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!