A fond farewell to 2009. Let's hope 2010 is just as fine

When Big Ben strikes midnight in a couple of days' time, I'm going to feel very sad to leave 2009 behind. It has been an extremely good year for Forest starting with Billy Davies' arrival in January, and ending in us well placed in third position in the Championship ready to mount a serious bid for automatic promotion. The fact that it has taken such a short space of time to transform us from relegation certainties into a strong and vibrant team shows what a great manager Davies is, and we should thank our lucky stars every day that we have him.

Against Coventry, we weren't really at our best, particularly in the first half hour when they were all over us. They had a sackful of chances but for one reason or another just couldn't put the ball away. Had they been more potent up front, they could have been two or three up by half time. But once it became apparent that we were not going to let them score, they seemed to have the life knocked out of them and we got more and more into the game. At first we couldn't seem to string two passes together, but by the end of the half we were playing some lovely stuff, none more so than a stunning solo run from Radoslaw Majewski, who cut through the centre of midfield, running from one end of the pitch to the other before feeding the advancing Rob Earnshaw, who had just the goalkeeper to beat before chipping the ball over him to give us the lead, which we just about deserved having worked hard to overcome Coventry's game plan. An equally brilliant Dexter Blackstock goal 12 minutes from time set us well on course for the three points, and Coventry were left to rue their missed chances. If I was being objective, I would probably say that they deserved at least a point. But I'm not; we took our chances, and they didn't, so we deserved to win!

We now have nearly a fortnight before our next Championship match as it's the FA Cup 3rd round next Saturday. I must admit I'm struggling to work up much enthusiasm for our home game against Birmingham. I know that they are in the Premiership, but we played them twice last season and in a pre-season friendly in the summer, so it's not very exciting. I can't see the crowd being very big for this one, especially as the tickets are so expensive and people being out of pocket after Christmas. For me it would cost £40 including travel expenses, and I am not sure I can justify that for a match that I'm not that interested in. My mind is firmly focussed on the West Brom match six days later, which is being televised live on Sky on a Friday night. I bet Sky are really happy at the way things have turned out as whoever wins this game will be second at the end of it. It will be interesting to see how Davies approaches this match given the prize on offer. Will he want to go all out for the three points or will he be content with a draw? If we can get anything from the Hawthorns, it will be a brilliant result after all, and if we carry on playing as well as we are in the second half of the campaign, I think we have every chance of pipping the Baggies, or dare I say it, even Newcastle to automatic promotion in May. We are going along just nicely, and it's not where we are now, but at the end of the season that matters. My gut feeling is we're going to do it!