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!