Points alone won't win any prizes

I am getting bored of drawing all the time, but I was happy to take a point last night as we were lucky not to be three or four goals down at half time.

Sheffield United were the trickiest team we've come up against so far this season, which was quite surprising considering their faltering form in recent weeks. They completely overran our five-man midfield and caused our defence a huge amount of problems. Luke Chambers, who arguably had one of his best games in a Forest shirt on Saturday against Swansea, gave one of his worst performances as a centre back last night. He looked incredibly nervous as if he'd never played in that position before. I know Billy Davies is very fond of him, but I can definitely see Kelvin Wilson being recalled at Doncaster this weekend.

United took the lead just six minutes into the game thanks to a Richard Cresswell header which came as a result of an in-swinging free kick. That dented Forest's confidence somewhat as the Blades sliced their way through the midfield and came close several times to making their lead more comfortable. Forest were indebted to Lee Camp that the scoreline remained respectable at half time, and as Forest had at least looked threatening going forward there was good reason to be hopeful of a second half turnaround.

Forest continued to struggle to create clear-cut chances after the break as United remained resilient, out hustling the midfield which seemed a bit too overcrowded with three central players in there. Davies finally realised that his system was not working and brought on Dele Adebola for the remaining half hour to support Dexter Blackstock who had been really struggling as a lone striker. And less than ten minutes later the Reds found themselves back on level terms when captain Paul McKenna unleashed a fierce 25-yard shot into the back of the net. That goal really rejuvenated Forest and with the crowd behind them they suddenly looked the team more likely to go on to win the game. But their final ball was still deserting them despite the change in formation and they settled for just a point, which on reflection was a very fair result.

Hero of the hour McGugan steals the limelight again

I was feeling very depressed about Forest a few weeks ago, thinking that we were going to have an awful season amid all the furore surrounding the lack of new signings. But if recent performances are anything to go by, there's no need to hang ourselves yet.

The first 45 minutes against Swansea were probably the best I've seen them play this season. It took them only ten minutes to open the scoring, albeit from the penalty spot when Dexter Blackstock was felled by goalkeeper Dorus De Vries, and Lewis McGugan blasted the ball past him, who the home support felt was lucky to still be on the pitch, having received a yellow card instead of a red. Forest looked to add more goals as they continued to pour forward in numbers. Paul Anderson seemed to have a point to prove against his former side, whose supporters heckled him last season. He terrorised the Swansea defence constantly with his electrifying pace, and he was almost rewarded for his efforts when he saw a close-range shot parried away.

For the first 15 minutes of the second half, Swansea were dominating possession and Forest seemed a bit lost. Their slender lead was suddenly looking precarious, but Swansea were left to ponder on what might have been as Forest doubled their lead out of nothing on the stroke of the hour thanks to man of the moment, McGugan, whose remit appears to be only to score goals of the finest quality. He beat two defenders before lobbing an audacious chip past the stranded De Vries. That goal sucked all the spirit out of Swansea's attempted comeback and they were never the same after that as Forest began to look more comfortable again. Substitute Radoslaw Majewski put the result beyond reasonable doubt when he raced on to a through ball to net his first goal of the season with six minutes remaining plus stoppage time.

There was time for Swansea to nab a late consolation when the Forest defence was caught napping. Billy Davies said he was disappointed that they failed to keep a clean sheet, but the most important thing is to get in a winning habit, and with two wins in three games, we can definitely say that things are looking up for Forest. It's worth pointing out that we actually have three more points than we did at the same stage last year!

Well, at least we're not losing...

We may have had a pretty slow start to the season – we tend to every year – but it could be a lot worse. The draw at Hull was the fifth of the campaign so far, although our second half performance perhaps deserved something more. We made Hull, who were relegated from the Premiership last season, look very ordinary, and in the second 45 minutes Lee Camp was seldom tested.

Neither team impressed the Sky TV pundits in the first half. Forest really struggled to string passes together, but whatever Billy Davies said to them at the break seemed to do the trick as they were suddenly looking a whole lot more menacing up front. Both Luke Chambers and Rob Earnshaw went close with headers, and Earnshaw did in fact put the ball in the net only for it to be ruled offside. Having chalked off their first away win of the season in mid-week at Preston, Forest were very happy with a point. Their away record in 2010 has been atrocious to put it mildly, and the clean sheet was in fact their first on their travels since last Boxing Day at Watford. My worry was that our awful away form would continue into this season and we'd be relying too much on our home form to keep away from the relegation zone. I can't envisage being as good at home as we were last year, so it's just as well that we're picking up points outside Nottingham.

Hopefully we will start winning at the City Ground soon, and with two home games coming up against Swansea and Sheffield United, we have the perfect opportunity to find some consistency and make some progress up the table.

An away win?! Er, what's that again?

At flamin' last! Forest have not only won their first game of the season, but they've finally ended their long search for a victory away from home thanks to hero of the hour Lewis McGugan who scored two excellent goals in the second half as the Reds came from behind to win at Preston.

Before the match the odds that Forest would leave Deepdale with three points seemed stacked against them. They had not tasted victory on their travels since January 8th, and their last win at Preston had been some sixty years ago. People could have been forgiven for being apprehensive about the Reds' chances. But an interesting team selection, which saw Billy Davies hand McGugan a rare start as part of a five-man midfield, playing just behind lone-striker Dexter Blackstock, paid off as Forest dominated virtually the whole of the first half.

But surprisingly, although perhaps not untypically, Forest found themselves behind at half time when Preston scored out of nothing a couple of minutes before the break. Blackstock was the culprit when he squandered possession in midfield and Paul Perry fed the ball to Jon Parkin who slotted the ball past Lee Camp to give his side a very undeserved lead. Forest, though, only had themselves to blame for not making the most of their dominance.

Thankfully Forest did get their reward in the second half, and it was thanks to two individual moments of brilliance from McGugan in a 15-minute spell. The equaliser came in the 69th minute when McGugan ran past several defenders before despatching a ferocious shot from 20 yards out past the helpless Preston goalkeeper. And little over 12 minutes later McGugan capped a fine performance with an equally exquisite strike when he connected with Chris Cohen's cross to fire another long-range effort into the net to give Forest a deserved lead and set them on their way to their first win of the campaign.

Although McGugan was undoubtedly the hero of the evening, Camp's contribution should not be forgotten either. In the dying moments of the game he made a flying save to deny Preston a last-gasp equaliser. That would have been very cruel and very harmful to our morale. This victory, although very early in the season, could turn out to be hugely significant as it should boost our confidence no end and now that the search for that elusive away win has finished, it will hopefully make the players feel much more relaxed and we will continue to grow in confidence from hereon in.

Doughty's spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar

I have to come clean and admit that earlier in the week I seriously considered not going to the Millwall game. I felt so despondent about the goings-on - or should I say lack thereof – behind the scenes regarding incoming transfers that I just felt completely empty at the thought of trudging up to Nottingham for a whole day just to watch another insipid excuse for a performance.

I am so glad I changed my mind. Forest were anything but poor, and it wasn't even bad finishing that was to blame for another failed attempt at winning. We had plenty of shots on target, but the Millwall goalkeeper earned his money, and despite being far and away the better side, we had to content ourselves with a point.

Still, a point is better than none at all. Millwall had snatched a very early lead, and I thought that there was a miserable afternoon ahead of us, but I think the Forest fans played a huge part in dictating the course of events. They could easily have sat back and moaned, but from the moment that Steve Morison's fourth-minute header glanced past Lee Camp, they got right behind the team, and the players couldn't help but feel encouraged, putting in an excellent 90 minutes.

All the pre-match talk of protests against Nigel Doughty and Mark Arthur seemed to have been forgotten and all the supporters were concerned about was the pursuit of three points. It would have been a huge injustice if Millwall had walked off with the win, so thank heavens that we did at least get some reward thanks to Dexter Blackstock who made up for a missed penalty earlier by heading an 80th-minute equaliser when he latched on to Chris Cohen's cross. It did look a rather soft goal from a Millwall point of view, but nobody could say that Forest didn't deserve it. It's just a shame that we couldn't go on and win the game. It would have been very nice to notch up our first victory of the season ahead of two tough away trips to Preston and Hull.

Last season it took us until the eighth game to get a win, and I fear it's going to take a similar kind of run before we get one this term. It makes me very anxious because the longer we go without victory, the more our confidence will dissipate. Morale is pretty low as it is with the lack of new faces, and with such a small squad, injuries to any of our key players could cause us big problems. I've noticed that we are picking up more injuries than last season, and that has to be down to a lack of fitness. Perhaps Billy Davies' coaching staff have not been working as hard as they, like everyone else, have felt less motivated amidst all the negativity.

Nigel Doughty and Mark Arthur have never been very popular at Forest at the best of times, and this week the anti-feeling reached a tipping point. The failure to make any permanent signings before the transfer window slammed shut has infuriated the supporters. The squad is so thin it's positively anorexic. Apart from having no cover for injured players, it's not good to have a lack of competition. Players know they are going to make the line-up no matter what, so why even bother trying? And the squad is made up of players clearly not up to the standard of the Championship. Players like Matt Thornhill, Gareth McCleary and Dele Adebola should all be plying their trade in the lower Leagues.

The lack of communication from the Club has been a long-standing bugbear for Forest fans for over a decade, and we've gradually become accustomed to it. But the silence over the lack of transfer activity was a step too far, and Arthur did eventually come out of hiding and made a video statement on the official website - we didn't even have to pay to watch(!) The most interesting part was when he said that Doughty might seriously consider his future if the fans continued to hurl abuse in his direction. Was that a threat or a promise? Please say it's the latter.