Fearless Forest still undefeated away from home

This is going to sound a little bit strange, but I feel quite glad that our winning run has ended. It felt a bit like eating too many chocolates. Too much of a good thing is bad for you, and to be quite honest I was getting a bit sick of it! The glorious feeling of winning is only possible if you've felt the agonising lows as well. That's why when I say I'm not jealous of the likes of Chelsea and Man United fans I truly mean it.

I thought we did really well to come away with a point from Crystal Palace, who have been in very good form lately. We didn't really create an awful lot, but we packed the midfield and made life very difficult for them. The last five minutes of the first half were very dramatic as not only did Palace take the lead from a Darren Ambrose free kick, but Forest also were forced to make a substitution when Clint Hill elbowed Paul Anderson in the face. The challenge left Anderson on the ground for quite a long time, and it looked like Hill would get his marching orders. But the referee decided there was no malintent and he was only booked. Unfortunately for Forest, though, Anderson was unable to continue and was replaced with Gareth McCleary.

Rather bizarrely, although I didn't hear it at the time, the local commentary was then accidentally fed through the tannoy with the commentator's words 'out of his pram' being heard by thousands of people. This was clearly referring to Billy Davies who had reacted furiously to Hill's elbow on Anderson. I just wish I heard it, as it would have been hilarious! To be honest, I was so worried about Anderson that I didn't notice. Thankfully, he turned out to be okay, but Davies and Neil Warnock were full of criticism for each other at the end of the game. Honestly, would you expect anything less from Warnock? The man is a clown, and always has been!

Forest got their justice when they grabbed a well-worked equaliser just three minutes into the second half. David McGoldrick, who was back in the side in the absence of Dexter Blackstock, latched on to a Lewis McGugan cross and tapped in from close-range to score his second goal in Forest colours. Palace went close several times to retaking the lead, but Lee Camp was in superb form and kept us in it with some great saves, including one in the dying moments of stoppage time when he denied one-time Forest striker Stern John from grabbing a last-gasp winner. After all the hard work we had put in, that would have been a real heart-breaker.

Luckily, the whistle blew soon after that and we still remain undefeated away from home, a feat that has not been achieved by any other team in all four divisions this season! That record will be severely tested when we visit high-flying Cardiff next Sunday evening, but I don't think we have any reason to fear it at all. It will probably be a backs-to-the-wall job, but if anything it's Cardiff who should be wary of us, and not the other way round. Whatever happens, I'm sure we won't be as bad as Derby were when they got thrashed 6-1 there!

All hail King Billy, the best manager we've had for years

I really thought that the game against Barnsley was heading for a goalless draw last night. Having won our previous four games, I wasn't all that desperate to win, so was counting down the clock when four minutes of injury time were declared, praying that Barnsley would not snatch a late winner, as they had threatened to do when Lee Camp made a couple of excellent saves. But it was us who broke Barnsley's hearts instead when the magnificent Guy Moussi struck deep in stoppage time to hand us our fifth straight win.

Moussi paid the price for jumping into the Trent End crowd when he was sent off, having already been booked a few minutes earlier, but thankfully Forest kept their nerve and saw out the last minute or so to hold on for another hard-fought victory. Although we remain in seventh place, we are now just two points away from the top of the table, believe it or not! The difference between being bottom of the table and the top is that even when you win, you might not make much progress as the other teams around you are in good form as well. It is not even November yet, so it's a bit early to say whether we will be serious promotion candidates come May, but I think we have a very good chance. We are a very strong and well-organised side with a great team spirit. That will take us very far. We are light years away from last season under Colin Calderwood. Billy Davies and his managerial team have done an absolutely brilliant job of transforming us from almost dead certs for relegation to League One into one of the best teams in the Championship in such a short space of time. I just pray that he isn't tempted by the offer of a bigger job elsewhere because he really is the best thing that has happened to Forest in years and years. I can't believe he was out of work for over a year. With such a promising Championship CV, I would have thought he would have been snapped up immediately by a club in that division when he was fired by Derby. It was a somewhat uncharacteristically brave move by Nigel Doughty to appoint somebody with a reputation for having forthright opinions, but at long last it looks as though this is one managerial appointment he has got right!

Dare we dream of the Premier League?

I feel so PROUD of Forest at the moment! Everything is going so well, and following a well-deserved win over the leaders Newcastle, we could be on the verge of something special at the City Ground.

I was bowled over at times by the quality of football we were playing in the first half. We kept the ball so well and really dominated possession. Newcastle weren't a bad team, but they simply couldn't handle our abundance of pace. I was particularly impressed with Guy Moussi, who was playing in a three-man central midfield. He was excellent at winning the ball and distributing it. It was the best I'd seen him play in a long time. Paul Anderson, too, was looking very dangerous on the wing, and he was the orchestrator of a sublime bit of skill when he somehow kept the ball in play when it looked to be going out, before running with it and then dispatching a shot from a tight angle, which the goalkeeper just got his hands to. It would surely have been one of the finest goals ever scored at the City Ground had it gone in. Billy Davies got his tactics spot on by playing five in midfield and Dexter Blackstock up front on his own. It might have seemed a bit negative on paper, but Blackstock got plenty of chances, and when he gave us the lead on the stroke of full time when he latched on to a through ball from Radoslaw Majewski, it was all he and his team mates deserved.

For a lot of the second half, it was a backs-to-the-wall job as we soaked up a lot of Newcastle pressure. But luckily our defence was on top form, and the closest Newcastle got to equalising was when Kevin Nolan put the ball in the net only for it to be ruled offisde. That was sweet justice for those Forest fans who had read his comments earlier saying that we'd celebrate victory over them as if we'd won the European Cup (again). As if! I must admit, my celebrations were a bit more passionate than usual when we win, but no, it didn't feel as if we'd won the European Cup. At least Forest do know what that feels like, eh Kevin? It's not a feeling he's likely to ever experience in his lifetime.

So now that we have beaten supposedly the biggest club in the League, I think we can safely say that Forest mean business this season. There's no way that we will be sucked into a relegation battle. We are far too strong for that. Therefore, to keep the season going, we've got to target those play-off places, and who knows, maybe even automatic promotion. We are only five points away from first place after all. But, I agree with Davies. We're just not ready for the Premiership yet. We need another season or two down here first of all. We do not want to repeat Derby's awful experience. Davies is as yet unproven as a manager at that level, although I think he'd be up for the challenge given the right circumstances. If we can flirt with the play-offs but not actually reach them, then it will be a great season. We're currently seventh, and our odds on winning promotion are being shortened all the time, so people obviously like the look of us. We got off to a slow and uninspiring start, but it's all coming together very nicely now, and for the first time in what seems like eons, I can't think of a bad word to say about the Club!

I see trees of green...What a wonderful week for Forest

Forest, you really must stop winning like this. I could get used to it! No, seriously, please carry on. I said the other night that we shouldn't get too greedy, but I've changed my mind now. I want more! We are on a bit of a roll now, and just one point away from the top six in the Championship two months into the season. Now that has to be a big improvement on this time last year when we were entrenched at the bottom of the table and couldn't buy a win for love nor money.

It was a great response coming back from a goal down at Peterborough to equalise immediately like that. Okay, so we were helped considerably by dodgy defending and the wind when Radoslaw Majewski's in-swinging free kick caught everyone by surprise and sailed right over Peterborough's substitute goalkeeper. But we still deserved to be level, and five minutes later we were in the lead thanks to Paul Anderson, who netted from close range for his second goal of the season. That turned out to be the match winner as Forest comfortably saw the game out without too much trouble. It wasn't exactly a scintillating performance, but just like the Plymouth win last Sunday, it was a job well done and another three points in the bag.

The past seven days have been great, yielding nine points from nine. You really couldn't ask for more than that. True, the games were against three poor teams who will probably be involved in the relegation battle come the end of the season, but these games are exactly the kind that Forest often slip up in, so to win them all is very pleasing, and it gives us a good idea of how good we are. We were only a few points above the relegation zone this time last week, but now we're 10th, which is the highest position we've been in this division for years. I don't see any reason why not we can finish even higher come May. But as long as we avoid being involved in the fight to stay up, I will be happy. Anything else we achieve will be a bonus. I'm not at all desperate to get back up to the Premiership, as I think the Championship is a very good division to be in for clubs like ourselves. I'm happy to stay here for a long time, as I can't stand the thought of us losing every week, trying to emulate Derby's 'achievement' of being the worst Premiership team ever! It might be nice visiting the country's best stadia, but not if we come away from them on the receiving end of a good spanking every time.

Anyway, I think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself talking about promotion. I don't think this team is good enough to mount a challenge – yet. But in a year or two if we keep this squad together and Billy Davies is still here, I'm sure we'll give it a good go. But for now, I'm more than happy with how things are going, winning three on the bounce. It sure beats fretting about relegation, and relying on a few snookers from teams around us. I practically made myself ill last year worrying about us going down. So it will be nice if Forest, just for once, gave us a stress-free season and finished in a boring 11th or 12th place or something like that. But in my twenty years of supporting them, I can hardly remember a season that wasn't exciting to some degree. Forest tend to be either shockingly bad, or really, really good, and no in-between, so don't bet against us making the play-offs in May. I just hope, though, that if we lose them we won't get too downhearted about it, as there is no doubt that the devastating 2003 semi-final defeat at Sheffield United really set us off on a downward spiral over the next half-decade. We're very much in the ascendency now and we shouldn't be in too much of a rush to achieve too much too soon.