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.