Travel sickness must be overcome if we want promotion

I told you I wasn't looking forward to the trip to Leicester. I suspected we would be in for a really awkward afternoon, but even though losing to a good team like them is certainly no disgrace, the fact that it was a heavy defeat against a club that sees us as their biggest rivals is rather galling.

I wanted to get out of Leicester as quickly as I could after the game, and had an outside chance of catching my train back to Bedford at 17.30. I ran so fast that I was worried I would collapse from exhaustion when I boarded the train, about half a minute before it started moving out of the station. I was that desperate to get away from the hectoring home supporters that the thought didn't cross my mind that I might end up sitting next to one of them! Thankfully he was very friendly and kept insisting that Forest would still nick automatic promotion, but I told him it was more likely that we would be meeting the Foxes in the play-offs. Can you imagine a Forest-Leicester final?! That would be one red-hot (and blue) atmosphere, and I think after this, whatever the outcome, the perceived rivalry between the two Clubs would become a lot more tangible in the future. Even though I am not all that bothered if we go up or not – I don't believe we are ready for it – if it did come down to a Forest-Foxes showdown I would be feeling absolutely devastated if we lost to them. We would never ever hear the last of it , and what's more we would no longer be the top club in the East Midlands. Let's hope it doesn't come to this, but you have to admit that it is pretty likely that we will play them again this season.

It sounds like I am dismissing our automatic promotion chances by talking about the play-offs, and you may be right about that. Our away form has drastically nosedived from being 19 games unbeaten a month ago to losing four on the trot. Our home form remains very good, but that is not enough to keep us in the top two. We need to perform away as well, and at the moment we are really struggling. Billy Davies has got his tactics wrong recently and many of our players are showing signs of fatigue and loss of form. We have not been able to live up to the high standards we showed at West Brom back in January. In fact we haven't scored a single goal, never mind got a point. Why this is, I don't know. I had a feeling that as soon as the unbeaten run ended we would then go on a losing streak, and so it has proved. That run was down to us being full of confidence, and now it has gone we look like an average team on foreign turf.

I don't know what went wrong in the second half yesterday as I thought we looked in control before the break. We were the better side just about, but our inability to keep the ball was hugely frustrating and as a result there weren't many clear-cut chances. Our best opportunity came from an otherwise unanimated Robbie Earnshaw, whose overhead kick went wide. But Leicester themselves were no great shakes up front and resorted to long-ball. There were certainly no signs of the Foxes going on to win by such a comfortable margin.

But Forest were forced into a half-time substitution when Nathan Tyson replaced Paul Anderson, who apparently was physically sick at half time. That certainly explained his poor performance - he seemed incapable of beating anyone. Davies said later that there was a virus doing the rounds in the squad, which might seem a bit of a convenient excuse for the defeat. Unfortunately Tyson was as much use as a sieve carrying water, and Leicester began to assert their authority. Forest's cause was not helped by the referee, who seemed to be scared of awarding anything in our favour. Leicester took the lead mid-way through the half, and when they made it 2-0 direct from a free kick ten or so minutes from time, there seemed no way back at all for Forest, who were looking jaded and resigned to losing. Just a couple of minutes later the Foxes put the game beyond all reasonable doubt to make it a resounding 3-0, and thus condemn us to our heaviest loss of the season. The news that Derby had also lost was a small consolation, although the fact that it was at our main promotion rivals West Brom was greeted by unusually muted cheers.

Record-breaking Reds still looking good for promotion

After being stuck on my regular Saturday train for the best part of three hours yesterday evening, I could have been in a stinking mood when I got home if Forest had lost against Middlesbrough. It could easily have been 'one of those days' where absolutely nothing goes right, and at times during the game when Forest couldn't appear to pass to save their lives, it did indeed seem that a defeat might be a strong possibility.

It was a very boring game with few moments of genuine quality from either side. It seems that lately away teams have come to the City Ground with a game plan to stop us playing good football. Opposition managers are well aware that we are very capable of thrashing their teams by four or five goals, as underlined in our performances against Doncaster, Leicester and QPR, but recently we have been forced to grind out results on our home turf, scrapping our way to slender 1-0 victories. It means that our defence has had to work a lot harder and keeping clean sheets suddenly becomes imperative rather than merely a bonus. Luckily Kelvin Wilson and Wes Morgan were once again excellent, and Lee Camp didn't let us down when called upon in the latter stages as we fought to hold on after Chris Cohen's 72nd minute opener following a brilliant piece of counter-attacking football involving Dexter Blackstock and Raddy Majewski.

By winning their ninth consecutive home game in one season, Forest broke a club record which had stood for some thirty years! No not even the great Brian Clough managed to achieve such a feat. And we were rewarded for the achievement by going back into second place, albeit possibly for only a day. It would be nice to think we could make it ten against Swansea in a fortnight as that's a good round figure, but Swansea will be tough to beat. In fact thay have lost fewer games than us this season, and they won at Derby this weekend. In the meantime, we must attempt to sort out our away form if we are to be taken seriously as automatic promotion contenders. It will be a tough task getting anything from Leicester who, notwithstanding their draw at lowly Plymouth on Saturday, have been in very good form lately, and what with it being a huge local derby (well, for them more than us) they are really going to be playing out of their skins. I can't say I am looking forward to it all that much, but you never know Forest might surprise us!

Forest back on form as bullying Blades get their just deserts

I really wasn't looking forward to the Sheffield United game. On the back of two away defeats, I thought that a Forest side low on confidence would really struggle against a strong physical side. But to my surprise, we not only earned three points at home, making it eight straight wins at the City Ground, but we played some really good football as well.

When I heard the team news, I felt a lot more confident that we would do well as there were recalls for Paul Anderson, Rob Earnshaw and Dexter Blackstock. All three were rested for the Doncaster game at the weekend, and although he was criticised for it by some fans, perhaps Billy Davies felt vindicated by the fact that we started the game really full of energy. Most pleasing of all was that Paul McKenna and Raddy Majewski rediscovered their form and were at the heart of everything Forest did in midfield.

It took us all of four minutes to open the scoring when Earnshaw pounced from close range to tuck the ball over the line after Anderson's header had gone close. That turned out to be the only goal of the game as Forest failed to take advantage of their first half superiority and add to their lead. The second half was a lot more tense as United changed their approach and started to be a lot more physical, making it virtually impossible for us to play much free-flowing football. They resorted to dirty tactics, fouling our players every time we got forward. In fact we were only a minute or so into the second 45 minutes when the Blades were reduced to ten men for an off-the-ball incident involving Darius Henderson. He was alledged to have elbowed a Forest player, but not many witnessed the incident. In some ways, though, the red card probably did them more of a favour than us, as United realised they were really up against it and worked a lot harder as a result. In stoppage time they came close to grabbing an equaliser, but fortunately James Perch, who otherwise had a bit of a poor game at left back, made a great late tackle, and we managed to hold on by the skin of our teeth. There was more good news at the end of the game when news filtered through that West Brom had dropped a couple of points at Cardiff, and therefore we had reduced their lead over us to just two points. It seems certain at this stage that we will get a play-off spot at the very least as we are now some 13 points clear of seventh place, and it will take a very bad run of form to stop us now. The good thing is we have the bouncebackability factor. We could easily have got stuck in a rut after losing three in four games, but our performance last night showed that we are third in the Championship because we are a good team and totally deserve to be where we are.

Don't disrespect Davies, or he will walk

I know Forest fans are notorious for being rather fickle, but to start booing Billy Davies as soon as we hit a blip is quite frankly pathetic.

Yes, we are playing pretty badly at the moment, losing our last three away games, but did you really expect us to be fantastic all season? Sooner or later we were bound to hit a stumbling block, but if the fans start getting on the manager and players' backs so quickly we will have less of a chance of getting out of the rut and start things going again.

Admittedly Billy's team selection for the trip to Doncaster was rather odd. Why on earth was Paul Anderson left out of the squad altogether? He hasn't been playing well recently, but it's not as if we had somebody better to replace him. In fact Nathan Tyson was awful, and if rumours are to believed, Anderson was not happy at being dropped.

The decision to play Dele Adebola up front on his own and leave Dexter Blackstock and Rob Earnshaw on the bench was another bone of contention with the Forest fans. Why be so negative against a good passing side like Doncaster? If we had played 4-4-2 like we do at home, we might have had a good chance of winning. It's as if Davies doesn't want us to get promoted. I always thought he was bluffing when he said that we were not ready to go up. Now I'm beginning to think he actually means it. Some people are saying on the forums that Davies deliberately fielded a weakened side to make a point to the board about squad depth. He keeps saying that certain players need resting to keep them fresh, but the fact is we need them out there for every game. I don't see why not they can't handle two games in a week. I don't think the players are all that happy about being 'rested'. They need to be playing regularly so they can discover their form. Earnshaw suffered badly from being constantly dropped, but once he got a run in the team he was back to his best. He couldn't even get on as a substitute yesterday. He and Blackstock might have made all the difference at Doncaster, but both were left out of the starting line-up. Adebola can be a good option to throw on in the last few minutes to see out a game, but playing him up front on his own is playing into the opposition's hands. Doncaster must have been delighted when they saw our line-up with players like Earnshaw, Blackstock and Anderson all missing. After the poor performance at Coventry on Tuesday, you couldn't blame Davies for wanting to change things around a bit, but the team he picked harked back to the bad old days under Colin Calderwood: i.e clueless. The midfield players were mostly dire. Tyson had an awful game, and yet he was the third player to be substituted, and Lewis McGugan failed to make the most of a rare chance to impress alongside Paul McKenna, whose performances just lately have really deteriorated. The only player to emerge with any real credit was Chris Cohen. But it was not much good him playing well when everyone else was rubbish.

It was not much of a surprise when Billy Sharp put Doncaster in the lead half an hour into the game. And the way Forest were playing you couldn't see a way back even at that early stage. It just didn't seem to be their day, and the state of the pitch certainly didn't help matters. When crowd favourite Radoslaw Majewski was later replaced by David McGoldrick, some of the Forest fans voiced their disapproval, which didn't go down too well with Davies, who after the match said that he felt he had been 'disrespected'. You want to watch it, Forest fans. Davies is not a man to be messed with. Once things start going badly, he can become very arrogant. We have one of the finest managers outside the top flight, and it would be an awful shame if he was to become unpopular with the fans over a few petty issues.

Faltering Forest could do with one or two fresh faces

It's fair to say that Forest have gone a little bit off the boil recently. They have not played well in the last few games at all, and after losing for the first time since September last week, their confidence seems to have been sapped somewhat. Last night's 1-0 reversal at Coventry City was their second defeat in three games, and their third successive loss away from home if you include the Birmingham Cup game.

We were dominating the opening twenty minutes, but then Coventry scored completely against the run of play, taking advantage of some poor defending. Freddy Eastwood, the player who once said that Forest would be a sideways move from Southend, was the inevitable goalscorer. It was such a shame as until then Forest had looked the much more likely team to score, but the goal settled Coventry, and although they came close to equalising almost immediately through Joe Garner, who was making a rare appearance out on the right wing, they lost their way a little bit, and no amount of tinkering with the team seemed to make a difference.

The only good news of the night was that Newcastle lost 3-0 away from home. It's a pity it had to be against Derby of all teams, but just for one day we won't begrudge them their victory. It seems their win over us last week has really galvanised them. West Brom, as expected, won their home game against Scunthorpe, but we're still only four points away from both first and second place, so all is not lost in our quest to go up automatically.

I wasn't too depressed about losing last night because we can't expect them to be brilliant all season. Most good teams have a blip at some point during the season. Just look at what's happened to Leeds. They thought they had promotion all sewn up in League One, but now they're only four points clear of third place. And don't tell me that Derby are suddenly head and shoulders above Newcastle. See, it happens to all teams. We could probably do with one or two fresh faces on loan to see us through the remaining three months, especially a left back, as James Perch, try as he does, just isn't good enough to play there. It's a pity we couldn't persuade Nicky Shorey to extend his loan with us, rather than join Fulham on loan. But I suppose the lure of Premiership football was just too strong for him. But there must be other decent left backs who are available. Just somebody who plays in that position as a first choice would be a start. It's all very well playing Chris Cohen there, but then we lose him from midfield, and we really need him there. Let's hope that Billy is busy right now trying to bring somebody in, because it could be the difference between us playing in the top flight next season and staying where we are.

Playing badly and winning means one thing: we're a good team!

After surrendering our unbeaten away record last week against our fiercest rivals, it was important that we got back in a winning habit as soon as possible. And although Sheffield Wednesday made life very difficult for us, a Dexter Blackstock strike ten minutes from time secured us our seventh home win in a row, and ensured that we kept the pressure on West Brom and Newcastle.

I was a bit puzzled when I heard that Billy Davies had elected to leave both Radoslaw Majewski and Paul Anderson out of the starting line-up. Davies perhaps felt that Anderson needed a rest and wanted to give Nathan Tyson a run-out, but to omit Majewski as well meant our midfield would be really lacking in creativity. Davies later told us on BBC Radio Nottingham that he left out Majewski because 'his head is not in the right place' due to not knowing whether he is going to earn a permanent contract with us or not. Please Forest do whatever you can to get him to sign permanently. He has been a revelation in midfield this season, and yesterday we really missed him. Even Paul McKenna struggled without him.

As Majewski and Anderson watched on from the bench, we really struggled to get going, and it took a very dubious penalty 25 minutes into the game to lift us out of the doldrums. The referee, who it's got to be said had a bit of a shocker, adjudged that a Wednesday player had hand-balled, even though the ball seemed to only ricochet off his arm. It was a bad decision from a neutral's point of view, and Davies later admitted as much, but it's not as if we haven't been on the receiving end of poor officiating, so it's a case of what goes round comes round. Without that, it was hard to see where Forest were going to find some inspiration.

The second half wasn't much better, but we did improve once Anderson was brought on for Tyson, who wasted his opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the side by doing very little all game. It wasn't much of a surprise when Luke Varney, on loan from Derby, grabbed a deserved equaliser for the Owls with fifteen minutes remaining, but their joy was short-lived as just six minutes later Blackstock scored his second of the afternoon, tapping in from a Chris Cohen free kick to restore our lead. Thankfully that proved to be the winning goal, and we were able to survive five minutes of injury time (though for what, the ref only knows) and hold on for our 15th win of the season, It was just as well too, as both West Brom and Newcastle picked up maximum points at the weekend. We have slipped down into third, but are only a point behind the Baggies, who have now played the same amount of games as us. We are now ten points clear of fourth place, so at the moment the pundits would tell you that the promotion race is between Newcastle, West Brom, and ourselves. One thing is for sure, the last three months of the season are going to be both very exciting and nerve-wracking. Would you expect anything less from Forest?!