No shame in Cup exit as Forest impress in East London

It seems that when West Ham and Forest meet at Upton Park, you can always guarantee a high-scoring match. The previous two encounters in 2003 and 2004 were 3-2 defeats, as well.

Forest can be very proud of their performance which saw them come from behind to take the lead at one point in the first half. They absolutely dominated the first 45 minutes, recovering quickly from an early setback when Victor Obinna tapped the ball in from a corner in only the 4th minute. But Dele Adebola, who was handed a rare start alongside David McGoldrick, scored for the first time this season when he equalised nearly a quarter of an hour later. From then on Forest applied most of the pressure, and they took a deserved lead five minutes before half time through McGoldrick who bundled the ball over the line following a goalmouth scramble. But no sooner had Forest stopped celebrating when West Ham equalised out of nothing thanks to that man Obinna again, who caught Lee Camp completely unawares when he unleashed a ferocious 25-yard shot straight into the back of the net. Forest were scratching their heads at half time, wondering how on earth the Hammers had managed to score two goals, despite being completely outplayed.

If Forest had kept up their momentum in the second half, they could easily have gone on to cause a minor upset, but they seemed to have run out of gas as the Hammers dominated after the break and went in front early on thanks to a penalty from Obinna, which Joel Lynch had given away after felling Winston Reid. After that, Forest were very much second best, but they went home with their heads held high, knowing that they had put in a brave effort. It would be nice to win the FA Cup one day, but for now it is hardly a priority, and we do not really need more fixtures clogging up an already saturated schedule.

The ball is now in your court, Mr Doughty

After all the excitement of Saturday's epic win at Pride Park, it was always going to be rather hard for the players to motivate themselves for the match against Bristol City, but while it was a scrappy game with not too much good football being played, the players got on with the job professionally and walked away with another win thanks to an early second half goal from Luke Chambers.

The chances of Bristol City causing an upset and ending Forest's long unbeaten home record looked next to nil with just one win in their last eight matches, but they did look threatening on the counter attack and there were a few hairy moments in the first half as Forest struggled to get to grips with the match. City had come with a game plan to frustrate Forest and stop them from playing football, and it certainly worked in the first half, as the Reds struggled to string passes together. But City were forced to change their tactics after the break as Forest took an early lead when Chambers pounced to head in from a Chris Cohen free kick, just three minutes into the half. But the fact that they were now chasing the game did not mean that City were exposed at the back. They looked very capable of snatching an equaliser, but fortunately Forest defended well to snuff out the threat and hold on for an important win.

We are now in a great position to challenge for automatic promotion in 5th place, just a point away from second place, still with a game in hand. In many ways we are looking stronger than we did this time last year as we are winning away from home as well. One or two inspired signings may well help us go one better than last season and finally return to the land of milk and honey. Nigel Doughty has said in the past that he will not rest until we are back in the Premiership, so now it's time to put up or shut up. He will not be forgiven if he blows it again.

Tell me mam to put the champagne on ice. We've beaten Derby twice!

What a sweet, delicious feeling it was walking away from Pride Park yesterday afternoon, having completed the double over our hated rivals for the first time in twenty years. Life just doesn't get much better than this – not in my opinion anyway.

I've been to Pride Park twice before, and on both occasions endured a miserable time, so it was a great joy to finally at the third attempt see Forest win, and I will make sure I savour it, because I really did fear that a defeat would tarnish the memory of thrashing them at our place just three weeks ago.

But really I shouldn't have anything to be scared about because all the pressure was on Nigel Clough and Derby, as they were enduring a wretched run of form with seven defeats in their last nine games, whereas in virtually a complete reversal, Forest had won six of their last seven and looking like strong challengers for the play-offs, if not automatic promotion. The form guides pointed to a Forest win, but still haunted from my last experience almost a year ago at Pride Park, I would have been more than happy with a point, so to take all three was absolutely fantastic.

There are so many memories to take away from it from the jeering of 'non-League Nigel' to the wild cheering when Robbie Savage was substituted early in the second half, which as I later saw on the highlights on the BBC was followed by one mighty strop in the dugout. You couldn't put a price on that! And Fat Boy Commons got a similar reception when he too was pulled out of the action, towards the end. Forest were by then leading 1-0, thanks to Robbie Earnshaw, who had earlier come on as a replacement for Marcus Tudgay. The 4,000-strong away following was sent into raptures in the 78th minute when some good counter-attack football resulted in Earnshaw striking the ball past Stephen Bywater from the edge of the D to net his third goal against the Rams this season, a hat-trick of sorts some might say.

Although for most of the game Forest had looked comfortable, Derby had gone close before Earnshaw's goal, when their new signing from Notts County Ben Davies produced a diving save out of Lee Camp. And Camp was again a hero when he stopped Chris Porter's powerful header from giving Derby a late equaliser.

When the referee somehow managed to find five minutes of injury time, it gave the Rams real hope, but when they had Dean Moxley shown the red card for a second bookable offence in the closing stages, it knocked what stuffing they had left out of them, and Forest clung on to claim their first ever victory at Pride Park, much to the sheer delight of everyone of a red and white persuasion. 'You're getting sacked in the morning', the Forest fans chanted towards Clough, who twenty years ago was a Trent End darling, but thanks to his petulant behaviour in recent encounters between the two sides is now quite a hate figure. To think I was really upset when he got the job at Derby two years ago, thinking he and Stuart Pearce had always been destined to be a formidable managerial duo at the City Ground. Non-League Nigel is showing that he is well and truly out of his depth in the Championship, and I for one am loving watching him squirm!

Smash-and-grab Reds break Pompey's hearts

How on earth did we win yesterday's match against Portsmouth? We were playing really poorly and I was convinced that our long unbeaten home record was finally about to come to an end, and consequently it would be the first match that I had attended in almost a year, believe it or not, which I had seen Forest lose (well, apart from the play-offs – but, er, they don't count).

I wasn't feeling particularly well, having suffered from a nasty cough for the past week or so, and so having to experience that horrible sick feeling you get when your team loses, would have left me really down in the dumps, especially with there being nothing good on the telly to cheer me up when I got home. So thank god that we got the equaliser, deservedly or not, three minutes from time. The fact that it was an own goal summed up Forest's poor performance, but I was more than happy to accept it and just have the match finished there and then. A point in the circumstances was very welcome, even if we had been strong favourites to win the game with Portsmouth lying low in the bottom half of the table. But we Forest fans have got used to being incredibly spoilt lately, and right in the last minute of four minutes of injury time, Lewis McGugan, who had earlier come on as a substitute, crossed the ball in and new permanent signing Marcus Tudgay tucked the ball into the net to leave Portsmouth well and truly gutted. It's not as if Forest had been putting a lot of pressure on them, so to lose two goals in the last three minutes was quite shocking from their point of view.

The Reds had found themselves behind after 26 minutes when Chris Gunter slipped over in midfield, and lost the ball to David Nugent, who after a good run fed Kanu, who then beat Lee Camp before firing the ball home despite Forest's best efforts to scramble the ball clear. Neither side had been playing particularly well, although they did have the excuse of the strong wind making playing conditions quite difficult. Portsmouth, though, looked comfortable once they had their lead and seemed quite content to sit back as they didn't really feel Forest were much of a threat. But they took their eye off the ball in the last few minutes as Forest, acutely aware that their proud home record was about to be broken, finally upped their game and Ibrahima Sonko's own goal which came as a result of a McGugan cross got Forest an equaliser out of seemingly nothing, and then deep in injury time up popped Tudgay to net his fourth goal since joining the Club. It's a pity that some fans had left the game and missed both Forest's goals. I can never understand why people do that. It's like going to the cinema and walking out of a good film ten minutes from the end. Granted, this match was no thriller, but the exciting ending somehow made the boring bits worth it.

Have Forest got their away act together at last?

2011 has started very well for Forest on their travels. The last-gasp win over Preston in the FA Cup was their second away victory in less than a week following last Monday's win at Ipswich.

Having started last year in spectacular fashion, winning 3-1 at leaders West Brom, one would have been forgiven for thinking that there was no stopping us and we would canter to promotion. But that turned out to be our last win away of the season, and we had to wait until September before we would record another one in the League...against yesterday's opponents, funnily enough.

Preston were out to impress their new manager Phil Brown, and for 50 minutes they held the lead given to them by a long-range Darren Carter effort. But Paul Anderson, who is often criticised for his lack of final ball, showed no lack of compsure this time as he made the use of his pace, racing clear before firing home the equaliser for Forest five minutes into the second half. Just as the prospect of a replay back at the City Ground loomed on the horizon, and yet another fixture to cram into a busy schedule, that man with the midas touch popped up again at the crucial moment. Super Luke Chambers struck home from a corner just a couple of minutes from time to send Forest through into round four and set up a clash with relegation-threatened Premiership side West Ham in East London. Forest will certainly fancy their chances of causing a minor upset there.

Doughty must not waste this window of opportunity

It gives me a really warm glow of satisfaction to do the double over Roy Keane's team! Forest's slender 1-0 win at relegation-threatened Ipswich completed a very satisfactory Christmas programme which yielded seven points out of nine and sets us up very nicely to mount a promotion challenge in the second half of the campaign.

Damien Delaney's own goal just before half time proved to be enough as Ipswich were thwarted by a combination of bad finishing and good goalkeeping by Lee Camp. Forest ended the match with one man extra as Ipswich had Grant Leadbitter sent off for a harsh tackle on Paul Anderson in the dying moments of the match.

The win puts Forest in seventh place with a couple of games in hand on many teams above them. They are now just six points away from second-placed Norwich City, and now that they seem to have sorted out their away form which robbed them of automatic promotion last term, the chances of playing in the Premiership next season look very strong provided this good run of form we are on does not turn out to be just a purple patch.

Hopefully we will be seeing two or three additions to the squad in the January transfer window, particularly as we have now lost the services of Aaron Ramsey who has returned to Arsenal after being recalled, and left back Ryan Bertrand is out injured for a few weeks. Forest's failure to make signings in the summer must surely put the pressure on Nigel Doughty to put the hands in his pockets this month, otherwise Billy Davies will not be a happy man and with plenty of job vacancies opening up following a spate of managerial sackings, Davies might just be tempted to go elsewhere.

Hungover Reds rescue a point to preserve home record

In a perverse kind of way I was glad that Barnsley took the lead first, because if I'm being honest, after all the excitement of Wednesday night, I was finding it hard to muster up much enthusiasm for this game.

I suspect that the players felt the same. Thrashing Derby 5-2 was still very fresh in their minds, and what with it being New Year's Day, I did think an unexpected result was very much a likely outcome. I remember listening to Nathan Tyson saying on the radio that their unbeaten home record was very vulnerable as the players had to get their heads out of the clouds following the wonderful win over the Rams. Motivating themselves for a home clash with a boring team like Barnsley would be a difficult task, and I can't say I blame them for not being up for it. That's why – please forgive me – I am glad that we were losing, because in the end it turned into a very exciting match and we all left the City Ground really happy that we had rescued a point when we had been playing so badly. Barnsley had every right to feel robbed, but if they were told they would earn a draw against a side that had scored eight goals in their previous two home encounters, they would have thought it was Christmas all over again.

The fact that a player who hadn't scored for nearly seven years was the one to break the deadlock really summed up Forest's first half performance rather nicely. Marcus Tudgay, who just three days earlier won the hearts of the Forest fans with his two goals against the Rams, committed the sin of giving the ball away in midfield, and left back Matt Hill picked it up and struck past Lee Camp from 12 yards out to give Barnsley a shock lead. And by half time they thoroughly deserved to be winning as Forest appeared to be suffering from a New Year's Day hangover.

Hopes that the Reds could come out in the second half were quickly quashed as Barnsley nabbed a second goal five minutes into the half thanks to former Forest player Andy Gray's header. That was the cue for a double substitution as Tyson and Aaron Ramsey entered the action, but their impact was not immediately obvious as Forest continued to play very poorly. But that was until the 68th minute when Chris Gunter made a good run into the penalty area and was brought down. Louis McGugan duly stepped up to take the resultant spot-kick, and this raised hopes that this might inject a bit of life into the Reds' display.

Sure enough, buoyed on by an enthusiastic crowd, Forest got their act together and an equaliser which for so long had looked virtually impossible, suddenly seemed almost inevitable. The introduction of Dele Adebola helped as Forest poured forward. Ten minutes from time, they got the goal they had been craving when Tyson pounced on a loose ball to fire home the leveller, much to the relief of the Forest fans who were half-resigned to defeat earlier.

God knows what a home defeat against Barnsley on the first day of the new year would have done to morale. It might have been written off as one of those things, but on the other hand, it could easily have sapped at our confidence. The longer our record goes on, the more likely it will be broken with every passing match, but it would have been a terrible shame to lose so close to the win over Derby. We haven't had long enough to bask in the glory of beating them, and a defeat would have left a bitter aftertaste in our mouths.