Doughty by name but not by nature

I can't believe that we are still not in the relegation zone. We definitely deserve to be, and part of me almost wants us there so it might serve as a wake-up call to those slimeballs Nigel Doughty and Mark Arthur to stop messing the Club around and allow Billy Davies to do his job properly. It beggars belief that neither was present at the City Ground yesterday as another pathetic home display for Forest saw them crash to their third straight defeat and their second in less than a month to fierce rivals Derby.

I was dreading the game anyway and expected a thrashing, but that was because I thought we had no chance with just Nathan Tyson on his own up front as Joe Garner was injured (or most likely fallen out with Davies). But the news that both Paul Anderson and Rob Earnshaw were in the starting line-up despite Davies saying the day before that they were still a week away from a comeback, was a welcome surprise, and it gave me a bit of hope that we might get something from the match.

However, all the pre-match optimism with the backdrop of glorious sunshine and a packed to the rafters City Ground quickly dissipated when Derby took the lead after only four minutes. Forest's heads instantly dropped and they remained very much second best for the rest of the match as they slipped into a 3-0 deficit as Derby scored almost immediately after the restart, and put the game beyond reasonable doubt, as if it wasn't already, from the penalty spot twenty five minutes from the end. Earnshaw did at least salvage a bit of pride for us in the closing stages, but that only happened after Derby were reduced to ten men after they had used all of their substitutes.

There were too many players out there who gave mediocre performances, but what do we expect? Most of them are mediocre players and belong in League One at best. Some of them wouldn't even be out of place in the division below that. Our entire defence, Paul Smith included, needs binning, even though I do admire Wes Morgan's efforts to get attacks going. At least he shows a bit of passion, but the rest just really annoy me. They don't belong at a club like Forest. We deserve better. If we go down this season, and god forbid it is looking extremely likely, we will lose our few decent players. What I didn't know was that according to rumour some of them have relegation release clauses in their contracts. Surely that can't be true, can it? If it is, we will lose the likes of Earnshaw and Tyson, and fail to make any money which presumably would go towards rebuilding the squad. We will be well and truly shafted if that happens, and the only way out then would be for Doughty to put the Club up for sale so we can attract investors. Even though I am against the idea of Forest being in the hands of foreign owners, if it means Forest being able to buy good players, then I think we'll have to accept it. If teams like QPR are attractive enough to really rich owners, then Forest must be, with their trophy-laden history, their geographical location and their fan base. I don't believe for one minute that nobody would be interested, but it will simply not happen until Doughty stops being so stubborn, holds his hands up and admit he has failed, and go back to watching from the stands like the rest of us. If he really cared about Forest, that is exactly what he'd do.

Forest only have themselves to blame

Forest are really making me feel quite depressed at the moment. After winning four games in a row, I thought that at last our season had clicked into gear and we would easily pull away from relegation. But February has been an awful month with four defeats in our last five matches and now we can expect to be on the receiving end of another humiliating thrashing at the hands of a rejuvenated Derby side on Saturday. Life can sometimes be very cruel for Forest supporters.

Our trips to Birmingham and Ipswich would ordinarily seem quite difficult, but both teams were going through a bad run of form themselves, and yet we lost both the games. Ipswich had gone five home games without a win, a very similar situation to Birmingham, yet they proved to be much too strong for Forest even though they hardly set the world alight.

The trouble is our squad as it stands is just not good enough for Championship football. We can't afford to lose Paul Anderson and Rob Earnshaw. With those two players in the side we play a lot better, but even when they are in the team, we still have big problems at the back. Our defence is a complete mess. Paul Smith is awful. He's so bad that I'm beginning to actually hate him. His back four have no confidence in him whatsoever. I so wish Lee Camp could come back, but FA rules stipulate that he can't because he's already been here for three months. We also don't have any recognised full backs with central defenders being asked to do a job there instead. Joel Lynch is one of the worst players I've ever seen play for Forest. Why we bothered extending his loan, I don't know. Does the Forest hierarchy even bother watching the matches? If he couldn't get into Brighton's team in League One, surely that tells you something?

I'm really dreading Saturday as I can't see anything other than a crushing defeat. Derby are really full of confidence right now and Kris Commons can't keep scoring. If our defence allows him as much space as he got in the FA Cup game, he'll probably score a hat-trick. I really feel sick at the thought. I absolutely hate his guts and if he rubs our faces in it, he will probably need police protection after the game.

I am so furious with Nigel Doughty and Mark Arthur for getting Forest into this predicament. If we do get relegated, it will have been totally self-inflicted. The failure to back Billy Davies in the transfer market is criminal. Surely they can see what everybody else can – that this squad lacks the depth and quality to survive in the Championship. They are being too cautious financially. If they don't take risks, they will never achieve anything. If they aren't willing to break the bank to pay wages, then we will not attract good enough players, and we will be destined to remain a League One club for the long-term. And yet, despite all this, all we keep hearing from Doughty is that he wants Forest back in the Premiership. Yet it looks a strong possibility that we will be playing League One football next season instead, and who knows how low we will sink after that. When we've sold all our good players –Tyson, Earnshaw, Cohen and McGugan, we would need strong investment in the summer to create a squad that is good enough even for League One. And we could be looking for a new manager yet again as I can't see Davies wanting to hang around then, can you?

Lack of signings could end up costing us dear

I thought we might get something from Birmingham as they were going through a bit of a lean spell with just one home win in their last seven games, so we could have picked a worse time to play them. But Forest never managed to get going after the half time break and deserved to go home empty-handed.

We started very brightly with Nathan Tyson almost scoring early on, but we didn't create an awful lot. Mind you, neither did Birmingham at first. It was a pretty boring first half, but Forest started to fade towards the ends of it, and when they returned for the second 45 minutes, they were very much second best and Birmingham in the end were comfortable 2-0 winners without really having to step out of first gear.

I saw the goals on TV and I have to say that I thought we could have defended then a lot better. The first one was not cleared away properly by Kelvin Wilson, and for the second Paul Smith was rooted to his line and made no attempt to stop a long-range effort. Both these players are costing us goals frequently, but Billy Davies just won't or can't acknowledge that they are not good enough. He's been here nearly two months now, so surely he must have some idea of who is good and who isn't. But he claims he's still assessing the players, giving the likes of Adam Newbold a run out, when it's clear that they are no good. Now I hear that Emile Sinclair has been recalled from a loan spell. In many respects it feels like we're no better off than when Colin Calderwood was here. We can't afford to waste time trying out different formations and players. We only have fourteen games left, for crying out loud.

It's blatantly obvious that we need to bring in new players. We failed to sign anybody permanently in the transfer window, which is fair enough considering the lack of quality available, but what is stopping us making loan signings? How on earth can we expect this squad to get us through the next month or so with all these injuries. Even with a fully fit squad, we'd still lack quality in some areas. It seems like the Club is content to just muddle through, and hope for the best. We are only four points away from the relegation zone and two clubs below us have a couple of games in hand. By the end of the month given our daunting fixture schedule coming up, I think it's probably odds-on that we will be in the bottom three again. We will be relying heavily on the poor form of other clubs around us now. It's a good job that there are so many rubbish teams. We would not get away with it in the Premiership. I think that Charlton, even though they've been doing a bit better lately, are still too far adrift, and Southampton will join them, so that leaves one other club. I think that they will be either us, Barnsley, Plymouth, Watford or Norwich. Plymouth are bottom of the form table at the moment and haven't won for ages, while Barnsley have gone on a bit of a slump, which has dragged them into trouble. Norwich, despite a brief revival a few weeks ago, have now gone four games without a win under Bryan Gunn and have lost the last two, and Watford can't be discounted despite an improvement in their form. I've ruled out Doncaster and Derby as both seemed to have got their act together and keep winning.

Forest seemed to be on an upward curve a few weeks ago and pulling away from danger, but as we feared this injury crisis has got the better of them and it couldn't have come at a worse time when they have such a tough set of games with time ticking closer and closer towards the end of the season.

Jeepers Keepers! Forest need a new number one

When you consider the weakness of our squad at the moment, I think it's amazing we managed a point against a very good QPR side on Saturday.

I didn't get too excited when Lewis McGugan gave us the lead from the penalty spot just before half time as QPR had been so lethal going forward, and it was only a matter of time before they scored. They had hit the post earlier on and our defence, which was made up of three central defenders and Brendan Moloney and Joe Heath as wing backs was really struggling to cope with the abundance of pace that Rangers had at their disposal. Indeed just a couple of minutes after the penalty, incidentally our first in the League this season, QPR equalised right on the stroke of the whistle sounding for half time.

Rangers scored again almost immediately after the restart, and to be honest I thought that we had had it. But to our enormous credit, the players refused to let their heads drop and they just got on with it, digging deep for an equaliser, which duly came from Chris Cohen a few minutes after the hour mark. Again, I refused to get excited, but thankfully we managed to hold on for a decent point, which takes us four points away from the relegation places. None of the bottom three teams played as their games were postponed because of the snow, but only Watford have a game in hand on us, so it gives us a little bit of breathing space ahead of a daunting schedule that includes tricky looking away trips to Birmingham, Ipswich and Reading.

Actually now is quite a good time to play Birmingham as they are going through a rather lacklustre spell and are finding it difficult to score goals. They were held at home to a disappointing draw at home to Burnley this weekend, so there is no reason why not we can't get something from them, especially if we go there with one or two loan signings, which hopefully will be forthcoming this week.

We're all desperate for Lee Camp to come back, and judging by his post-match interview on Radio Nottingham, so is he. But apparently there might just be a problem as there is a rule stating that no short-term loan player can spend more than 93 days at a club during the season, so surely that rules Camp out then? How weird then that Forest and Camp himself don't seem to be aware of it. Rumour is Camp has been holding talks with Billy Davies about a possible return, and he said that 'the ball is in Forest's court' if they want to sign him. Surely Forest must be aware of the rules. Unless there is something we have missed, of course?

Whether Camp does come back or not, it's absolutely critical that we sign a competent goalkeeper, because Paul Smith is just not good enough. Yes, he is capable of making excellent saves, but what goalkeeper doesn't? A good goalkeeper must be able to command his area and inspire the men in front of him. His clearances should also help set up attacks, rather than go into the stands like Smith's do more often than not. Camp has all these attributes and I think Forest should be doing everything in their power to sign him, if not before the end of the season, then in the summer. In the meantime, if we can't get Camp, we should look to somebody else. Blackburn's Mark Bunn has been linked with us recently, and though I know little about him, I've heard other fans on the forum speak favourably of him, so he'll do, I'm sure. All I know is that if we are to win this relegation battle, having a decent goalkeeper is going to be crucial.

Yes, it hurts, but staying up is more important than the Cup

To be honest it feels quite a relief to be out of the FA Cup, as it now enables us to concentrate on the much more important business of trying to stay up. But the manner in which Forest threw away a 2-0 lead to end up losing to a deflected long-range effort from Kris 'Judas' Commons was very hard to take. I just hope that it won't have too much of an effect on our confidence and that we can bounce back quickly. But if we are to survive in the Championship this season, Billy Davies must sort the defence out and sign some players on loan.

We were 2-0 up within the first 15 minutes thanks to a Chris Cohen piledriver in only the second minute and then a Nathan Tyson penalty. We were buzzing and there was a superb atmosphere, but for some reason, instead of looking for a third goal, we just sat back and soaked up the pressure. But our defence just wasn't up to the task as Derby came at us in numbers, with Judas in particular causing us all sorts of problems. The crowd, not surprisingly, booed his every move, but this just made him all the more determined, and we saw quite a lot of his trademark long-range efforts, which mostly were going harmlessly over the crossbar, something we had to put up with a lot when he was at Forest.

Derby quite frankly deserved to haul themselves level with two headed goals, which should have been dealt with a lot better by our sloppy defence, and when Judas rather inevitably fired in what turned out to be the winner, nearly 15 minutes from time, Forest had by then run out of steam and were just going through the motions.

Shortly before the goal, James Perch joined our ever-growing injury list when he was stretchered off and taken to hospital – just as Paul Anderson had been in the game at Pride Park. Though fortunately for Perch x-rays proved he had not broken anything and was discharged later on, although the question of whether he will be sidelined for a few games remains to be answered.

Losing to Derby is never a very pleasant experience, especially at home where we had not lost to them in 38 years. But I was more concerned with the way we defended and just let Derby run at us over and over again. I don't know how our back four players can call themselves defenders, I really don't. All of them are capable of playing well individually, but this season we have rarely ever seen them play well as a unit. When Lee Camp was behind them, I don't think it's a coincidence that they looked a lot more confident, but now Paul Smith is back, they are looking like a nervous wreck again. I think Davies has got to make the signing of another goalkeeper one of his first priorities when the loan window opens next week as the goalkeeper is the most important player in your team, no matter how good the attack is. If your defence is leaking goals, your strikers are going to have to score three or four every game, which is not going to happen, especially not if you're struggling at the bottom.

I'm not too bothered that we have missed out on the chance to play Man United. I'd rather wait a few years and meet them in the Premiership. For now all I can think about is where our next win is going to come from. I'm rather hesitant to say that a victory over QPR is vital because it is going to be an incredibly difficult game because Rangers are flying, and we've gone rather flat recently, so I'm afraid there's a distinct possibility we could be back in the relegation zone come Saturday evening as many teams below us have winnable looking games. With a bit of luck, though, the game will be cancelled owing to the heavy snowfall in the Midlands and we will have the weekend off, giving our players a much-needed rest.

Forest must be careful not to get back into losing habit

I guess the unbeaten away run was going to come to an end at some stage, and it seemed almost inevitable that with all our injury problems it would happen at Cardiff, who themselves had not tasted defeat in 12 games.

At least we can come away with a bit of credit for our improved performance in the second half. To be honest, I thought we'd be on the receiving end of a hiding-to-nothing, but that didn't turn out to be the case at all. I am not saying the 2-0 scoreline flattered Cardiff – they deserved the three points because overall they were the better side – but Forest were always quite threatening going forward, so if Cardiff hadn't gone on to kill the match off three minutes from time, I reckon we may have sneaked an equaliser.

The other results, apart from Derby's home win against Coventry, largely went our way with Southampton only managing to draw their home fixture with Swansea, and Watford lost at Wolves, which saw them swap places with Derby in the bottom three. Doncaster and Norwich's draw on Friday night was another good result, and we remain three points clear, although the Cardiff defeat has reminded me that Billy Davies, as good a manager he is, is no miracle worker, and with such a tough collection of games coming up, we might just need one if we are to pick up many points between now and the end of February.

We definitely need to bolster our squad with a few players. Even if all our players were fit and available, we'd still lack depth and quality. Some of them are not good enough, or are not performing their best at the moment. Take Lewis McGugan for example. When he is on form, he is a vital player to have in midfield, but recently he has been out of sorts. One of his best attributes is his ability to take set pieces, but they were all woeful against Cardiff, and his overall contribution seemed to be lacking desire. I've heard one or two rumours that he wants to leave, but if that is the case, then he is not making much effort to attract potential buyers. If we sign a new midfielder before the transfer window closes on Monday evening, I think McGugan will be the one to make way, because Billy Davies can't be happy with him, and indeed substituted him on Saturday.

Gareth McCleary is a player who I rate, but I think he is far too inconsistent to be playing every match. He had a very good game against Sheffield Wednesday, but I don't think he is anywhere near good enough to replace Paul Anderson. He was, after all, this time last year playing non-League football for Bromley. Only exceptionally good players could make such a big step up in a short space of time, and I don't think McCleary is ready yet, although he does seem to have potential, and is very young still.

Mark Arthur told us in a pre-match interview on Radio Nottingham yesterday that we had made four bids for players, but he was 'not too hopeful' of them being successful. Hmmm. That does not sound promising, but then he may have just been bluffing so as to put other clubs off the scent or not build our hopes up too much. He says that our League position is off-putting to players. But we're not talking about spending millions of pounds. Anybody half-decent who can do a job in the Championship will do. There must be somebody who wants first team football. We must at least be able to attract players on loan, surely? The issue of League One football hanging over us then won't be an issue if they are only here until the season ends.

At the moment it looks like we will be playing Derby in the FA Cup in midweek with just one recognised striker available. Rob Earnshaw's troublesome hamstring has returned and he is out for two weeks, while Joe Garner is suspended. That leaves us with just Nathan Tyson. To be honest, even though it is against Derby, this FA Cup game is a bit of an annoying distraction, and if we do win, we will only be on the receiving end of a morale-sapping stuffing against Man United. In the meantime, we could be back in the bottom three as our game at Birmingham that weekend will have been postponed. What Forest had before the Cardiff defeat was momentum, but now that has stopped, and if we don't beat QPR, who are also one of the form sides, next week at the City Ground, I really fear that we will get sucked back into trouble again.