If we can't afford new players, at least have the guts to tell us, Mr Doughty

Forest have made a very slow start to the season. We've played four games in League and Cup so far and have yet to taste victory. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Last year it took us until the eighth match to record a win, and once that was achieved, the confidence just grew and grew. Hopefully it won't take us as long to notch up our first three points, but if the season follows exactly the same pattern as the last, I don't think there'll be too many complaints at the end of it.

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the performance at Reading. I really thought Forest would be lacklustre and disillusioned given all the rumours of unrest behind the scenes doing the rounds at the moment. Moreover, the late withdrawl of captain Paul McKenna, who was injured in the warm-up, was something else we could have done without. But we played really well and were it not for Reading's goalkeeper Adam Federici making a string of stupendous saves, we would have won the match. We really outplayed them at times. The three-pronged attack of Paul Anderson, Dexter Blackstock and Rob Earnshaw caused Reading all sorts of problems from the start as Forest dominated the early proceedings.

And yet, as so often happens to Forest these days, they conceded very much against the run of play when Alex Pearce gave his side an undeserved lead when he scored from close range. But Forest pressed and pressed, and really should have been on level terms when Federici somehow kept out a powerful header from Anderson. But the Reading goalkeeper turned from a hero into a villain four minutes into the second half when he made the fatal error of rolling the ball out into the path of Earnshaw, who then had the easiest tasks of poking the ball straight into an empty net. They might have relied on a huge slice of fortune to achieve their equaliser, but nobody could argue that Forest did not deserve it.

While it had been mostly all Forest in the first half, either side could have nicked the three points after the break as both goalkeepers were kept busy. In the end a point-a-piece was a very fair reflection of how the game had gone. If we play as well as that for the majority of the time, we may well be serious promotion candidates. It's really frustrating to see how close we are to becoming a really good team and day after day hear no news whatsoever from Forest of new players coming in. If we can't afford them, then fair enough, but at least have the guts to tell us please, because all this uncertainty is doing nobody any good.