The Leicester said the better

Leicester fans will no doubt be gloating to the high heavens about getting one over their biggest rival (they're not ours), but for Forest it was just another poor performance against a side which was hovering just above the relegation zone.

True, Leicester under the new management of Sven-Göran-Eriksson had recently experienced a turnaround in their fortunes, but that was no excuse for Forest's insipid second half performance which failed to match their display in the first 45 minutes. Leicester deservedly walked off with the three points thanks to Andy King who scored an hour into the match. That proved to be the only goal, but Forest were thankful to Lee Camp for stopping the scoreline from being much more humiliating. In fact he, and Luke Chambers, who made two off-the-line clearances, were the only two players to emerge with any real credit. Whether it was down to the cold weather, a virus running through the squad, or big game nerves, Forest never really got going and didn't seem interested in the fact that three points would lift them into fifth place.

For Leicester the Forest game is their biggest of the season, but as the fans frequently reminded the home fans last night, 'we only hate Derby'. But still, even though Derby is of course the big one, it still hurts a little bit more losing to the Foxes, because they hate us so much and it's not nice losing to a team that hates you. At least we can say we deserved to lose, though. Defeat would have been much harder to take if we had warranted something from it.

Many people might have been wondering why new loan signings Marcus Tudgay and Aaron Ramsey were only named among the substitutes, but Billy Davies insisted that they needed more time training before being thrown in at the deep end. We got to see Ramsey make his first appearance as a late substitute, but he didn't really impress me much. I don't really see the point in bringing in players, no matter how good they are, just for one month so they can get some match fitness. What happens if we start playing a lot better with him in the team and then he goes back again? It will only dampen morale. On the other hand, if Ramsey can be persuaded to stay a bit longer, it might help us to reach the play-offs.

As for Tudgay, well time will tell if he turns out to be an adequate replacement for Dexter Blackstock, who as a result of suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury last week, is now facing at least a year on the sidelines. Tudgay has a similar goalscoring ratio of one in four games to Blackstock, but he has not been in the best of form this year with Sheffield Wednesday, only scoring twice in 15 games. Still, I'm not going to write him off before he's even pulled on a Forest shirt. We are going to have to hope he can come up with the goods, because the thought of Dele Adebola leading our forward line for the next five months is not a palatable one.