Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Savage!

It's been nearly twenty four hours since the final whistle confirmed our first victory over Derby County in six-and-a-half years of trying, and I'm still high as a kite. It really was a magical day in Nottingham yesterday, and I am going to make sure I savour it for a long time to come.

Nathan Tyson's post-match corner flag celebration has to go down as one of my favourite moments – EVER. He was already a cult hero with the Forest supporters anyway, but now he's been elevated on to another plane altogether. I don't care if the spoilsports at the Football Association land him with a fine for 'inciting a riot'. Who cares? I thought it was wonderful, and it wound up the despicable Robbie Savage good and proper – and that is absolutely priceless. The sight of Savage's ugly, greasy long-haired mug on Sky Sports News bleating about Tyson waving the flag in front of the Sheep fans was brilliant TV, and I hope somebody puts it on YouTube so we can watch it over and over again! What a hypocritical person Savage is. He really wound us up last season when he waved his Derby scarf in front of his fans at the City Ground, and although it was in front of his own supporters, rather than ours, it still rankled with the Forest fans and players alike. So it was only right that justice was done. The FA say they will investigate the mêlée as a 'matter of urgency', but to be honest it wasn't much of a big deal. Most of the players were trying to restrain people, not actually get involved. Tyson will probably be hit in the pocket, and that will be that.

Even though the second half was really frightening in the way we very nearly squandered our half time 3-0 lead. I am almost glad we did let in two goals now because the end was so thrilling when the whistle finally blew. I didn't for one moment think that we had won the match when we went three up. I just knew that we'd sit back after the break and let Derby back into it, and so it proved. I was totally depressed when we conceded a second. I thought 'here we go again', and just waited for Derby to equalise, and possibly even go on to win. But thank the Lord, it never happened, and we managed to hold on. It would have been absolutely devastating to throw away a three-goal lead. I did fear it at half time, but being such a hypochondriac, I told myself I was being silly. But blimey, it was close. Our defence is absolutely scary. Both the goals were needlessly conceded. The first was an own goal which went in off Wes Morgan's head fives minutes into the half. That gave Derby some real momentum, and just over ten minutes later they were well and truly back in the match when more slapdash defending from Forest saw Jake Livermore fire past Lee Camp, taking a deflection off Paul McKenna along the way. I bet bookmakers would have offered short odds on Derby going on to win the match such was their dominance throughout the second 45 minutes.

It was a far cry from the first half when Forest had raced into a three-goal lead. We had the perfect start when just 58 seconds into the game, Radoslaw Majewski, whose goal against Middlesbrough in mid-week had put us in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup, showed off his talent yet again with a powerful 25-yard piledriver, which crashed into the back of the net, giving Stephen Bywater no chance. That raised the roof off the City Ground, and it inspired Forest to pour forward. Derby just couldn't handle us at all, and when Dexter Blackstock made it a deserved 2-0 half an hour into the game with a close-range header from a Chris Cohen free-kick, the Forest fans were beaming with happiness. Things just got better and better when a couple of minutes before half time Kris Commons lost possession and Forest took full advantage. Blackstock put Tyson clean through on goal, and cheekily rounded the goalkeeper to make it 3-0, and send the home fans wild with delight.

The news that the lacklustre Commons had been substituted at half time was greeted with jeers, but actually his replacement Lee Croft, a summer signing from Norwich City, whom we had been linked with ourselves, really terrorised us in the second half, so it wasn't such a good substitution from a Forest point of view after all. Luckily for us Billy Davies got his tactics right when he brought on Gareth McCleary for Joe Garner on the right wing, and this seemed to help Forest calm down a bit in defence. I think Garner might well have been sent off if he had stayed on the pitch for much longer. He was already on a yellow card, and in such a hostile atmosphere, the money would have been on him to see red considering his track record with referees.

Davies also played a huge part in our win, although I didn't realise it at the time. I couldn't understand why when about ten minutes from the end the crowd suddenly started cheering really loudly, roaring Forest on. I thought perhaps my watch had stopped and we had only a minute of injury time to go. But what transpired was that Davies had urged the home supporters to be really noisy and help create an atmosphere. It was very tense and quiet until then – very understandably after Derby had looked like they were going to break our hearts again - but once the crowd became really vocal, it helped the Forest players to regain their composure and it shook Derby up a little bit. They were never quite the same threat they had been earlier on. It's often said in football that the fans can be like a 12th man on the pitch, and I think certainly yesterday that was very true in Forest's case. If only we could be like that in every game, though, and not just once a year against our biggest rivals. Just imagine how many points better off we might be then.

Now our season should finally get started!

The League Cup might be pretty low down on our list of priorities, but last night's excellent win over Middlesbrough in extra time could turn out to be very significant if it helps us to get things going in the Championship.

Luke Chambers became the first player this season to breach Boro's defence when he scored what was arguably his best Forest goal to date, earning Forest a much-deserved equaliser right on the hour with an exquisite overhead volley from an Arron Davies corner. That goal cancelled out Boro's earlier strike, which had come just a couple of minutes before half time from Adam Johnson, who had exploited Chris Cohen's weakness at left back to give his team the lead.

There were less than 9,000 people in attendance, but those who did make the trip were rewarded for their efforts as it was a fantastic end-to-end game which either side could have won in normal time. Paul Smith, who was in goal in place of the rested Lee Camp, made some really good saves, while at the other end, Forest looked very dangerous once Billy Davies had made three substitutions, bringing on Nathan Tyson, David McGoldrick and Dele Adebola in the last fifteen minutes.

Rob Earnshaw, though, who had started the game alongside Dexter Blackstock looked like a player desperately short on confidence and rather worryingly his body language suggested his heart was just not in it at all. Not surprisingly he was one of the players who was replaced. Maybe rumours that he could be on his way out are not that far off the mark. If he keeps this sort of form up, I wouldn't be too unhappy if he did leave if it meant we could use the cash to buy a defender or two.

Not that the defence was terrible last night or anything. Far from it. Wes Morgan and Chambers both had very good games, as did Chris Gunter, and apart from the sloppiness that led to the Boro goal, Cohen wasn't troubled too much. But this was just a League Cup game when the big clubs are well known to perform well below-par, so I won't read too much into it. All I can say, though, is that apart from the Watford game a week ago, our defence hasn't done that badly. I'm still a little bit apprehensive about Saturday, though, when Derby are in town. It would be a shame if Cohen has to play left back again for that one as he is really missed in midfield. Hopefully Joel Lynch will have recovered from his back injury, although I'm not really a big fan of his to tell you the truth.

After six minutes of injury time (much of it awarded because of an injury to the referee!) the game went into extra time. Forest's triple striker substitution really paid off as it meant we were really fresh up front. I don't know what Gareth Southgate said to his Boro players once the full time whistle had blown at the end of the 90 minutes, but they simply were not in it in extra time as Forest completely dominated. Radoslaw Majewski who has been brilliant for us so far this season capped another fine performance with a well-taken goal in the 103rd minute. That turned out to be the match winner, which booked Forest's place in the 3rd round of the competition for the first time in five years. It would be nice to think that we could have a bit of a cup run this season. Far from being a distraction, it could well work in our favour and give us some real momentum for the more important games in the League. You need only look at what Burnley's cup exploits did for them last year for evidence of that.

Still winless, but there's plenty to be pleased about

After the poor result against Watford in midweek, I am much happier after Forest earned a deserved point away from home against Queens Park Rangers. If we had been more clinical in front of goal, we would probably be celebrating our first win of the season, but I'm sure that will come sooner rather than later if we continue to play as well as we have been doing.

I'm glad to say we looked a lot better in defence after the horror show on Tuesday night. That was not a surprise seeing as we welcomed back Luke Chambers after his three-match ban, and this enabled Chris Cohen to slot back into the heart of midfield with Joe Lynch moving back to left back. The side definitely looked much better, and we looked very good going forward in the first half, and got quite a few shots on target, so we made the QPR goalkeeper work for his money.

But despite Forest being the better side, it was Rangers who took the lead when an unstoppable shot from Mikele Leigertwood crashed into the back of the net from 20 yards out, 25 minutes into the game. Rangers hadn't exactly not been in the game as they had always looked a threat going forward, but we really should have been two goals up by that stage. Fortunately, we didn't let the goal depress us too much, although we had to wait until after half time before we were rewarded for our efforts.

The equaliser came just before the hour-mark through David McGoldrick, who scored his first goal of the season, firing home from a few yards out after good work from Dele Adebola. It was the very least that we deserved, and we could have gone on to win the game, but then again so could QPR, who ensured that Lee Camp, who was celebrating his 25th birthday, would not be a mere spectator against his former side. A draw in the end was a fair result, and I would definitely have taken a point before the game even though we really needed three points to kick-start our season.

It is a little bit worrying that we still haven't won in the League yet after four games, but we have to consider the fixtures we have played so far. We have got good away points at Reading and QPR, and very narrowly lost at home to West Brom, who have had a very good start to the season. Our only bad performance came against Watford when we were forced to field a very weak defence. At Loftus Road, I thought the defence looked reasonably solid. Chambers makes a much, much better central defender than at right back. He had a very good game, hardly making a mistake at all. I think Colin Calderwood did him a great disservice playing him at right back for so long, but he didn't moan about it and just got on with the job. Maybe he can cut it at Championship level after all, but it's still very early days, and he will come up against much tougher opponents in future games. I still think we definitely need to sign another central defender, though.

We had been linked with West Ham's Calum Davenport. But a shocking incident on Friday night in my home town of Bedford has put paid to that rumour once and for all. He was stabbed in the legs following a fracas involving several people, and his mother was also attacked. His football career is now in doubt after doctors described his injuries as 'serious'. Weirdly, enough, although I think this is merely coincidental, the man arrested is from Derby. A few people have suggested that it might be a Derby fan trying to stop us signing him, but you'd have to be pretty warped to go that far in the name of football.

The solid performance at QPR has allayed our fears about the defence a bit, but whether or not that back four is capable of doing well, we still need cover for the inevitable injuries and suspensions that will be coming our way. The fact that Gareth McCleary had to come on and play at right back for the second half when Lynch went off injured with Chris Gunter taking over at left back just highlights how serious our defensive problems are. We are not going to get away with patching up our rear guard with misfits for long. If a team like Watford, who are not expected to do that well this season, could run us ragged, then we will have big problems when we meet better sides than them. There is not long to go now before the transfer window slams shut until the New Year. Are we going to see a repeat of the last transfer window back in January when we signed absolutely nobody? Let's hope that Billy Davies and the much-maligned transfer committee panel are working very hard behind the scenes because if we do strengthen the defence, I think we will really have a good team. Maybe not one that is capable of challenging for promotion, but we should certainly be good enough to avoid another frightening relegation battle. I was convinced before the season started that we would be alright, but until we bring in new defenders, all our hard work at one end of the pitch is going to be undone at the other. And that would be a crying shame.

No case for the defence

Although I felt a bit shell-shocked in the immediate aftermath of last night's 4-2 home defeat at the hands of Watford, having had time to digest it, I'm not really surprised it happened now.

Our ramshackle defence consisting of Chris Gunter, Wes Morgan, Joel Lynch, and Chris Cohen had coped well enough against Bradford City and West Brom, but Watford really tore us apart in the last fifteen minutes last night. Once the midfield lost its shape following a series of substitutions, Forest were all over the place. Even Gunter, who is usually very solid at right back looked like he had never played there before. He gave the ball away time and time again. Morgan is usually fairly dependable, but he and Lynch were absolutely awful, and Cohen, who obviously is no left back, was left dreadfully exposed with nobody helping him out in midfield.

Forest were forced into an early substitution when Lewis McGugan, who had been given his first start in the League, was stretchered off with a fractured cheekbone 25 minutes into the game. And little over five minutes later, Watford took the lead through a close-range header from Danny Graham. We didn't really deserve to be losing as we were applying plenty of pressure, although again our finishing was not very good. But we finally made the breakthrough just before half time when Dexter Blackstock scored his second goal of the season to equalise from a few yards out. That goal really spurred Forest on and we finished the first half with a flourish with Rob Earnshaw coming close to giving us the lead. This really raised hopes amongst the 18,000+ Forest supporters that we'd be in for a good second half.

Unfortunately for one reason or another, Forest failed to live up to expectations in the second 45 minutes. Certainly they were not helped by the referee and linesman's dubious officiating, or Watford's timewasting tactics, but unlike on Saturday against West Brom when we had been very unlucky, our problems last night were largely down to tactical ineptness more than anything else. While our defence was always likely to struggle, they had not been doing too badly until Billy Davies replaced Paul Anderson with David McGoldrick just after the hour-mark. As a result, the midfield really lost shape. Anderson was not playing too badly, and was helping out defensively in midfield, but as soon as he went off, and McGoldrick was asked to play out wide on the right wing, Watford started exploiting the gap in midfield, and they started to run us ragged, which they simply had not being doing all evening. Forest were left completely exposed at the back and looked like a bunch of schoolboy amateurs playing their first game together. Watford put three past us in the last fifteen minutes, scoring twice in the space of three minutes before substitute Dele Adebola gave us brief hope when he netted his first of the season three minutes from time, only for Watford to make sure of the points in injury time when they restored their two-goal advantage thanks to more dreadful defending from Forest.

While it's certainly a bit premature to be taking the league table seriously after three games, we should definitely not ignore the early warning signs that our defence is not good enough as it stands for us to be able to compete at Championship level. Why we didn't sign a central defender in the summer, I don't know. We did try to sign one or two, but the deals never materialised. I don't think it was necessary to buy so many forwards. There is now a huge imbalance in the team, where we have some positions covered by three or four players, while in defence there is a real lack of competition. There isn't a single central defender at the Club who you can say is definitely worthy of playing at this level. Hopefully that will be rectified in due course, because otherwise we will be sucked into another relegation battle, and that is the last thing anybody would expect after splashing out more than £5 million in the summer.

Forest pay the penalty for poor finishing

I know losing is part and parcel of following a football team, but it really does leave you on a massive downer, especially when we deserve something from the game.

Over the past few seasons, Forest have been so awful, that it was quite easy for me to shrug off every defeat as I was so apathetic towards the players and management. But I really can't fault Forest's commitment or performance yesterday against West Brom. The only thing that let us down was our finishing. Robert Earnshaw's terrible penalty miss really summed up our lack of luck in front of goal.

There's certainly no disgrace in losing against the Baggies, who have just dropped down from the Premiership. To be honest, with our patched-up defence, I expected the scoreline to be worse, but it was actually a very tight game. West Brom defended very well, but we got more than our fair share of good chances, but just didn't take them. In fact, I don't recall us having one shot on target, except when Dele Adebola, who had another impressive game, put the ball in the net very early in the second half, only for it to be ruled out for infringement.

Not long after that incident, Brom took the lead when Wes Morgan's attempted clearance of a cross resulted in him scoring an own goal. This unfortunately turned out to be the winner, despite Forest's best efforts to forge an equaliser. Earnshaw, who had not long been on the field after coming on as a substitute turned from hero to villain after winning a penalty only to then put it hopelessly wide with 15 minutes remaining.

So after two games in the Championship, despite having spent nearly £5 million on our attack during the summer, we have yet to score at all. We had a good win in mid-week over Bradford in the Carling Cup, though, so we know we have got goals in us. We did play extremely well yesterday, so there is plenty to be positive about. We have after all just played two of the best teams in the division in Reading and West Brom, and we've looked very good in both games. But it would be nice to think that a win will come in the next couple of games, because psychologically it's important to get it out of the way as soon as possible, otherwise it's easy to get into a rut. Hopefully three points will be achieved against Watford on Tuesday night. Incidentally, they were the first team we beat in the Championship last season!

Tyson assault sours Forest's emphatic win

Notts County will no doubt be crowing that they must be a better team than us because they put five past Bradford, but at least Forest can say they are in the second round of the Carling Cup, unlike County and Derby who were sent tumbling out on Tuesday night!

All three goals came from players who were unused substitutes against Reading. Paul Anderson's diving header just a minute into the second half gave us the lead, and that was followed up with tap-ins from Dexter Blackstock and Lewis McGugan. There was never any doubt that we would go through once we were 2-0 up as Bradford didn't threaten at all, giving our makeshift defence a very easy night. Much had been said about how on earth we would cope without the suspended Luke Chambers and Chris Gunter, who was otherwise engaged on international duty with Wales, but Joel Lynch stepped in to partner Wes Morgan in central defence and did a good job, while unorthodox full backs Gareth McCleary and Chris Cohen were comfortable as the midfield gave them so much protection. Obviously against much better teams such as WBA, who we play on Saturday, we would struggle, but it's quite surprising that Bradford didn't appear to even try to take advantage of our defensive crisis last night.

The win was soured somewhat when Nathan Tyson, who had been for many people the Man of the Match, was stretchered off just a few minutes from the end after falling victim to a terrible tackle, which quite rightly earned débutante Jonathan Bateson a red card. Luckily for Tyson, the injury is not thought to be too serious, and he could even be fit in time to play on Saturday. Thank God for that. We know he is very injury prone, but it would have been quite gut-wrenching to see him sidelined because of a malicious foul, which came at the end of a game in which he had contributed so much.

Sort the defence out, and we might just have a team

I was listening to TalkSport just before kick off, and I remember them saying that there was 'very little chance' of there being a goalless draw between Reading and Forest considering the amount of forwards we had at our disposal.
But, just like last year, a game that on paper promised plenty of attacking football and one or two goals turned out to be quite drab. But from our point of view, it was a very good point to start the campaign, especially as we finished the game with ten men after Luke Chambers was sent off.

I thought we played quite well, and despite the well-documented lack of defensive options we have at the moment, we did defend quite soundly, restricting Reading to very few chances. Lee Camp had a very solid game, and dealt with crosses magnificently, and he made one or two good saves, as well. Reading's finishing let them down, too, so we did get away with it a little bit, but overall we definitely deserved the point, as we had one or two chances ourselves.

Our starting line-up made quite interesting reading, as there were so many notable names missing, with Rob Earnshaw, Nathan Tyson, Paul Anderson, Lewis McGugan, and Dexter Blackstock all having to be content with a place on the bench. David McGoldrick and Dele Adebola were the lucky pair to get the nod to start up front, while Joe Garner, strangely, was asked to play on the right wing. So much for Davies' pledge to stop sticking round pegs in square holes.

Of the players making their first appearances, Paul McKenna had a promising game in the heart of midfield, and it looks like he will make a big difference there as he will bring organisation to the side. And although he started to tire towards the end, the Polish recruit Radoslaw Majewski showed some real glimpses of talent out on the left wing. McGoldrick was a little quiet, but Adebola looked very sharp, and won a lot in the air. He holds the ball up very well indeed, and if he keeps that sort of performance up, he will play more than a bit-part role this season.

When Chambers was red-carded with just a couple of minutes of normal time remaining, I conceded defeat. I thought there was no way we were going to hang on then, because we didn't have a replacement defender to come on for him, but somehow we survived a Reading onslaught in the last few minutes. I don't know what Chambers was dismissed for, but some people say he lashed out after being pushed. He had already been booked, so I guess he had to go. Perhaps something positive will come out of it, though, because it will force the Club to bring in a central defender or two, because we are dreadfully thin on the ground in that department. It's a good job we've got so many goalscorers at the club at the moment because as things stand we're going to need them just to draw games! Having said all that, we did get a clean sheet with ten men at one of the teams expected to be challenging for automatic promotion. But make no mistake, we will not get away with it for long.

Forest are Reading and raring to go!

The new season is less than a week away now, and Forest look like they're in pretty good shape for the big kick-off against Reading on Saturday.

Robert Earnshaw's late strike against Premiership new boys Birmingham earned them a confidence-boosting victory at the City Ground at the weekend, and according to the man from Sky Sports News, they looked very impressive going forward. To be honest, I would expect nothing less with the amount of quality we have up front!

We've not had a bad pre-season really. If you forget the 2-1 defeat at Notts County, which was rather inevitable with all the crazy press coverage going on in the wake of Sven Goran Erikisson's shock appointment, we've done really well. In the past few years, Forest have usually been very lacklustre during pre-season, and as a result taken a while to get going once the campaign gets underway. But it looks as though they've had a really tough pre-season under Billy Davies, and hopefully this means that we will have an enjoyable autumn this year, and our season starts in August rather than in January.

This summer has been one of the best Forest have had in a long time, regarding transfers. No fewer than nine players have been brought in, eight of them permanently. The other, Polish winger Radoslaw Majewski, has signed on loan for the season, with the option of him joining long-term next year. Majewski looks quite a good prospect, and he has been starting every game so far in the friendlies, so Davies obviously is impressed with him. It took him just two minutes to score on his debut against Rushden and Diamonds last week. I think I'm going to have to learn how to say his name correctly, as I've got a feeling he's going to become something of a regular fixture in the team this season!

I haven't been this excited in years about Forest, and it's about time, too. We've been put through the emotional wringer over the past five years, but we've stuck by them in numbers. We deserve a bit of happiness for a change. Nobody's saying we're going to get promoted, but a top ten finish in the Championship would be something to build on for the season after.