I'm going to feel very sad to leave 2009 behind. It has been an extremely good year for Forest starting with Billy Davies' arrival in January, and ending in us well placed in third position in the Championship ready to mount a serious bid for automatic promotion. The fact that it has taken such a short space of time to transform us from relegation certainties into a strong and vibrant team shows what a great manager Davies is, and we should thank our lucky stars every day that we have him.

Against Coventry, we weren't really at our best, particularly in the first half hour when they were all over us. They had a sackful of chances but for one reason or another just couldn't put the ball away. Had they been more potent up front, they could have been two or three up by half time. But once it became apparent that we were not going to let them score, they seemed to have the life knocked out of them and we got more and more into the game. At first we couldn't seem to string two passes together, but by the end of the half we were playing some lovely stuff, none more so than a stunning solo run from Radoslaw Majewski, who cut through the centre of midfield, running from one end of the pitch to the other before feeding the advancing Rob Earnshaw, who had just the goalkeeper to beat before chipping the ball over him to give us the lead, which we just about deserved having worked hard to overcome Coventry's game plan. An equally brilliant Dexter Blackstock goal 12 minutes from time set us well on course for the three points, and Coventry were left to rue their missed chances. If I was being objective, I would probably say that they deserved at least a point. But I'm not; we took our chances, and they didn't, so we deserved to win!

We now have nearly a fortnight before our next Championship match as it's the FA Cup 3rd round next Saturday. I must admit I'm struggling to work up much enthusiasm for our home game against Birmingham. I know that they are in the Premiership, but we played them twice last season and in a pre-season friendly in the summer, so it's not very exciting. I can't see the crowd being very big for this one, especially as the tickets are so expensive and people being out of pocket after Christmas. For me it would cost £40 including travel expenses, and I am not sure I can justify that for a match that I'm not that interested in. My mind is firmly focussed on the West Brom match six days later, which is being televised live on Sky on a Friday night. I bet Sky are really happy at the way things have turned out as whoever wins this game will be second at the end of it. It will be interesting to see how Davies approaches this match given the prize on offer. Will he want to go all out for the three points or will he be content with a draw? If we can get anything from the Hawthorns, it will be a brilliant result after all, and if we carry on playing as well as we are in the second half of the campaign, I think we have every chance of pipping the Baggies, or dare I say it, even Newcastle to automatic promotion in May. We are going along just nicely, and it's not where we are now, but at the end of the season that matters. My gut feeling is we're going to do it!

From third bottom to third from top: what a difference a year makes

Even if it was just for three hours, seeing Forest in second place in the Championship made me feel really warm inside. If I'm not too careful, I'm going to get a real taste for it!

Forest have become a formidable force away from home this season, and will now enter 2010 unbeaten on their travels since last March. That is a remarkable statistic by anyone's standards, let alone a team that was struggling against relegation to the third tier little more than six months ago. Home teams must be really scared of playing us. It must affect their confidence, but the longer this record goes on, the harder teams are going to try and beat us, and sooner or later we are going to come unstuck. I very much doubt we will see the season out unscathed, but let's hope when we do finally succumb that we will bounce back and not let it damage our confidence.

At Watford, mind you, we did ride our luck a bit. We played very well in the first half, but in the later stages of the second 45 minutes, we were run ragged a little bit. We could count ourselves very fortunate indeed that the referee Andy D'Urso, a man who is no stranger to controversy, failed to spot Nicky Shorey's blatant handball clearance off the line in stoppage time. It would have resulted in a penalty for Watford and Shorey's dismissal, so we rather got away with it. In terms of our overall performance, though, defeat would have been harsh, and it would have been a cruel way to see our proud record be ruined in such a way, not to mention spoil Christmas.

Speaking of which, it has now been a whole year since Colin Calderwood was given the old heave-ho on Boxing Day! A few of the players that day may still be in the team, but Forest are completely unrecognisable one year on. This time last year after that dreadful 4-2 defeat at the hands of Doncaster we were third from bottom. If you'd told me that a year later the table would be completely reversed and we'd be sitting in third position, I'd have given you a funny look. It just goes to show that Billy Davies has a magical midas touch wherever he goes. I think the only thing we've got to worry about in 2010 is that clubs in the Premiership will be keeping tabs on Billy's progress. Because if I was a chairman looking to appoint somebody, Davies' name would certainly be high on my list. He will want to test himself in the top flight again, make no mistake. He will be remembered for overseeing the first few months of Derby's disastrous season in the Premiership, but he didn't get the right financial backing from the board. I think if we do get promoted this season, Nigel Doughty will continue to invest millions, as he does every season, and Davies will certainly be given until at least Christmas to prove himself. But let's not jump the gun here. There's another half of the season to play yet. We're not quite safe from relegation, although I have to admit, even I have stopped worrying about that now! Three more wins and a draw should do it.

Moody McKenna reminds me a bit of Psycho

I feel safe as houses watching Forest at the moment. Every time they play now, I'm confident they are not going to lose. I'm actually beginning to think that we might just be a bit too good for the Championship now, and perhaps it is time we tested our mettle in the top flight again!

We were head and shoulders above Preston last night. We made them look like a team several divisions below we were that good. We kept the ball really well and we were allowed so much space. They just had no clue whatsoever how to handle us. It was written in the stars that Paul McKenna would score against his old team, and what a goal it was. I had a weird premonition just before we scored, as well. I suddenly got this gut feeling that we were definitely going to score right then, and as McKenna struck the ball speculatively, I knew instantly that it was going in. Sportingly, he didn't celebrate out of respect for his old team mates, but you could see a faint smile appear on his face. But I don't think I've seen him smile once since he's been here. He reminds me a little bit of Stuart Pearce, who always had a mean and moody face on him when he was out on the pitch. But maybe his sulky demeanour is what makes him such a good captain. He goes about his business in midfield quietly and doesn't grab headlines, but the difference he has made to the side has not gone unnoticed, believe me.

Even at 1-0 up we looked like we were coasting it, so when Dele Adebola made it 2-0 with a tap-in 25 minutes into the game, it felt like the three points were already in the bag as we were completely dominating. The only real surprise was that we didn't score any more until Lewis McGugan once again lived up to his 'super-sub' tag when he dribbled the ball into the net with eight minutes remaining.

As a result of several postponements owing to the weather, including West Brom and Cardiff's games, Forest have gone joint second on 39 points! If we had managed to turn a few of the nine draws we've had into wins, we would be breathing right down Newcastle's necks. But to be so close to the automatic promotion places at Christmas is absolutely fantastic and a terrific reward for the amazing work that Billy Davies and his staff have put in to transform us in such a short space of time.

It's official: Forest ARE promotion contenders

I'm beginning to think Forest are invincible away from home! Now that is a sentence I never thought I'd be writing, but invincible is exactly what we are at the moment, having gone 13 games without defeat, losing none away since last March!

I really thought that Swansea would be a very tough place to go to as they had only lost once at the Liberty Stadium this season, but although David McGoldrick's 35th-minute strike was rather against the run of play, nobody could say we didn't deserve the win after a strong second half. Lee Camp was busy in goal once again, but Billy Davies got his tactics spot on and we managed to hold on for our third win in four games, an achievement that has been awarded with third place in the table, less than two weeks before Christmas! Now, who would have thought that possible at the start of the season?!

We're now five points clear of 7th place, so I think we can now say that yes, we are play-off contenders, if not automatic promotion. I doubt we will catch Newcastle, who are some ten points clear at the moment, but I do believe that we can overhaul West Brom easily. At the time of writing we're only two points away from them, but they have a very winnable looking home game against QPR on Monday night. Hopefully we will still have them in our sights when our away trip to the Hawthorns comes round in a few weeks. If not, I will be more than glad to accept a place in the top six for now! I never expected us to be doing this well so soon, so I'm really happy with them at the moment. That's not something I've been able to say very much in recent times, so I'm going to make sure I savour every moment, because there will be more dark times in the future. I've always believed that as long as I get to enjoy some happiness with Forest, I can accept there will be misery at some point, too.

Forest miss Davies in dugout but Camp saves the day

I think we can forgive Forest for having an off-day against Sheffield United. It was a very poor game in which neither side played particularly well, so a goalless draw was about the right result on reflection. Bramall Lane is never an easy place to go at the best of times, so to come away with a point is very pleasing, considering the fact that Billy Davies was absent because of illness, leaving assistant Ned Kelly in charge.

The lacklustre performance last night really highlighted what a huge influence Davies has on the team's morale. At times we were very disorganised and all over the place defensively. Thank God for Lee Camp is all I can say, because he made some fantastic saves to keep us in it. He hasn't had that much to do this season because we've been so tight defensively, but he certainly was made to work for his money against United. He is the best goalkeeper we have had in a very long time. The fact that we have yet to lose an away game with him playing just shows how important he is to the team.

I must admit when I heard that Luke Chambers was back in the side at right back, it took me back to the bad old days under Colin Calderwood. I really rate him as a centre-half and thought he was very unlucky to get dropped a couple of months ago for Kelvin Wilson, but he's no right back, as he will admit himself. But luckily he did okay last night, so it was a decision that paid off. It was obvious we were playing for a point as Chris Gunter was pushed forward into midfield. This helped to protect Chambers' vulnerability, so he didn't get torn to pieces, as was frequently the case last season.

If we had won, we'd only be three points off second place as West Brom lost at home to Cardiff, who incidentally have leapfrogged us and gone third. But as I keep saying I'm not particularly desperate to win promotion, so I'm struggling to get worked up about it. The only thing I was worried about was being relegated – not that there was much chance of that happening after our summer spending splurge! - and now that is not going to happen, I feel really relaxed. Normally I'm a nervous wreck during Forest games, but I don't even worry about us losing at the moment as one defeat is not going to kill us, is it? We're surely not going to get through the whole season without losing an away game, are we?!

Robbie's on fire as red hot Reds slay the Foxes

I feel like I'm living in Dreamland at the moment! Every week Forest just get better and better. Yesterday's awesome 5-1 annihilation of Leicester has to be the highlight of the season so far.

It really was a fantastic afternoon for everyone of a Forest persuasion, in particular for Robbie Earnshaw who scored a superb hat trick – his first for the Club – to give us a well-deserved three-nil lead. All three goals were taken really well, and it was brilliant to see him back to doing what he does best. It's hard to believe that little over a month ago, there was strong talk of him leaving the Club as he was struggling with injuries and lack of form, but since he returned to fitness, he has fought his way back into Billy Davies' good books, scoring five goals in the past three games. You really cannot ask for more than that, and now he must surely start every game. Before it was all about Dexter Blackstock, but Earnshaw is the one everybody is talking about again now, and I couldn't be more delighted for him, because he is such a nice person, and clearly loves playing for Forest.

While Forest fans play down the rivalry with the Foxes, insisting that 'we only hate Derby', for Leicester-born Paul Anderson, it was in his own words 'the biggest game of his career so far'. He said in a pre-match interview how desperate he was to score a goal, and when he struck the fourth goal magnificently from 20 yards out, he celebrated as if he had won us a cup or something! When he was interviewed after the game, he said it was the best day of his life so far! That's what scoring in front of 4,000+ Leicester fans, some of whom he knows personally and gets frequent stick from, meant to him, and I was really happy for him that his dream of scoring came true. It was bound to really, wasn't it?!

I never relax when we are three goals up, but once Anderson got the fourth, I felt sure we had secured the three points as Leicester were awful and had showed no sign of getting back into it. A little bit of doubt crept back into my mind, however, when they scored from a penalty with 25 minutes left to give themsleves a glimmer of hope, but when substitute Dele Adebola scored a fifth, even I, one of the biggest hypochondriacs you're likely to meet, was convinced that we'd won the game.

We are now flying high in third place in the table, having swapped places with Leicester, who slip into fourth as a result of the hammering we inflicted on them. I am not surprised to see us doing so well. We have a really good team now and in my opinion, the best manager in the Championship. Our confidence is absolutely full to the brim at the moment, and if I was a neutral, I would say Forest were definite automatic promotion contenders. It's very exciting to think that by the time the trip to West Brom comes around in a month's time, we could potentially go second if we beat them – that's if we're not already there, that is!

Four-some Forest finally crack the top six

How proud do you feel seeing Forest's name in fourth place in the Championship?! Okay, so for a club of our stature and an honours list practically as long as your arm, taken at face value, it's not surprising at all, but in the context of our most recent history, it's an absolutely brilliant achievement.

Eleven months ago we looked cast-iron certainties for relegation back to League One after Doncaster embarrassingly demolished us on our own pitch on Boxing Day. But fast-forward nearly a year later, in Billy Davies' words, we are a completely different animal. The fact that the scoreline was eerily close to being a complete reversal of the scoreline that Doncaster inflicted on us last year (2-4 as if you need reminding) was a kind of poetic justice which underlined just how far Forest have come since that dreadful day.

Five of the players who played in the 4-2 defeat started the game this time around. Kelvin Wilson and Wes Morgan were still in central defence, but the key difference was the fact that we had decent full backs with Chris Gunter at right back and our on-loan signing Nicky Shorey, not so long ago an England international, making his debut at left back. Our midfield and attack were also a lot better, even taking into account the lack of Chris Cohen, Guy Moussi and Nathan Tyson.

We weren't that great in the first half, but just about deserved the lead thanks to a Paul Anderson shot that went in off a Doncaster defender. Officially it was recorded as an own goal, but Anderson really should take most of the credit as he did really well to get the shot in after his initial attempt was cleared off the line.

As so often seems to be the case this season, Forest had a really strong second half. When Wes Morgan made it 2-0 with a header from a corner on the stroke of the hour, we looked really comfortable. While Doncaster were quite good on the counter attack, our defense dealt with them really easily, and Lee Camp had hardly anything to do. Rob Earnshaw, back in the side following his free-kick heroics at Middlesbrough a week ago, put the game beyond reasonable doubt when he latched on to a Radoslaw Majewski ball to send the ball flying into the net from inside the penalty area. But it was substitute Lewis McGugan who stole the show when he made the grandest of entrances after coming on for Majewski. Somehow, from a really tight angle, he dispatched a shot (or was it a cross?) that crashed straight into the net to everybody's disbelief. It was certainly one of the best goals I've ever witnessed at the City Ground in almost a decade of going to matches. If it had been scored in the Premiership, they would no doubt be saying it was world-class! As it is, I bet it hardly gets mentioned, but who cares, it was a special moment for us.

After weeks of knocking on the door of the top six, we have finally been awarded for our excellent first four months of the campaign and are now fourth, just behind Leicester, who we just so happen to be playing next Saturday. If we beat them we will go third, and who knows, maybe even close the gap on Newcastle and West Brom, who at the moment seem to be running away with it a little bit. As we've almost reached the half-way stage in the season, I think people are going to have to take us very seriously regarding promotion. I'm even beginning to like the idea of being in the Premiership! We don't have a very good record there, having been relegated from it three times, but if teams like Stoke, Wigan and Bolton can do well in it, why the hell not us? So, yes, let's go for it. If it all goes wrong, then it does, but if we do come straight back down, at least we know that the Championship is a really good League to be in, so really we have nothing to lose.

A well-Earned point as Forest's impressive away form holds firm

I am so glad I didn't slit my wrists when Forest were crushed 5-0 at Burnley back in March. Because, although it may have seemed like the end of the world at the time, that was actually the last time Forest lost an away game!

We still remain the only team in the seven top divisions not to have lost a single game on our travels this season, and that is something we can be really be proud of. It's about time that we made positive headlines for ourselves, as we were so used to doing in the glory days under Cloughie. It hasn't been much fun being a Forest fan in recent years, but since Billy Davies arrived, it's been pretty much plain sailing, and I can't tell you how good it has been for my health, both mentally and physically. I'm no longer getting stomach palpitations worrying about permutations. It's a very pleasant feeling, and I'm going to enjoy it while I can, because it is not going to last for ever.

It would have been a huge injustice if we had not got something from the Middlesbrough game. To be quite frank, we were pretty awful in the first half as we struggled to get to grips with it. Boro were tearing our defence apart, and when they took the lead in only the fifth minute through Leroy Lita, I feared that a hammering could be on the cards. Fortunately that turned out to be far from the case, though, as we settled more and more into the game, and after the break we were excellent and completely dominated. The only thing lacking was our final ball, but it was great to see Robert Earnshaw get himself back on the scoresheet when he scored from a superb free kick to equalise with twenty minutes remaining. I really thought we might go on to win then, such was our superiority, but I was more than happy to settle for a point at the Riverside. It was our fourth consecutive draw, so maybe we could have done with a win, but I'm sure there is another victory just around the corner.

Hopefully that will be at home to Doncaster next week. It will be a tough game, because Donny are no pushovers, as we found out to our cost on Boxing Day last year.
I don't want to dwell on it too much, but suffice to say it was the moment when Forest hit rock bottom, but also the start of something much, much better as Colin Calderwood fell on his sword much to all our delight, and Forest have not looked back since!

Sorry Forest, but I just can't get used to not fretting about you!

Usually I feel absolutely gutted when Forest concede last-minute goals of significance, but I only felt a bit disappointed that we were unable to hold on to our lead given to us by Wes Morgan just a few minutes earlier against Bristol City. We have been doing so well lately that I thought it was greedy to expect yet another victory, so I'm quite satisfied with a point. The most important thing was not to head into the international break on the back of a defeat.

I'm not at all desperate for promotion, and there's not much chance of us getting relegated, so I feel very relaxed about Forest at the moment, which is not something I have been able to say very often over the past decade at all! I want us to finish somewhere in the top ten, but don't think I can face the play-offs. Not because it would be a disaster if we lost them, but just that they can cause a lot of emotional upset and it would be a shame for a depression to set back in at the City Ground, just when the outlook has become so sunny again. But sooner or later I think I'm going to get bored of having nothing to worry about regarding Forest. I've got an addictive personality and crave a bit of danger, so I hope we do make a good fist of trying to get into the top six just to keep the season alive. We are almost half way there to being safe from relegation, and there's still two-thirds of the season to go. I predict that by February, we'll be virtually safe, as by Christmas we'll probably have something in the range of about 35-40 points.

I didn't think we played particularly well against Bristol City in the first half. There were a number of players who were having an off-day, giving the ball away too much. Billy Davies picked the same side that earned a late draw at Cardiff. This meant a five-man midfield with David McGoldrick up front on his own. I'm sure that if Nathan Tyson and Dexter Blackstock hadn't been injured, we would have played 4-4-2, but even so it still seemed a bit negative. I would have liked to have seen Dele Adebola on from the start, as Forest looked a much more menacing outfit once he came on ten minutes into the second half. Davies seems to get his substitutions right a lot of the time as Forest suddenly looked capable of scoring once Gareth McCleary and Rob Earnshaw were both on the pitch. The goal, though, came from an unlikely source in Morgan, who tucked the ball in from six yards out following a free kick. Once again Adebola had been involved, which just goes to show how effective he can be as a substitute.

But our celebrations were short-lived as Danny Haynes pounced in the last minute of normal time to equalise for City, and we were forced to settle for a point, which on reflection was what both sides deserved. We still managed to climb a couple of places in the table, though, into a very respectable eighth position. Now cast your mind back 12 months and if somebody told you we'd be in eighth in the Championship a year later, you'd be amazed, wouldn't you?!

Promotion a distinct possibility, but do we really need it?

My mum says she did a dance around the living room when Lewis McGugan blasted home the equaliser in injury time at Cardiff. She keeps telling me she isn't a Forest supporter and only wants me to be happy, but isn't that how a lot of football fans start out, by wanting their parent's team to do well so they would be in a good mood? I think that must have been the case with my dad twenty or so years ago, so although my mum is approaching her sixties now, I think she is secretly developing a fondness for Forest! Before too long, she'll be accompanying me to home games!

I've very little to complain about Forest these days, and it feels very strange to be honest. We've been used to dire performances week-in-week out with the players showing a complete lack of commitment and desire, but that is hardly the case now with every single one of the players giving their all, and it is just wonderful to see. There is usually a weak leak in the team, somebody who we make a scapegoat and blame when everything is going wrong, but you can't pick anyone out at the moment. The fact that every game there are a handful of candidates for Man of the Match shows how good a team we have become under Billy Davies. Before he arrived, there were some talented individuals, but they had no idea how to play together. It wasn't their fault as it was down to the appalling coaching they were receiving, but Davies and his staff have sorted that out and made us into a very good professional outfit. Some of the players have really excelled under his leadership. Kelvin Wilson, in particular, since he returned from injury, has been very impressive in the heart of defence alongside Wes Morgan. I must admit I didn't rate him at all last season, but he's been back to his best recently. I thought it was harsh dropping Luke Chambers for him, but Davies must have had his reasons, and it looks like he's been proven right.

On the whole I thought we defended very well against a side that boasted the division's top scorers in Michael Chopra and Guy Whittingham, who between them had scored 21 goals going into the match. Lee Camp had an exceptional game and really showed what a quality goalkeeper he can be. In the first half he made a double reaction save, and was generally solid right throughout the game. But it had taken Cardiff a while to get going as Forest dominated possession in the first half, and could have opened the scoring when the impressive Paul Anderson shot wide, and David McGoldrick who was operating a lone striker's role, also went close when he found himself in a one-on-one situation.

Cardiff took the lead through Jay Bothroyd just after the hour when they caught Forest out on the counter attack after a corner. The goal had been coming as Cardiff were getting stronger and stronger, and when Davies made a couple of substitutions in midfield, bringing on Dele Adebola for Radoslaw Majewski, and Gareth McCleary for Joe Garner, Forest seemed to be struggling to adapt, and Cardiff began to assert their authority. But just when I was bemoaning how Davies had possibly cost us the game with his tinkering, his third substitute, McGugan, fired the equaliser one minute into stoppage time to deny Cardiff top spot and give Forest a richly deserved share of the spoils and stretch our unbeaten away record to eight games.

I was absolutely delighted to take a point away from Cardiff, who like Forest, had been in brilliant form lately. After winning five games in a row, Forest could afford to relax a bit and that's probably why we did so well at Crystal Palace and Cardiff as we played without fear. To get two draws at these grounds is excellent as both are very difficult places to go. If we can hold teams like Cardiff away from home, then we have to be considered as one of the front-runners for the play-offs, if not the automatic spots. We are only four points from the top, after all. The Championship is so incredibly tight this season in the top half of the table. Everybody is beating everyone, so it's impossible to predict who will be top come May at the moment. We seem to be holding our own against the strongest teams, beating the likes of Newcastle, and going to Cardiff and getting a point, as well as deserving something from the West Brom game, so there is no reason why we shouldn't be in the top six at the end of the season. I definitely think we are good enough to make the play-offs, but I just hope that nobody will be too downhearted if we lose them, because although we have made significant progress since last season, we've got to take things slowly, otherwise we might be in danger of burning ourselves out too quickly.

Fearless Forest still undefeated away from home

This is going to sound a little bit strange, but I feel quite glad that our winning run has ended. It felt a bit like eating too many chocolates. Too much of a good thing is bad for you, and to be quite honest I was getting a bit sick of it! The glorious feeling of winning is only possible if you've felt the agonising lows as well. That's why when I say I'm not jealous of the likes of Chelsea and Man United fans I truly mean it.

I thought we did really well to come away with a point from Crystal Palace, who have been in very good form lately. We didn't really create an awful lot, but we packed the midfield and made life very difficult for them. The last five minutes of the first half were very dramatic as not only did Palace take the lead from a Darren Ambrose free kick, but Forest also were forced to make a substitution when Clint Hill elbowed Paul Anderson in the face. The challenge left Anderson on the ground for quite a long time, and it looked like Hill would get his marching orders. But the referee decided there was no malintent and he was only booked. Unfortunately for Forest, though, Anderson was unable to continue and was replaced with Gareth McCleary.

Rather bizarrely, although I didn't hear it at the time, the local commentary was then accidentally fed through the tannoy with the commentator's words 'out of his pram' being heard by thousands of people. This was clearly referring to Billy Davies who had reacted furiously to Hill's elbow on Anderson. I just wish I heard it, as it would have been hilarious! To be honest, I was so worried about Anderson that I didn't notice. Thankfully, he turned out to be okay, but Davies and Neil Warnock were full of criticism for each other at the end of the game. Honestly, would you expect anything less from Warnock? The man is a clown, and always has been!

Forest got their justice when they grabbed a well-worked equaliser just three minutes into the second half. David McGoldrick, who was back in the side in the absence of Dexter Blackstock, latched on to a Lewis McGugan cross and tapped in from close-range to score his second goal in Forest colours. Palace went close several times to retaking the lead, but Lee Camp was in superb form and kept us in it with some great saves, including one in the dying moments of stoppage time when he denied one-time Forest striker Stern John from grabbing a last-gasp winner. After all the hard work we had put in, that would have been a real heart-breaker.

Luckily, the whistle blew soon after that and we still remain undefeated away from home, a feat that has not been achieved by any other team in all four divisions this season! That record will be severely tested when we visit high-flying Cardiff next Sunday evening, but I don't think we have any reason to fear it at all. It will probably be a backs-to-the-wall job, but if anything it's Cardiff who should be wary of us, and not the other way round. Whatever happens, I'm sure we won't be as bad as Derby were when they got thrashed 6-1 there!

All hail King Billy, the best manager we've had for years

I really thought that the game against Barnsley was heading for a goalless draw last night. Having won our previous four games, I wasn't all that desperate to win, so was counting down the clock when four minutes of injury time were declared, praying that Barnsley would not snatch a late winner, as they had threatened to do when Lee Camp made a couple of excellent saves. But it was us who broke Barnsley's hearts instead when the magnificent Guy Moussi struck deep in stoppage time to hand us our fifth straight win.

Moussi paid the price for jumping into the Trent End crowd when he was sent off, having already been booked a few minutes earlier, but thankfully Forest kept their nerve and saw out the last minute or so to hold on for another hard-fought victory. Although we remain in seventh place, we are now just two points away from the top of the table, believe it or not! The difference between being bottom of the table and the top is that even when you win, you might not make much progress as the other teams around you are in good form as well. It is not even November yet, so it's a bit early to say whether we will be serious promotion candidates come May, but I think we have a very good chance. We are a very strong and well-organised side with a great team spirit. That will take us very far. We are light years away from last season under Colin Calderwood. Billy Davies and his managerial team have done an absolutely brilliant job of transforming us from almost dead certs for relegation to League One into one of the best teams in the Championship in such a short space of time. I just pray that he isn't tempted by the offer of a bigger job elsewhere because he really is the best thing that has happened to Forest in years and years. I can't believe he was out of work for over a year. With such a promising Championship CV, I would have thought he would have been snapped up immediately by a club in that division when he was fired by Derby. It was a somewhat uncharacteristically brave move by Nigel Doughty to appoint somebody with a reputation for having forthright opinions, but at long last it looks as though this is one managerial appointment he has got right!

Dare we dream of the Premier League?

I feel so PROUD of Forest at the moment! Everything is going so well, and following a well-deserved win over the leaders Newcastle, we could be on the verge of something special at the City Ground.

I was bowled over at times by the quality of football we were playing in the first half. We kept the ball so well and really dominated possession. Newcastle weren't a bad team, but they simply couldn't handle our abundance of pace. I was particularly impressed with Guy Moussi, who was playing in a three-man central midfield. He was excellent at winning the ball and distributing it. It was the best I'd seen him play in a long time. Paul Anderson, too, was looking very dangerous on the wing, and he was the orchestrator of a sublime bit of skill when he somehow kept the ball in play when it looked to be going out, before running with it and then dispatching a shot from a tight angle, which the goalkeeper just got his hands to. It would surely have been one of the finest goals ever scored at the City Ground had it gone in. Billy Davies got his tactics spot on by playing five in midfield and Dexter Blackstock up front on his own. It might have seemed a bit negative on paper, but Blackstock got plenty of chances, and when he gave us the lead on the stroke of full time when he latched on to a through ball from Radoslaw Majewski, it was all he and his team mates deserved.

For a lot of the second half, it was a backs-to-the-wall job as we soaked up a lot of Newcastle pressure. But luckily our defence was on top form, and the closest Newcastle got to equalising was when Kevin Nolan put the ball in the net only for it to be ruled offisde. That was sweet justice for those Forest fans who had read his comments earlier saying that we'd celebrate victory over them as if we'd won the European Cup (again). As if! I must admit, my celebrations were a bit more passionate than usual when we win, but no, it didn't feel as if we'd won the European Cup. At least Forest do know what that feels like, eh Kevin? It's not a feeling he's likely to ever experience in his lifetime.

So now that we have beaten supposedly the biggest club in the League, I think we can safely say that Forest mean business this season. There's no way that we will be sucked into a relegation battle. We are far too strong for that. Therefore, to keep the season going, we've got to target those play-off places, and who knows, maybe even automatic promotion. We are only five points away from first place after all. But, I agree with Davies. We're just not ready for the Premiership yet. We need another season or two down here first of all. We do not want to repeat Derby's awful experience. Davies is as yet unproven as a manager at that level, although I think he'd be up for the challenge given the right circumstances. If we can flirt with the play-offs but not actually reach them, then it will be a great season. We're currently seventh, and our odds on winning promotion are being shortened all the time, so people obviously like the look of us. We got off to a slow and uninspiring start, but it's all coming together very nicely now, and for the first time in what seems like eons, I can't think of a bad word to say about the Club!

I see trees of green...What a wonderful week for Forest

Forest, you really must stop winning like this. I could get used to it! No, seriously, please carry on. I said the other night that we shouldn't get too greedy, but I've changed my mind now. I want more! We are on a bit of a roll now, and just one point away from the top six in the Championship two months into the season. Now that has to be a big improvement on this time last year when we were entrenched at the bottom of the table and couldn't buy a win for love nor money.

It was a great response coming back from a goal down at Peterborough to equalise immediately like that. Okay, so we were helped considerably by dodgy defending and the wind when Radoslaw Majewski's in-swinging free kick caught everyone by surprise and sailed right over Peterborough's substitute goalkeeper. But we still deserved to be level, and five minutes later we were in the lead thanks to Paul Anderson, who netted from close range for his second goal of the season. That turned out to be the match winner as Forest comfortably saw the game out without too much trouble. It wasn't exactly a scintillating performance, but just like the Plymouth win last Sunday, it was a job well done and another three points in the bag.

The past seven days have been great, yielding nine points from nine. You really couldn't ask for more than that. True, the games were against three poor teams who will probably be involved in the relegation battle come the end of the season, but these games are exactly the kind that Forest often slip up in, so to win them all is very pleasing, and it gives us a good idea of how good we are. We were only a few points above the relegation zone this time last week, but now we're 10th, which is the highest position we've been in this division for years. I don't see any reason why not we can finish even higher come May. But as long as we avoid being involved in the fight to stay up, I will be happy. Anything else we achieve will be a bonus. I'm not at all desperate to get back up to the Premiership, as I think the Championship is a very good division to be in for clubs like ourselves. I'm happy to stay here for a long time, as I can't stand the thought of us losing every week, trying to emulate Derby's 'achievement' of being the worst Premiership team ever! It might be nice visiting the country's best stadia, but not if we come away from them on the receiving end of a good spanking every time.

Anyway, I think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself talking about promotion. I don't think this team is good enough to mount a challenge – yet. But in a year or two if we keep this squad together and Billy Davies is still here, I'm sure we'll give it a good go. But for now, I'm more than happy with how things are going, winning three on the bounce. It sure beats fretting about relegation, and relying on a few snookers from teams around us. I practically made myself ill last year worrying about us going down. So it will be nice if Forest, just for once, gave us a stress-free season and finished in a boring 11th or 12th place or something like that. But in my twenty years of supporting them, I can hardly remember a season that wasn't exciting to some degree. Forest tend to be either shockingly bad, or really, really good, and no in-between, so don't bet against us making the play-offs in May. I just hope, though, that if we lose them we won't get too downhearted about it, as there is no doubt that the devastating 2003 semi-final defeat at Sheffield United really set us off on a downward spiral over the next half-decade. We're very much in the ascendency now and we shouldn't be in too much of a rush to achieve too much too soon.

Frustrating Forest finally flourish

I was beginning to think that Forest were deliberately not scoring to wind us up last night. So it was a huge relief when Luke Chambers powered home that header twenty minutes from time to give us a richly deserved lead in a completely one-sided match against Scunthorpe.

Dexter Blackstock followed that up with a simple tap-in five minutes later, and that set us up for another comfortable victory, our second in a row following the televised win over Plymouth at the weekend. As a result, we've now gone three points clear of Derby, who incidentally were thrashed 6-1 at Cardiff on Tuesday, a scoreline that our very own scoreboard was only too glad to point out at both half time and full time!

Let's not forget that Scunthorpe had come to Nottingham on the back of a five-match unbeaten run, which included a 4-0 win at Crystal Palace. I really feared another home defeat might be on the cards, as I could really see them terrorising our defence. But thankfully that turned out not to be the case at all. We came out all guns blazing, forcing three corners in the first five minutes, and Scunthorpe were reduced to the odd counter attack, which never came to much at all. We looked very dangerous in attack with Paul Anderson, who was at last given a deserved first team start, Nathan Tyson, Blackstock, and Joe Garner all in the side. Yet at half time, after completely dominating the first half, we still had nothing to show for it.

The second half continued in much the same vein as Forest poured forward going agonisingly close to scoring on several occasions. I was just beginning to think that it would not be our night again when the impressive Chambers headed home from a Chris Cohen corner. And when Blackstock made it two, I felt I could relax a bit, as Scunthorpe had hardly troubled us all night, and looked completely deflated when they conceded the second. There was a rather amusing, if not scary piece of slapstick near the end, though, when Scunny were presented with an open goal, and the ball bounced off the crossbar, and looked like it was going in until Lee Camp appeared out of nowhere at the very last second to claim the ball. Not for nothing is he known as 'Super Camp'!

It has been a pretty good few days for Forest, with back-to-back victories. It was so important to put an end to that bad run of form at home, as the longer the run went on, the more our confidence would suffer, and with Newcastle being the next visitors to the City Ground, it was difficult to see where our next home win was coming from. Now we can go to Peterborough on Saturday in a very confident frame of mind. We're unbeaten in five away games, and Peterborough are in the bottom three, having only won once in ten games so far. With the two wins behind us, there is less pressure on us to get three points, so that may well be an advantage as we can afford to relax a bit more. It would be great if we could go into the international break on the back of three successive victories, but let's not be too greedy!

Forest struggling to fly without proper wingers

While we should be happy and relieved to get another win in the bag, I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed by the performance against what was a very poor Plymouth side, who have yet to win this season.

To be honest, we didn't really deserve to be a goal up at half time. Plymouth had been very much on top, but just didn't take their chances, and what do they know, Forest grab the lead right on half time through the unlikeliest of sources in Chris Gunter, who had until then never scored in senior football. That was just about the only shot on target I can remember us having all match, but it proved to be all that we needed as Plymouth made life very easy for us in the second half as they hardly troubled us at all. Despite our dominance, though, we really struggled to create much, and that is a big concern, whether we got three points or not. We will not come up against many teams as bad as Plymouth this season in the Championship. At the moment they look like they're bound for League One, and if we don't see a big improvement in our performances, we might well be joining them.

Billy Davies has come in for a lot of criticism lately regarding his squad rotation policy, but in an interview with the Nottingham Evening Post he insisted that he would be continuing with it, so it looks like we're just going to have to get used to it. He thinks that each game requires a different set of players, which might be correct to a degree, but there's also a compelling argument that teams need to be settled and have time to learn to play together. If the players are different every game, there's no way they're going to be able to do that. Now even the defence is being rotated, with Luke Chambers failing to win his place back after being rested in mid-week for the Cup game against Blackburn. Kelvin Wilson stayed there instead, which I felt was very unfair on Chambers who had not done much wrong. But that's Davies all over, isn't it? He's always dropping players who are performing well. Namely Paul Anderson, who again was kept out of the side by Joe Garner, who mystifyingly keeps being selected on the right wing despite never actually doing anything good. Needless to say, Garner was replaced by Anderson twenty minutes from the end, and immediately you could see what a difference it made in our attack. Why Davies doesn't see this, I really don't know.

While the players publically say they are okay with the squad rotation system, deep down they must be pretty unhappy. And if we've got unhappy players, when they do come into the side, what good are they going to be to us if their confidence is low? In Forest's case, I think it's much better to have your first choice eleven and stick to it as much as possible. If you're good enough, you play, and if you're not, then you don't. Simple as that. Brian Clough once said that football is a simple game complicated by idiots. I'm not saying Davies is an idiot, but I do think he needs to take one or two leaves out of Cloughie's book if he wants to endear himself to the Forest fans a bit more. The last thing I want is for Davies to fail here, simply because with so many other struggling clubs potentially in the market for new managers, namely Derby and Ipswich, I can't see us getting anybody decent, and despite my misgivings, I do think he is still the right man for us, if only he wouldn't be so stubborn with his team selections.

Lack of goals hardly surprising, so why is Billy so baffled?

First of all, let me make it clear that I couldn't care less that we are out of the Carling Cup. I rate this in importance almost as least as I do the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. And judging by the falling attendances year after year, most of the other big clubs think the same. But having said all that, Forest have lost yet another home game even though they were supposedly the better side, and that is something to be bothered about.

I'm getting sick and tired of Billy Davies saying in his post-match interviews how we are playing so well, so there's nothing to worry about. Well, I'm sorry, but quite clearly there is something very worrying going on. We're not scoring goals. And goals win you football matches, which we are not doing at the moment. Our big spending splurge in the summer was supposed to transform us into a team that was capable of pushing for a top ten place at least. Yet at this rate I can only see us being involved in another depressing relegation scrap. And that is purely down to Davies' negative tactics. He wonders why we can't score goals and is apparently scratching his head over it. So why is it obvious to the Forest supporters what's wrong with the team? It's quite simple really. We're not scoring because (a) he doesn't have a clue who his best two strikers are, and is constantly switching them around, thus giving them no time to form an understanding, and at the same time damaging the confidence of those who are left out. (b) He doesn't seem to like natural wingers, leaving Paul Anderson on the bench, and instead playing Joe Garner in his place, and even worse at the weekend played Chris Cohen there when Garner was suspended. And (c) he makes the mind-boggling decision to play the tiny Robbie Earnshaw up front on his own at home. That is why your team cannot score goals, Billy.

It was a case of the same old story as Forest were dominating possession, but it was Blackburn who took the lead against the run of play from a free kick late in the first half. Forest's poor final ball was letting them down time and time again, and when Dexter Blackstock missed a penalty mid-way through the second half, it just about summed up the evening, and Forest's hopes of reaching the later stages of the competition that they used to do so well in years ago were ended for another season.

Now we have just the League to concentrate on until January, so we have no distractions until then, which is a good thing, in my opinion, as we really need to sort ourselves out. Davies says that we are 80% there, but I think it's more like about 50% at the moment. If we can't score for toffee, and our defence is so leaky, there is only one way we are going, and it's certainly not in an upwards direction.

Our next game is at Plymouth live on Sky TV on Sunday. You would think that we have a good chance of winning there, but our confidence is pretty low at the moment, so Plymouth might see this as a good opportunity to get their first win. If Davies persists with his weird tactics again, anything could happen. Our track record on TV is pretty awful in recent years, and I can honestly see us getting a bad case of stage fright once again this weekend if we're not too careful.

Forest all at sea thanks to Billy's silly selection

Call me fickle if you like, but I'm starting to lose my faith in Billy Davies a little bit. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that it was his bizarre team selection that was responsible for our third home defeat in four games, this time at the hands of Blackpool, whose 19th minute goal scored by Charlie Adam turned out to be the match winner on a hugely frustrating afternoon for Forest.

I couldn't believe it when I heard on the radio that Chris Cohen was to play right wing instead of Paul Anderson. What on earth was Davies thinking dropping one of our best players lately for a player to play out of position? It just made no sense at all. My only explanation is that Davies and Anderson don't like each other. Why else would you leave out a player that had destroyed Sheffield Wednesday last week and been Man of the Match? I just find it really bizarre. What is it going to do to Anderson's confidence if he's dropped even when playing well? While the likes of David McGoldrick, who are constantly rubbish, keep their place no matter what? Why is something so obvious to the Forest supporters completely escaping somebody who is supposed to be one of the best managers in the Championship?

It wasn't just the absence of Anderson that was puzzling. Playing Robbie Earnshaw up front on his own at home against Blackpool was another awful decision. How is that going to achieve anything? First of all why is Davies even contemplating playing one up front at home to some non-descript backwater team like Blackpool, let alone putting somebody there unsuitable for that task in the shape of a midget like Earnshaw? Needless to say, Earnshaw was awful and never got a sniff, and was substituted later. Why Davies thought that was going to work, I don't know. Again, I have no logical explanation, other than that Davies was probably drunk when he picked the team.

Also, why on earth were we playing two defensive midfielders? Why did Davies rush Guy Moussi back, at the expense of a balanced team? Pushing Cohen out wide so Moussi could take his place was stupid. We needed Cohen in the middle where he can be very effective, but now as a result of being played out of position so much this season, Cohen's confidence has been drained. Moussi should never have been picked at all after such a long absence. Anderson must have been baffled to be dropped for him, and now he'll hate Davies and not want to play for him again, and who can blame him?

I'm probably overreacting a little bit, and I know it's still mid-September and not even officially autumn yet, but I'm getting really worried. I really did think we were in good hands under Davies, but now I'm beginning to wonder. Every manager, good, or bad, sometimes gets his tactics wrong. I can accept that. But when he makes such bizarre decisions like leaving Anderson out, and playing Earnshaw on his own up front, you have to wonder.

We've now played eight games, and won just one. A very similar record to this time last season. In fact we are only two points better off. So much for the big improvement, Billy. Yes, we may be playing a bit better, but we're not getting results, are we? Even the win over Derby very nearly was thrown away, and look how bad Derby are right now, losing four in a row. If we're playing well, and not getting results, then clearly something is amiss. For a start, Davies should stop this rotation nonsense and pick his best team. We are not Chelsea. We are Forest. We don't have 22 Championship-quality players. I'm not even sure we have 11 decent ones. So stick to the same side for a few games, Billy, and we might just get somewhere. All this chopping and changing is helping nobody.

You've made your point, Forest. Let's have some more wins please!

Ordinarily, drawing at clubs like Ipswich should be seen as a good result, but I can't help but feel that they were there for the picking last night, and we will look back on the game as two points dropped rather than one point earned, even though we did have to come from behind.

I remember Colin Fray saying on BBC Radio Nottingham just before kick-off that if either side could get an early goal it could really be important. In the previous two matches against Derby and Sheffield Wednesday, Forest had taken the lead within the first couple of minutes. But this time, it was the turn of the opposition to strike early. The match was only a minute old when Grant Leadbitter struck past Lee Camp. And yes, you guessed it, it deflected off one of the Forest players along the way.

To Forest's credit, they did not drop their heads, and they very nearly equalised immediately when Dexter Blackstock's header glanced just over the crossbar. But although Forest played good football, they were frustrated by a combination of poor weather conditions and a free-kick-happy referee who also seemed on a mission to book as many players as possible. Not surprisingly, Joe Garner was one of those names who entered the book. Unbelievably it was his fifth yellow card of the season already, and he must serve a one-match ban. I would think the odds on him being shown a red card in each game are very short. He's fast becoming a bit of a liability. I don't think Billy Davies does him any favours by playing him on the right wing to be honest, and he certainly hasn't impressed there lately. I would much rather Paul Anderson play there instead, even if he didn't have his best game against Ipswich. It will be interesting to see what happens on Saturday at home to Blackpool. Nathan Tyson should be available again, so I would play him on the left, Anderson on the right, and leave Garner on the bench. I think he's being wasted as a winger, but to be honest, I can't see him getting into the team to play up front, either, at the moment.

Forest's fortunes changed in the second half, thanks in no small part to a couple of substitutions up front. Dexter Blackstock, who had picked up a head injury before the break, was replaced by Dele Adebola, and just before the hour, Garner was swapped for Rob Earnshaw. Within seconds, Forest were level, when Earnshaw with literally his first touch raced on to a good ball from Adebola and fired the ball home from six yards out to hand Forest a well-earned equaliser. Talk about an inspired substitution!

Ipswich looked like a side desperately low on confidence, and Forest really should have gone on to win, but they were not at their best themselves, and their final ball was letting them down too much. The slippery pitch caused by driving rain certainly didn't help matters. Ipswich sometimes were a threat on the counter attack, though, and Paul McKenna had to clear the ball off the line at one stage.

Adebola could well have snatched Forest all three points in the last minute when he found himself in a one-on-one situation with the Ipswich goalkeeper. But Gareth McAuley tripped him up, a challenge that resulted in his dismissal, and a free-kick for Forest very close to the goal. Unfortunately, Earnshaw's effort was tame, and Forest were forced to settle for yet another point away from home.

This season we have drawn at three of the teams that we lost to in the corresponding fixtures last time around, so clearly progress has been made. Last season we lost our opening six away games under Colin Calderwood. It would be nice to think that we could soon start turning these draws into wins. Perhaps our chance may come next week when we go down to Plymouth, who currently sit bottom of the table with five defeats from seven matches. But then again, the Sky TV cameras will be present, so maybe not!

Travel-slick Reds not too far away from becoming a force

Another away game, another point. What is it they say? Win your home games and draw away, and you won't go too far wrong. And when you go to big teams like Sheffield Wednesday, who have had a very good start to the season, and come away with something, you have got to be happy.

For the second game running, Forest took the lead in the very early stages of the game when just two minutes in, a terrific cross from the re-called Paul Anderson found Dexter Blackstock's head, and the ball looped over the goalkeeper into the back of the net. It was a pretty soft goal to concede from Wednesday's point of view, but Forest didn't care about that.

Whenever Anderson got hold of the ball, Wednesday didn't know how to live with him. His pace was absolutely frightening, and he put in so many good balls into the box. But it was such a shame that apart from the goal, our strikers just couldn't get on the end of them. If they had, I think we would have won the match. It was good to see Anderson get a full 90 minutes behind him, as he hadn't played at all away from home until Saturday, which really puzzled me. Billy Davies was picking Joe Garner ahead of him on the right wing, but we all knew that Anderson's pace could be a real handful for opposition defences just like it was last season away from home, and this was certainly the case at Hillsborough. I don't even know if Davies had originally planned to play him anyway, as Radoslaw Majewski (injured) and Nathan Tyson, whose wife had given birth overnight, were both missing. But Anderson's performance will now make it very hard for Davies to leave him out of the side against Ipswich on Tuesday night.

Forest couldn't have too many complaints when Wednesday equalised six minutes before half time through Marcus Tudgay, as they had been applying lots of pressure. Once again, there was a hint of deflection in the goal, and once again Wes Morgan seemed to be the culprit. Not for nothing has he been a mainstay in central defence for the past six years, and he is a favourite with the Forest supporters, but he does make quite a few glaring errors, which a more competent centre half wouldn't make. He was a good defender at League One level, but I don't think he'll ever become a top class Championship centre back. He's just too clumsy when he gets hold of the ball. Davies claims that he is impressed with him and Luke Chambers as a partnership, but the fact is we are looking to strengthen our defence – we tried to sign a centre half in the summer - so Morgan and Chambers know that their days could be numbered.

We've made quite a slow start to the season, but it hasn't been dreadful. Quite a few teams have only won one game in the Championship so far, so it's nothing to worry about. We're definitely getting stronger and stronger. You can see that in the performances. I think the Ipswich game looks very winnable. Roy Keane is under a lot of pressure as they have lost four of their six opening games and have yet to win. They were tipped by many to be one of the favourites for promotion, but have struggled so far. I think Davies will be targeting this game as our potential first away victory of the season. It's a difficult place to go and win, though, and our record against them recently has not been too good. Who can forget that six-goal thrashing four years ago? I wish I could! But there was also that amazing topsy-turvy seven-goal thriller, which we edged 4-3 after coming back from two down in 2003 in that wonderful season under Paul Hart. I think that there's every chance of there being a similar scoreline this time around with our abundance of attackers and our dodgy defence!

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Savage!

It's been nearly twenty four hours since the final whistle confirmed our first victory over Derby County in six-and-a-half years of trying, and I'm still high as a kite. It really was a magical day in Nottingham yesterday, and I am going to make sure I savour it for a long time to come.

Nathan Tyson's post-match corner flag celebration has to go down as one of my favourite moments – EVER. He was already a cult hero with the Forest supporters anyway, but now he's been elevated on to another plane altogether. I don't care if the spoilsports at the Football Association land him with a fine for 'inciting a riot'. Who cares? I thought it was wonderful, and it wound up the despicable Robbie Savage good and proper – and that is absolutely priceless. The sight of Savage's ugly, greasy long-haired mug on Sky Sports News bleating about Tyson waving the flag in front of the Sheep fans was brilliant TV, and I hope somebody puts it on YouTube so we can watch it over and over again! What a hypocritical person Savage is. He really wound us up last season when he waved his Derby scarf in front of his fans at the City Ground, and although it was in front of his own supporters, rather than ours, it still rankled with the Forest fans and players alike. So it was only right that justice was done. The FA say they will investigate the mêlée as a 'matter of urgency', but to be honest it wasn't much of a big deal. Most of the players were trying to restrain people, not actually get involved. Tyson will probably be hit in the pocket, and that will be that.

Even though the second half was really frightening in the way we very nearly squandered our half time 3-0 lead. I am almost glad we did let in two goals now because the end was so thrilling when the whistle finally blew. I didn't for one moment think that we had won the match when we went three up. I just knew that we'd sit back after the break and let Derby back into it, and so it proved. I was totally depressed when we conceded a second. I thought 'here we go again', and just waited for Derby to equalise, and possibly even go on to win. But thank the Lord, it never happened, and we managed to hold on. It would have been absolutely devastating to throw away a three-goal lead. I did fear it at half time, but being such a hypochondriac, I told myself I was being silly. But blimey, it was close. Our defence is absolutely scary. Both the goals were needlessly conceded. The first was an own goal which went in off Wes Morgan's head fives minutes into the half. That gave Derby some real momentum, and just over ten minutes later they were well and truly back in the match when more slapdash defending from Forest saw Jake Livermore fire past Lee Camp, taking a deflection off Paul McKenna along the way. I bet bookmakers would have offered short odds on Derby going on to win the match such was their dominance throughout the second 45 minutes.

It was a far cry from the first half when Forest had raced into a three-goal lead. We had the perfect start when just 58 seconds into the game, Radoslaw Majewski, whose goal against Middlesbrough in mid-week had put us in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup, showed off his talent yet again with a powerful 25-yard piledriver, which crashed into the back of the net, giving Stephen Bywater no chance. That raised the roof off the City Ground, and it inspired Forest to pour forward. Derby just couldn't handle us at all, and when Dexter Blackstock made it a deserved 2-0 half an hour into the game with a close-range header from a Chris Cohen free-kick, the Forest fans were beaming with happiness. Things just got better and better when a couple of minutes before half time Kris Commons lost possession and Forest took full advantage. Blackstock put Tyson clean through on goal, and cheekily rounded the goalkeeper to make it 3-0, and send the home fans wild with delight.

The news that the lacklustre Commons had been substituted at half time was greeted with jeers, but actually his replacement Lee Croft, a summer signing from Norwich City, whom we had been linked with ourselves, really terrorised us in the second half, so it wasn't such a good substitution from a Forest point of view after all. Luckily for us Billy Davies got his tactics right when he brought on Gareth McCleary for Joe Garner on the right wing, and this seemed to help Forest calm down a bit in defence. I think Garner might well have been sent off if he had stayed on the pitch for much longer. He was already on a yellow card, and in such a hostile atmosphere, the money would have been on him to see red considering his track record with referees.

Davies also played a huge part in our win, although I didn't realise it at the time. I couldn't understand why when about ten minutes from the end the crowd suddenly started cheering really loudly, roaring Forest on. I thought perhaps my watch had stopped and we had only a minute of injury time to go. But what transpired was that Davies had urged the home supporters to be really noisy and help create an atmosphere. It was very tense and quiet until then – very understandably after Derby had looked like they were going to break our hearts again - but once the crowd became really vocal, it helped the Forest players to regain their composure and it shook Derby up a little bit. They were never quite the same threat they had been earlier on. It's often said in football that the fans can be like a 12th man on the pitch, and I think certainly yesterday that was very true in Forest's case. If only we could be like that in every game, though, and not just once a year against our biggest rivals. Just imagine how many points better off we might be then.

Now our season should finally get started!

The League Cup might be pretty low down on our list of priorities, but last night's excellent win over Middlesbrough in extra time could turn out to be very significant if it helps us to get things going in the Championship.

Luke Chambers became the first player this season to breach Boro's defence when he scored what was arguably his best Forest goal to date, earning Forest a much-deserved equaliser right on the hour with an exquisite overhead volley from an Arron Davies corner. That goal cancelled out Boro's earlier strike, which had come just a couple of minutes before half time from Adam Johnson, who had exploited Chris Cohen's weakness at left back to give his team the lead.

There were less than 9,000 people in attendance, but those who did make the trip were rewarded for their efforts as it was a fantastic end-to-end game which either side could have won in normal time. Paul Smith, who was in goal in place of the rested Lee Camp, made some really good saves, while at the other end, Forest looked very dangerous once Billy Davies had made three substitutions, bringing on Nathan Tyson, David McGoldrick and Dele Adebola in the last fifteen minutes.

Rob Earnshaw, though, who had started the game alongside Dexter Blackstock looked like a player desperately short on confidence and rather worryingly his body language suggested his heart was just not in it at all. Not surprisingly he was one of the players who was replaced. Maybe rumours that he could be on his way out are not that far off the mark. If he keeps this sort of form up, I wouldn't be too unhappy if he did leave if it meant we could use the cash to buy a defender or two.

Not that the defence was terrible last night or anything. Far from it. Wes Morgan and Chambers both had very good games, as did Chris Gunter, and apart from the sloppiness that led to the Boro goal, Cohen wasn't troubled too much. But this was just a League Cup game when the big clubs are well known to perform well below-par, so I won't read too much into it. All I can say, though, is that apart from the Watford game a week ago, our defence hasn't done that badly. I'm still a little bit apprehensive about Saturday, though, when Derby are in town. It would be a shame if Cohen has to play left back again for that one as he is really missed in midfield. Hopefully Joel Lynch will have recovered from his back injury, although I'm not really a big fan of his to tell you the truth.

After six minutes of injury time (much of it awarded because of an injury to the referee!) the game went into extra time. Forest's triple striker substitution really paid off as it meant we were really fresh up front. I don't know what Gareth Southgate said to his Boro players once the full time whistle had blown at the end of the 90 minutes, but they simply were not in it in extra time as Forest completely dominated. Radoslaw Majewski who has been brilliant for us so far this season capped another fine performance with a well-taken goal in the 103rd minute. That turned out to be the match winner, which booked Forest's place in the 3rd round of the competition for the first time in five years. It would be nice to think that we could have a bit of a cup run this season. Far from being a distraction, it could well work in our favour and give us some real momentum for the more important games in the League. You need only look at what Burnley's cup exploits did for them last year for evidence of that.

Still winless, but there's plenty to be pleased about

After the poor result against Watford in midweek, I am much happier after Forest earned a deserved point away from home against Queens Park Rangers. If we had been more clinical in front of goal, we would probably be celebrating our first win of the season, but I'm sure that will come sooner rather than later if we continue to play as well as we have been doing.

I'm glad to say we looked a lot better in defence after the horror show on Tuesday night. That was not a surprise seeing as we welcomed back Luke Chambers after his three-match ban, and this enabled Chris Cohen to slot back into the heart of midfield with Joe Lynch moving back to left back. The side definitely looked much better, and we looked very good going forward in the first half, and got quite a few shots on target, so we made the QPR goalkeeper work for his money.

But despite Forest being the better side, it was Rangers who took the lead when an unstoppable shot from Mikele Leigertwood crashed into the back of the net from 20 yards out, 25 minutes into the game. Rangers hadn't exactly not been in the game as they had always looked a threat going forward, but we really should have been two goals up by that stage. Fortunately, we didn't let the goal depress us too much, although we had to wait until after half time before we were rewarded for our efforts.

The equaliser came just before the hour-mark through David McGoldrick, who scored his first goal of the season, firing home from a few yards out after good work from Dele Adebola. It was the very least that we deserved, and we could have gone on to win the game, but then again so could QPR, who ensured that Lee Camp, who was celebrating his 25th birthday, would not be a mere spectator against his former side. A draw in the end was a fair result, and I would definitely have taken a point before the game even though we really needed three points to kick-start our season.

It is a little bit worrying that we still haven't won in the League yet after four games, but we have to consider the fixtures we have played so far. We have got good away points at Reading and QPR, and very narrowly lost at home to West Brom, who have had a very good start to the season. Our only bad performance came against Watford when we were forced to field a very weak defence. At Loftus Road, I thought the defence looked reasonably solid. Chambers makes a much, much better central defender than at right back. He had a very good game, hardly making a mistake at all. I think Colin Calderwood did him a great disservice playing him at right back for so long, but he didn't moan about it and just got on with the job. Maybe he can cut it at Championship level after all, but it's still very early days, and he will come up against much tougher opponents in future games. I still think we definitely need to sign another central defender, though.

We had been linked with West Ham's Calum Davenport. But a shocking incident on Friday night in my home town of Bedford has put paid to that rumour once and for all. He was stabbed in the legs following a fracas involving several people, and his mother was also attacked. His football career is now in doubt after doctors described his injuries as 'serious'. Weirdly, enough, although I think this is merely coincidental, the man arrested is from Derby. A few people have suggested that it might be a Derby fan trying to stop us signing him, but you'd have to be pretty warped to go that far in the name of football.

The solid performance at QPR has allayed our fears about the defence a bit, but whether or not that back four is capable of doing well, we still need cover for the inevitable injuries and suspensions that will be coming our way. The fact that Gareth McCleary had to come on and play at right back for the second half when Lynch went off injured with Chris Gunter taking over at left back just highlights how serious our defensive problems are. We are not going to get away with patching up our rear guard with misfits for long. If a team like Watford, who are not expected to do that well this season, could run us ragged, then we will have big problems when we meet better sides than them. There is not long to go now before the transfer window slams shut until the New Year. Are we going to see a repeat of the last transfer window back in January when we signed absolutely nobody? Let's hope that Billy Davies and the much-maligned transfer committee panel are working very hard behind the scenes because if we do strengthen the defence, I think we will really have a good team. Maybe not one that is capable of challenging for promotion, but we should certainly be good enough to avoid another frightening relegation battle. I was convinced before the season started that we would be alright, but until we bring in new defenders, all our hard work at one end of the pitch is going to be undone at the other. And that would be a crying shame.

No case for the defence

Although I felt a bit shell-shocked in the immediate aftermath of last night's 4-2 home defeat at the hands of Watford, having had time to digest it, I'm not really surprised it happened now.

Our ramshackle defence consisting of Chris Gunter, Wes Morgan, Joel Lynch, and Chris Cohen had coped well enough against Bradford City and West Brom, but Watford really tore us apart in the last fifteen minutes last night. Once the midfield lost its shape following a series of substitutions, Forest were all over the place. Even Gunter, who is usually very solid at right back looked like he had never played there before. He gave the ball away time and time again. Morgan is usually fairly dependable, but he and Lynch were absolutely awful, and Cohen, who obviously is no left back, was left dreadfully exposed with nobody helping him out in midfield.

Forest were forced into an early substitution when Lewis McGugan, who had been given his first start in the League, was stretchered off with a fractured cheekbone 25 minutes into the game. And little over five minutes later, Watford took the lead through a close-range header from Danny Graham. We didn't really deserve to be losing as we were applying plenty of pressure, although again our finishing was not very good. But we finally made the breakthrough just before half time when Dexter Blackstock scored his second goal of the season to equalise from a few yards out. That goal really spurred Forest on and we finished the first half with a flourish with Rob Earnshaw coming close to giving us the lead. This really raised hopes amongst the 18,000+ Forest supporters that we'd be in for a good second half.

Unfortunately for one reason or another, Forest failed to live up to expectations in the second 45 minutes. Certainly they were not helped by the referee and linesman's dubious officiating, or Watford's timewasting tactics, but unlike on Saturday against West Brom when we had been very unlucky, our problems last night were largely down to tactical ineptness more than anything else. While our defence was always likely to struggle, they had not been doing too badly until Billy Davies replaced Paul Anderson with David McGoldrick just after the hour-mark. As a result, the midfield really lost shape. Anderson was not playing too badly, and was helping out defensively in midfield, but as soon as he went off, and McGoldrick was asked to play out wide on the right wing, Watford started exploiting the gap in midfield, and they started to run us ragged, which they simply had not being doing all evening. Forest were left completely exposed at the back and looked like a bunch of schoolboy amateurs playing their first game together. Watford put three past us in the last fifteen minutes, scoring twice in the space of three minutes before substitute Dele Adebola gave us brief hope when he netted his first of the season three minutes from time, only for Watford to make sure of the points in injury time when they restored their two-goal advantage thanks to more dreadful defending from Forest.

While it's certainly a bit premature to be taking the league table seriously after three games, we should definitely not ignore the early warning signs that our defence is not good enough as it stands for us to be able to compete at Championship level. Why we didn't sign a central defender in the summer, I don't know. We did try to sign one or two, but the deals never materialised. I don't think it was necessary to buy so many forwards. There is now a huge imbalance in the team, where we have some positions covered by three or four players, while in defence there is a real lack of competition. There isn't a single central defender at the Club who you can say is definitely worthy of playing at this level. Hopefully that will be rectified in due course, because otherwise we will be sucked into another relegation battle, and that is the last thing anybody would expect after splashing out more than £5 million in the summer.

Forest pay the penalty for poor finishing

I know losing is part and parcel of following a football team, but it really does leave you on a massive downer, especially when we deserve something from the game.

Over the past few seasons, Forest have been so awful, that it was quite easy for me to shrug off every defeat as I was so apathetic towards the players and management. But I really can't fault Forest's commitment or performance yesterday against West Brom. The only thing that let us down was our finishing. Robert Earnshaw's terrible penalty miss really summed up our lack of luck in front of goal.

There's certainly no disgrace in losing against the Baggies, who have just dropped down from the Premiership. To be honest, with our patched-up defence, I expected the scoreline to be worse, but it was actually a very tight game. West Brom defended very well, but we got more than our fair share of good chances, but just didn't take them. In fact, I don't recall us having one shot on target, except when Dele Adebola, who had another impressive game, put the ball in the net very early in the second half, only for it to be ruled out for infringement.

Not long after that incident, Brom took the lead when Wes Morgan's attempted clearance of a cross resulted in him scoring an own goal. This unfortunately turned out to be the winner, despite Forest's best efforts to forge an equaliser. Earnshaw, who had not long been on the field after coming on as a substitute turned from hero to villain after winning a penalty only to then put it hopelessly wide with 15 minutes remaining.

So after two games in the Championship, despite having spent nearly £5 million on our attack during the summer, we have yet to score at all. We had a good win in mid-week over Bradford in the Carling Cup, though, so we know we have got goals in us. We did play extremely well yesterday, so there is plenty to be positive about. We have after all just played two of the best teams in the division in Reading and West Brom, and we've looked very good in both games. But it would be nice to think that a win will come in the next couple of games, because psychologically it's important to get it out of the way as soon as possible, otherwise it's easy to get into a rut. Hopefully three points will be achieved against Watford on Tuesday night. Incidentally, they were the first team we beat in the Championship last season!

Tyson assault sours Forest's emphatic win

Notts County will no doubt be crowing that they must be a better team than us because they put five past Bradford, but at least Forest can say they are in the second round of the Carling Cup, unlike County and Derby who were sent tumbling out on Tuesday night!

All three goals came from players who were unused substitutes against Reading. Paul Anderson's diving header just a minute into the second half gave us the lead, and that was followed up with tap-ins from Dexter Blackstock and Lewis McGugan. There was never any doubt that we would go through once we were 2-0 up as Bradford didn't threaten at all, giving our makeshift defence a very easy night. Much had been said about how on earth we would cope without the suspended Luke Chambers and Chris Gunter, who was otherwise engaged on international duty with Wales, but Joel Lynch stepped in to partner Wes Morgan in central defence and did a good job, while unorthodox full backs Gareth McCleary and Chris Cohen were comfortable as the midfield gave them so much protection. Obviously against much better teams such as WBA, who we play on Saturday, we would struggle, but it's quite surprising that Bradford didn't appear to even try to take advantage of our defensive crisis last night.

The win was soured somewhat when Nathan Tyson, who had been for many people the Man of the Match, was stretchered off just a few minutes from the end after falling victim to a terrible tackle, which quite rightly earned débutante Jonathan Bateson a red card. Luckily for Tyson, the injury is not thought to be too serious, and he could even be fit in time to play on Saturday. Thank God for that. We know he is very injury prone, but it would have been quite gut-wrenching to see him sidelined because of a malicious foul, which came at the end of a game in which he had contributed so much.

Sort the defence out, and we might just have a team

I was listening to TalkSport just before kick off, and I remember them saying that there was 'very little chance' of there being a goalless draw between Reading and Forest considering the amount of forwards we had at our disposal.
But, just like last year, a game that on paper promised plenty of attacking football and one or two goals turned out to be quite drab. But from our point of view, it was a very good point to start the campaign, especially as we finished the game with ten men after Luke Chambers was sent off.

I thought we played quite well, and despite the well-documented lack of defensive options we have at the moment, we did defend quite soundly, restricting Reading to very few chances. Lee Camp had a very solid game, and dealt with crosses magnificently, and he made one or two good saves, as well. Reading's finishing let them down, too, so we did get away with it a little bit, but overall we definitely deserved the point, as we had one or two chances ourselves.

Our starting line-up made quite interesting reading, as there were so many notable names missing, with Rob Earnshaw, Nathan Tyson, Paul Anderson, Lewis McGugan, and Dexter Blackstock all having to be content with a place on the bench. David McGoldrick and Dele Adebola were the lucky pair to get the nod to start up front, while Joe Garner, strangely, was asked to play on the right wing. So much for Davies' pledge to stop sticking round pegs in square holes.

Of the players making their first appearances, Paul McKenna had a promising game in the heart of midfield, and it looks like he will make a big difference there as he will bring organisation to the side. And although he started to tire towards the end, the Polish recruit Radoslaw Majewski showed some real glimpses of talent out on the left wing. McGoldrick was a little quiet, but Adebola looked very sharp, and won a lot in the air. He holds the ball up very well indeed, and if he keeps that sort of performance up, he will play more than a bit-part role this season.

When Chambers was red-carded with just a couple of minutes of normal time remaining, I conceded defeat. I thought there was no way we were going to hang on then, because we didn't have a replacement defender to come on for him, but somehow we survived a Reading onslaught in the last few minutes. I don't know what Chambers was dismissed for, but some people say he lashed out after being pushed. He had already been booked, so I guess he had to go. Perhaps something positive will come out of it, though, because it will force the Club to bring in a central defender or two, because we are dreadfully thin on the ground in that department. It's a good job we've got so many goalscorers at the club at the moment because as things stand we're going to need them just to draw games! Having said all that, we did get a clean sheet with ten men at one of the teams expected to be challenging for automatic promotion. But make no mistake, we will not get away with it for long.

Forest are Reading and raring to go!

The new season is less than a week away now, and Forest look like they're in pretty good shape for the big kick-off against Reading on Saturday.

Robert Earnshaw's late strike against Premiership new boys Birmingham earned them a confidence-boosting victory at the City Ground at the weekend, and according to the man from Sky Sports News, they looked very impressive going forward. To be honest, I would expect nothing less with the amount of quality we have up front!

We've not had a bad pre-season really. If you forget the 2-1 defeat at Notts County, which was rather inevitable with all the crazy press coverage going on in the wake of Sven Goran Erikisson's shock appointment, we've done really well. In the past few years, Forest have usually been very lacklustre during pre-season, and as a result taken a while to get going once the campaign gets underway. But it looks as though they've had a really tough pre-season under Billy Davies, and hopefully this means that we will have an enjoyable autumn this year, and our season starts in August rather than in January.

This summer has been one of the best Forest have had in a long time, regarding transfers. No fewer than nine players have been brought in, eight of them permanently. The other, Polish winger Radoslaw Majewski, has signed on loan for the season, with the option of him joining long-term next year. Majewski looks quite a good prospect, and he has been starting every game so far in the friendlies, so Davies obviously is impressed with him. It took him just two minutes to score on his debut against Rushden and Diamonds last week. I think I'm going to have to learn how to say his name correctly, as I've got a feeling he's going to become something of a regular fixture in the team this season!

I haven't been this excited in years about Forest, and it's about time, too. We've been put through the emotional wringer over the past five years, but we've stuck by them in numbers. We deserve a bit of happiness for a change. Nobody's saying we're going to get promoted, but a top ten finish in the Championship would be something to build on for the season after.

McKenna & co can make us winners!

It feels really good to be a Forest supporter at the moment. Our summer signings, which now include Chris Gunter and Paul McKenna, have been absolutely superb. I'm really amazed that we have managed to sign all the loan players that we wanted to.

I didn't expect Tottenham to be willing to let Gunter leave permanently. The best I thought we could hope for was a season on loan. But to land him for £1.75 million on a four-year-contract is brilliant. Now at last we have a proper right back, and a very good one at that. It's just wonderful to hear him say how much he wanted to play for us, describing it as a dream move! He hasn't come from some non-League team. He's left one of the biggest clubs in the country, Tottenham, to join us!

I won't pretend that I know much about Paul McKenna, but I gather he was a very important player at Preston. In fact, he was their equivalent of Stuart Pearce. He was one of their most longest-serving players ever, and made more than 400 appearances during a 12-year spell. He was their Club captain for the past couple of seasons, and Preston's supporters are gutted to be losing him. It is quite a rarity in the modern game to have only played for one club having reached one's thirties, but it just goes to show the pulling power that Forest, with Billy Davies at the helm, now has. The chance to work under Davies just proved too strong for him. He will be 32 in October, but an older head is just what Forest needs in the centre of midfield. We have paid £750,000 for him, which Preston finally agreed to after knocking back three previous bids. I think he has been brought in specifically to be our new captain. It is about time, too, that we had a proper leader on and off the pitch.

There are very strong rumours that we have also got a deal nearly sorted out to sign Dexter Blackstock. He is expected to complete his move later this week, and all being well, will become the sixth striker in the squad. The players have obviously accepted that Davies intends to rotate the centre forwards to suit each game, because they can't all play at once! All six of them are very good players, and after Nathan Tyson scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 win at Burton Albion at the weekend in a pre-season friendly, it has given Davies even more food for thought. Competition is a marvellous thing, because it drives people on to perform their best in order to get noticed. Even our bench is going to look very strong this season, and some players you might expect to be in the first team might not even make it into the matchday squad. But it has to be like that in the Championship because every year, the division gets stronger and stronger, with the addition of more teams dropping down from the Premiership. Forest's big spending spree which was approaching £6 million at the last count is raising a few eyebrows and forcing worried bookmakers to slash their odds on us winning promotion!

We've been to Europe. We've won another cup!

I am not usually that interested in pre-season friendlies, but the surprise win over Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon has really made me feel quite proud, especially after seeing the players parade a cup around the stadium after the match. I'm not sure what that was all about, but it's just nice to see Forest get their hands on some silverware for a change!

Thanks to the marvel that is the internet, I was able to watch the game live. It was on Portuguese TV, so I couldn't understand a word, except when they mentioned Forest, or our players, but it didn't really matter anyway. The picture was surprisingly very good, considering I didn't pay for it. It's becoming a bit of a regular habit every summer now watching pre-season friendlies on the internet. Last year, though, being a mug that I am, I paid nearly £30 to Setanta Sports so I could watch us lose in a friendly against Sunderland. Suffice to say I'm glad there's no threat of Setanta broadcasting one of our other friendlies this summer, as they've gone bust. Oops.

I thought we played really well, and looked like we were taking the match really seriously. Everybody was trying their hardest to impress Billy Davies, so hopefully this is a good sign that there are more signings on the way. Sporting without doubt had the better chances, but we defended pretty well, and Lee Camp, fresh from his move from QPR, looked solid in goal. We didn't really create much going forward, so it was a surprise when we took the lead eleven minutes from time through Paul Anderson. It was a good piece of build-up play that led to the goal, and

Anderson's finish was impressive. Hopefully we'll see him score more this season, as he only scored twice last term, having scored eleven the previous season with Swansea, albeit in League One.

It was very amusing watching our post-match 'celebrations'. I don't know why we were given a cup, but I'm not going to complain! Luke Chambers, who was made captain for the game, looked like he was enjoying it as he lifted the trophy, and then ran around the stadium with it. I am not sure why he was made skipper. He has experience of it at Northampton, so maybe Davies was just testing him out. It looks like Davies has finally decided to play him as a central defender, where he does a pretty good job, so perhaps if he is to remain a first team regular this season, he might be given the armband.

It's very important that Forest have a regular captain, as all the best teams do. We don't really have a leader on the pitch. Some people say Chris Cohen should get the job, but he's very young, and I think captains should be over 25 at least. If we eventually manage to sign Paul McKenna from Preston, he'll probably be made the skipper, but Preston keep rejecting Forest's bids, so I don't know what is happening there.

I'm very happy with Forest's summer signings so far, but I'll be disappointed if we don't sign anybody else. Now that most of our loan signings have gone back, our squad is looking thin again, especially in defence. I hope that we're working on a deal to bring Chris Gunter back on loan, as he loves playing for Forest, and really made a huge difference at right back as we fought a successful battle against relegation last season.

Player passion presages a bright future

To all those who were moaning about Forest not signing anyone, are you happy now?! Goalkeeper Lee Camp has finally joined us permanently from QPR, and becomes our fourth summer recruit of the week, following the captures of Dele Adebola, David McGoldrick, and Paul Anderson.

I am delighted that Camp is officially a Forest player. It has to be one of the most drawn-out transfer sagas in Forest history, as we've wanted to sign him ever since he joined us on loan last November. He's always been very clear that he's desperate to play for us, and he was very disappointed when we didn't move for him back in January. I was really worried when he went back to QPR, as I thought having Paul Smith back in goal would really affect our chances of staying up. When we were thrashed at Burnley 5-0, my fears seemed to be well-founded, but though we signed a replacement in Iain Turner, he was then injured and Smith returned between the posts. But happily Smith didn't let us down too much for the remaining games as we secured our place in the Championship. Nevertheless, in the wake of Camp's arrival, Smith has now been handed the number 21 shirt, so will find himself playing a substitute role next season - that's if he doesn't leave for first team football elsewhere.

Camp already has secured a place in Forest folklore following his heroics in those now infamous last few minutes in the game at Derby last year. He has a tremendous rapport with the fans, and he loves playing for Forest, which is good news for everybody. The more players we have who are proud to be representing the Club, the better. It's very refreshing to hear young players who have nothing to do with Nottingham say how much they love the Club. Paul Anderson said his heart was set on joining us permanently, even turning down the possibility of Premiership football with Wigan. Chris Gunter was only at Forest for a handful of games at the end of last season, but in that short space of time developed a strong affection for the Club and now wants to come back for another season on loan, if not long-term if Spurs are willing to sell him. And we had no problem persuading Chris Cohen to sign a new deal without hesitation. Forest are once again an attractive club with a great future, and that in my opinion is largely thanks to Billy Davies. I'm not going to get too carried away, but I honestly believe that if he is given time, he could turn out to be the best manager we've had since Brian Clough.