Bounce-back-ability is key to our survival

After a really good week in which we claimed seven points out of nine against Reading, Preston, and Swansea, the doom mongers are out in force again after an injury-ravaged Forest lost away from home to an in-form Watford side, thus leaving us periously close to the dreaded relegation zone.

Norwich City have closed the gap to just two points after they beat play-off contenders Cardiff at home. That will really give them a big confidence boost ahead of another very winnable home match with relegation rivals Plymouth on Saturday. It means that even if we get a point at Burnley, it may not be enough to keep us out of the relegation zone as Norwich are bound to win their game, and Barnsley likewise should beat Blackpool at home.

It could have been a whole lot worse, though, had Derby not equalised at Southampton. The Saints remain three points behind us, but they do have a game in hand on us. Their goal difference is only three worse than ours now, and all it would probably take is a defeat for us and a win for them for them to overtake us. It's quite possible that by Saturday tea-time, we could find ourselves in the bottom two. If that is the case with just seven games to go after that, it will be a very scary feeling. Let's pray that Forest can conjure up another away victory, but there will have to be a huge improvement in the performance from the one they gave last night.

From the moment the team news was announced, Forest were rather up against it. There was no Paul Anderson or Chris Cohen, the latter having suffered a back injury, and Billy Davies decided he needed to rest a few players, relegating Rob Earnshaw and Isaiah Osbourne to the bench. But we were boosted by the return of Nathan Tyson to the starting line-up, and even without the aforementioned players we still looked quite decent up front with Gary McSheffrey and Gareth McCleary supporting Tyson.

Unfortunately, though, it just wasn't our night. We conceded after just five minutes, and were very lucky not to go further behind soon after. We were very shaky at the back, and we could consider ourselves rather fortunate to be on level terms just over ten minutes later thanks to an excellent strike from the re-called Matt Thornhill. But that was about as good as things got for Forest, as they suffered a number of injury setbacks, first losing Joel Lynch at left back, who was then replaced by Kelvin Wilson who switched from centre half, and then Ian Breckin, who had come on as a substitute for Lynch, did not emerge for the second half, having picked up a knock himself. That forced Forest into a reshuffle at the back, playing three centre halves, and using Tyson and McSheffrey as wing backs. It's hardly surprising that Forest offered so little in the second half. In fact they did very well not to concede any more goals. With it being so tight down at the bottom of the Championship, the goal difference could end up being crucial come the end of the season. One thing is for sure, our nerves are going to be well and truly jangled no matter what happens over the course of the next seven weeks...