New blood is needed to maintain our vitality

Considering all the injury problems we had last night, I think we shouldn't moan too much about the performance against Sheffield Wednesday and just be delighted that we managed to scrape a win.

I must admit I had a pretty bad feeling about the game prior to kick-off. With both Paul Anderson and Chris Cohen missing following injuries sustained against Derby, and Wes Morgan still on compassionate leave, I thought that perhaps if we could get away with a point, it wouldn't be too bad, so to take all three of them is a real shot in the arm, and what's more we have gone four points clear of the relegation zone, which incidentally now contains Derby, who lost their match at Birmingham!

I think we really could have done without Doncaster's shock win at Sheffield United, but as long as we keep winning then that is all that matters. There was a good result for us with Norwich and Southampton drawing their game, so we are now pulling away from the Saints and are now six points clear of them with a far superior goal difference.

We didn't play particularly well against Wednesday, and when they went ahead they deserved it, but their lead didn't last very long as Nathan Tyson equalised just seven minutes later following a superb run by Gareth McCleary. Our quest for three points was helped considerably when Wednesday had their one-time multi-million pound Arsenal striker Francis Jeffers shown the red card for a two-footed lunge on Joe Heath five minutes before half time.

Even though Wednesday were down to ten men in the second half, they still managed to dominate the midfield at times, but fortunately our defence, despite missing key personnel, wasn't too bad and managed to keep them at bay, although there were one or two hairy moments in the goal mouth. As the half wore on, though, we did improve and when Luke Chambers powered home a header from a corner fifteen minutes from time for his first goal of the season, the home crowd breathed a sigh of relief, and we managed to see the game out and claim another vital three points, which sees us climb another place in the table to 17th, and thus drag Barnsley into the survival fight.

Although he will have been thrilled with the win, Billy Davies will surely have recognised the urgent need to sign new players. We picked up a few knocks during the game with Tyson, Rob Earnshaw and Ian Breckin all amongst the walking wounded, and if we lose those three, it really will be awful. Joe Garner rather stupidly got himself booked for petulant behaviour so misses the Derby game in the FA Cup as it was his fifth yellow card, and if Earnshaw and Tyson are going to be missing any matches with injury, it is extremely worrying. To lose Anderson, Earnshaw and Tyson at the same time would be a killer blow. Let's hope that the latter two's injuries are not too bad and just knocks and nothing more. We don't have very long to bring in reinforcements with the transfer window closing next Monday. We have done well to get where we are now with such a wafer-thin squad, but we may not be so lucky with the difficult run of games we have coming up.

Anderson's injury is a terrible blow for Forest

I suppose in normal circumstances I would have been quite happy with the draw at Derby, but the serious injury to Paul Anderson that resulted in him being stretchered off really put the dampener on the whole occasion and left me feeling really depressed.

Anderson fractured his arm and dislocated his wrist, and he will now face the next six weeks on the sidelines. At this stage of the season, that is very bad news when you are denied the services of one of your best players in the relegation run-in. I am really worried how we will cope without him. It is probably not a coincidence that Forest's improvement in form since the start of November has coincided with Anderson's presence in the side. When he was injured the first time round, we were really struggling to score goals. Now I fear the same may happen again. Let's just hope that Billy Davies signs somebody immediately. We need somebody with proven Championship ability and with plenty of pace, as Forest for all their other faults this season have always been very dangerous as an attacking force.

I hope Davies doesn't give his namesake Arron a chance to prove himself, because he is quite clearly only League One standard, and we can't afford to waste much time testing players out. We need to keep this winning run going, because before you know it we will be down to ten games, and then five, and then the season is over.

Had Anderson not been injured, I think we may have gone on to win the match as we were playing so well in the second half and were really dominant. We were very poor before the break and were outplayed, and Derby to be quite frank deserved their lead, but the substitution of Joel Lynch, who had been awful at left back, shored up our defence and we looked so much better. We were rewarded for our excellent spell when Rob Earnshaw equalised not long after the hour mark. Unfortunately, that dreadful injury to Anderson rather knocked the wind out of our sails, and were it not for a string of brilliant reaction saves from Paul Smith, we would have lost the game near the end. All in all, though, I think based on the two halves, a draw was a very fair result. Now we must return to the City Ground for the replay, which is guaranteed to attract a full house.

In the meantime, it is back to the much more important business of the Championship. We have a home game with Brian Laws' Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night. Three points would be very nice indeed, but it will be a difficult match, and I'm not sure what to expect now considering we've lost Anderson. It will be interesting what Billy Davies does to remedy the problem. We know that Nathan Tyson has been very effective on the left wing in the past, but we can't afford to lose him up front. All I can say, though, is that I have much more faith in Davies than Colin Calderwood to find the answer.

We've got that loving feeling again!

I'm really loving 2009 so far! I must admit that when Big Ben struck midnight on New Year's Eve, I felt quite fearful at the thought of what the coming 365 days held for Forest, with the very real prospect of relegation hanging over us. But since the dismal Boxing Day defeat at the hands of Doncaster, and the subsequent and long overdue sacking of Colin Calderwood, we have won four on the bounce and have climbed to the lofty position of 18th in the table!

I am not in the least bit surprised at our turnaround in fortunes, though, because I always knew we had it in us. We have rarely played badly this season and have on many occasions been rather unlucky to lose. I never doubted that the players were good enough for the Championship, particularly our attacking personnel. They just needed a manager with tactical know-how to get them playing as a team. And judging by his first two games, which have produced 2-0 wins against Charlton and Plymouth, Billy Davies does appear to be a man who knows what he is doing.

As we suspected, the football has not been all that entertaining under Davies so far, but it has been effective, and when you're fighting against relegation, only a fool would prefer to be entertained even if it resulted in a bad result. The objective is to keep Forest at all costs in the Championship, and we must do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. At the moment it looks very promising, but we are only two games into Davies' reign, and one bad result can drag us right back in there, so it's important that we keep on going and picking up points.

We have been quite a good attacking team all season, but our defence was woeful under Calderwood. It has been much better recently, though, and I think that is down to the formation we have been playing rather than a drastic improvement in any of the players. Wes Morgan has been excellent all season, and with the reintroduction of Ian Breckin alongside him, they have formed a very tight unit. I never used to rate them as a partnership in League One, but I realise now that they like any other players need the right guidance and motivation, and Davies knows all about shutting out teams as his sackful of clean sheets at Derby and Preston would testify.

I don't think there is an awful lot wrong with the team at the moment, but there are one or two things that need sorting out. I still don't feel comfortable with Paul Smith in goal, even though he has improved somewhat. His failure to command his area hasn't cost us yet since he returned to the first team, and to be fair to him, he has kept three clean sheets in a row, but we haven't played a team in form yet. Man City, Charlton and Plymouth have all been on a slump lately. What happens when we come up against Wolves and Reading? The same goes for Luke Chambers. He too has improved, but is still quite a liability at times and he still gets turned far too easily by wingers with pace, and opposing teams often target him as a weak link in our side. While Forest are keeping clean sheets, it doesn't matter too much, but again what happens when we play the likes of Wolves?

A new left back is probably more of a priority, though, because with Julian Bennett ruled out for the rest of the season, and Joel Lynch also injured, as well as being er...rubbish, we have resorted to playing players out of position there. Chris Cohen always does a good job, but he is too valuable a midfielder to sacrifice, and Kelvin Wilson, who was asked to play there against Plymouth, is a central defender pretty low on confidence, so playing him at left back seemed quite an odd decision, considering that I read that Davies wanted to stop 'putting square pegs in round holes'.

I thought we played reasonably well against Plymouth and deserved the three points, but Plymouth were certainly no pushovers. They made our back four work for their money, but Chambers, Morgan, Breckin and Wilson did such a good job that Smith was very rarely called into action. We looked quite comfortable once Paul Anderson had made it 2-0 to add to the lead that was given by Robbie Earnshaw's first half opener, but I didn't relax until the final whistle had blown as I've learnt from past experience never, ever to take anything for granted as far as Forest are concerned. Hopefully under Davies, he will bring an air of certainty back to Forest where we kill off teams long before the final whistle. I can't remember the last time when I was sat in my seat not shaking with fear at the thought of conceding a late heartbreaking equaliser.

The win takes us three points clear of the relegation zone, and I think it's pretty safe to conclude that Charlton will be one of those teams who will be dropping, so that leaves two places to fill. It is so tight down there that any team in the bottom half of the table could find themselves in the bottom three come the end of the season. Doncaster have been getting some good results lately, so don't bet against them surviving. They won the six pointer at Southampton, which leaves the Saints second from bottom and four points adrift of us, and they are apparently in financial disarray off the pitch. There has been a lot of speculation recently that they could be going into administration, and if they do they will incur a points penalty, which would condemn them to League One. Norwich, having sacked Glenn Roeder, beat Barnsley 4-0 under the caretaker guidance of their former goalkeeper Bryan Gunn, and I think that they probably have enough about them to survive. But there were a couple of other very good results for us with Watford losing at home to Sheffield United, and for the first time since September we have climbed above Derby after Nigel Clough's first game in charge resulted in a 2-0 home defeat to QPR. That news combined with our victory raised some very loud cheers at the City Ground, I can tell you!

A welcome win, but we are far from safe yet

Watching Charlton yesterday reminded me of how Forest were a couple of months ago when they were dominating games and not getting any rewards for it. Forest were very poor but thanks to two goals quick in succession they left the Valley with all three points, which lifted them further away from the relegation places.

I was not impressed with the standard of football that we were playing, particularly in the opening half an hour. Our defence was all over the place and kept getting caught in no man's land. Thankfully Charlton's finishing was extremely poor and we got away with it, but we clearly had big problems, getting completely overrun in midfield. Hopefully Billy Davies was aware of it and will put things right. If his post-match interview was anything to go by then we may well be seeing one or two new faces before the home game against Plymouth next Saturday.

For starters I think we definitely need a new goalkeeper. I am grateful to Paul Smith for making some good saves, but his distribution is awful and our defence just looks like a nervous wreck in front of him. I wish we could get Lee Camp back, but I don't think Davies is interested, and I doubt given the history between the pair of them that Camp would want to work for Davies again. There must be some other decent Championship goalkeepers who are looking for first team football, though.

We've also got to sign new full backs. Chris Cohen is actually doing very well playing at left back, but that means we lose him from the midfield, where he has turned in some brilliant performances this season. As for right back, Brendan Maloney was doing quite well there, but for some reason John Pemberton dropped him and recalled Luke Chambers for the game at Norwich. Chambers has been playing a lot better there, but is still struggling a bit and could end up costing us goals as teams look to exploit his weaknesses.

As an attacking outfit, we are quite a decent team, but our defensive frailties are very obvious. I'm sure the main problem is with the midfield, though. I am not sure that it's a new player in midfield that we need, but it's just the combination of players that needs changing. We have some very good midfielders, but they have been underperforming. I know they are capable of so much more, particularly Paul Anderson, who scored eleven goals for Swansea last season in League One, but has scored only one for Forest so far. I think he is a good player but has been messed about by Colin Calderwood too much and his confidence may have gone. Hopefully under Davies he will enjoy a new lease of life as if he is on form Forest will be lethal up front.

The good thing is our strikers are scoring on a regular basis, something which just wasn't happening in the earlier part of the season. Rob Earnshaw has got back into the goalscoring habit, and Nathan Tyson has been a surprise hit this season. I really thought that he had shot it, but he has earned a new contract, which is really pleasing. I just hope that he isn't injured again as he went off at half time yesterday. It may have been just as a precautionary measure, but knowing Tyson's track record, it could mean another spell on the sidelines, which is the last thing we need as the relegation battle enters the critical stage.

I'm a little bit bemused that Joe Garner has been dropped to the bench. I understand that we need a big target man alongside Earnshaw, but Garner will not be very happy at being left out of the team, despite scoring regularly for us. He strikes me as somebody with a bit of a temperament problem, and if he's not happy he will stop putting the work in.

I was a bit worried that Forest would slip up yesterday. They have a history of losing to teams who haven't won for months, so I was very relieved that we did pull off the victory, even though it did feel like daylight robbery given all the chances Charlton had.

The good thing is, now we are only a few points away from the lower-reaches of the table, so we are not relying on only a small handful of clubs losing any more. With a couple of wins, we would be within touching distance of midtable if other results were to go our way! But that will depend on sorting out our home form. We can't keep relying on winning away. We have got some very tough trips coming up, and I can't see us winning at places like Birmingham, even if we did dump Man City out of the Cup on their home turf.

It is a big shame that Southampton won at Barnsley, as it would have been nice to establish a bit of a gap, but at least Norwich lost, which enabled us to leapfrog them into 20th place. Doncaster's home game against Bristol City was called off owing to a frozen pitch, so they have a match in hand on us, but psychologically it is not a good thing for them for the game to be off when they're fighting relegation and the other teams play. I must admit I thought our game would be off as there was some real doubt about it on Friday, but thankfully the pitch inspection was passed and the rest is history. I bet Charlton are wishing they had called it off now, though!

Reds must now start making headlines in the League

While the comprehensive 3-0 win at moneybags Manchester City has taken everybody by a pleasant surprise, I still would much rather be celebrating three points in a Championship match.

As long as we are fighting for survival to avoid the disaster of dropping back into League One, the FA Cup very much takes a back seat. If I'm being absolutely honest, I stopped caring about this competition years ago. Since Cloughie's departure, we've only ever made it as far as the quarter-finals once, and even the prospect of lifting the trophy doesn't seem quite as exciting as it used to be.

That is not to say that we shouldn't bask in the glory of putting Mark Hughes' multi-million pound team to the sword and enjoy all the headlines that come with it. It's really weird seeing Forest top of the football headlines agenda and reminds me of the times when we could genuinely say we were a bit good.

Though we shouldn't take anything away from a brilliant Forest display, we can't ignore the fact that Man City were awful to put it mildly. Despite officially being the world's richest club with £100 million being available to spend in the transfer window alone, their defending was dreadful for both Rob Earnshaw and Joe Garner's goals. Their fullback somehow managed to lose possession, which enabled Matt Thornhill to nip in and square it to Earnshaw, and Garner couldn't believe his luck when a City player took a throw-in and threw the ball straight into his path, before he struck the third Forest goal and secured our passage into round four.

But it wasn't just down to City's defence being poor. The whole Forest team was excellent, and after dominating most of the first half, they richly deserved to go in front when Nathan Tyson scored what will be a contender for one of the goals of the FA Cup with a stunning volley from quite a distance out. And just a few minutes later Earnshaw made it 2-0 just before half time, and having been unfortunate to sit through a pathetic display by their side, it was of no surprise to the Man City fans, who roundly booed their players off.

I was expecting a City comeback in the second half, as I didn't think our shoddy defence would cope with wave and wave of attacks, but I was forgetting one thing: this was not Colin Calderwood's team. It was John Pemberton's. The defence made up of Luke Chambers, Wes Morgan, Ian Breckin, and makeshift left back Chris Cohen, coped admirably, and the recalled Paul Smith, who was playing his first game in more than two months, made some top-drawer saves to keep City at bay. Once it became apparent that they were not going to get past us, City seemed to just give up and were happy to peter out. The third goal fifteen minutes from time killed the tie once and for all and gave Forest's long-suffering travelling fans something to cheer about at last. Many of them will be too young to remember Forest achieving a result as noteworthy as this as it was a decade since we were last in the Premiership when we were mixing it with the big boys, while the older fans will of course be reminded of the glorious away days during the Cloughie era when Forest were playing top teams off the park away from home on a frequent basis.

The victory over City will be remembered for a long time to come, but not if we don't get ourselves out of trouble and are relegated. We must not lose sight of the fact that we are only outside of the bottom three on goal difference, and every single game between now and the rest of the season is going to be huge. We have a very good chance of surviving as we are playing well and seemed to have developed a winning mentality lately with three wins in our last four games. That awful Doncaster 'performance' on Boxing Day was hopefully just an anomaly, and perhaps we will now start to play as well at home as we do away.

Let's hope that Billy Davies encourages them to keep playing football, as it has been yielding a lot of goals lately. His first priority, though, will be to shore up our leaky defence, and that may well come at an expense of our attack. We may start playing more direct, which is not popular with the Forest fans, who have been weaned on flowing attacking football. But if it's only for the short-term purpose of trying to stay in the Championship, I will gladly accept any style of football – just as long as we win enough games!

Billy, be a hero!

My initial reaction when I found out that Billy Davies was to be our new manager was one of disappointment, but having had the chance to think about it, I've come to the conclusion that perhaps it's a good appointment after all.

Nobody can deny that his record in the Championship has been very impressive. He managed to turn around both Preston and Derby's fortunes at the wrong end of the table, and took both clubs to the play-off final, losing with Preston and winning promotion to the Premiership with Derby.

The fans are worried about his tendency to fall out with people, notably with Rob Earnshaw and Lee Camp. But Earnshaw's goalscoring prowess in the Championship is undeniable, so Davies will have to swallow his pride and come to a new understanding with Earnshaw if he wants to give Forest the best possible chance of survival. A lot of money was outlayed on Earnshaw in the summer, and Nigel Doughty would not be very pleased to see him sitting on the bench.

It is an awful shame that Camp is not likely to come back. Davies has a reputation for being stubborn, and Camp is unlikely to want to return now that Davies is here anyway. Let's hope that Davies has another goalkeeper in mind, because we are hugely indebted to Camp's heroics over the past three months, and without him would probably be staring relegation in the face.

Davies is certainly a passionate manager, and is almost the complete opposite of Colin Calderwood, except for one thing – they are both Scottish! There seemed to be a lack of discipline, with Calderwood often socialising with the players. His interviews were so devoid of passion that it's little wonder that after half time the players would often emerge from their team talk looking half asleep. Davies does not tolerate laziness, so any players, whether they are talented or not, who do not give 100% in every match could find themselves out on their ear. There's nothing wrong with a bit of discipline if the manager is respected by the players – Brian Clough was of course the greatest disciplinarian of them all, but everybody loved him. Whether the players will take to Davies in the same way remains to be seen, but if he can pull off a relegation rescue act, he will certainly win the doubting Forest fans' hearts.