Reds can still sneak promotion if they hit form at the right time

It is a pity that so many results went against us yesterday, because drawing at Millwall is not bad at all. It's just the fact that we have lost ground on the automatic promotion places makes it seem like a big setback. But if we win our game in hand at Middlesbrough on Tuesday, we will be very much back in contention.

QPR, Cardiff, Norwich, and Swansea all won, and so we find ourselves in fifth place, just a week after occupying second spot. It goes to show just how tight the division is, and that it's impossible to predict who will go up automatically in May. It seems probable that it will be a team that hits a rich vein of form towards the end of the season. At the moment we've hit a bit of a stumbling block, with just one win in five matches, squandering points against lower-league sides in the process. The defeat at Scunthorpe and the failure to see off Preston at the City Ground could prove to be very damaging when it comes to the end of the campaign. These are the kind of games we should be winning easily, with all due respect to the opposition. That's why I'm not at all convinced that we can beat Middlesbrough, because they are fighting to stay up, and Forest seem to be incapable of dealing with pressure, an issue that has haunted them for years.

This time last week, people were wondering if Forest were capable of winning the Championship, never mind going up in second place, but the poor results lately have seen QPR storm ahead after overcoming their own barren spell. Forest will either go up in second place, or more likely given their recent form have to do it the awkward way through the play-offs. Forest have featured in these three times and never made the final, so why should it be any different this time? I could even forgive them if they got to the final but lost, just as long as I can finally realise my dream of supporting my team at Wembley.

One of those nights for Forest as second spot slips away

What an absolutely gut-wrenching end to the match last night. There we all were, all 28,000 of us, absolutely delighted that Forest had scored what we thought was the winning goal that had kept us in second place, and then with just a few seconds to spare, Preston broke our hearts when they equalised.

Although, on reflection, a draw was a fair result given that at half time we were a goal down and had not been playing well, we were not helped at all by an absolutely atrocious referee who seemed to award free kick after free kick for Preston when no Forest player had been guilty of any wrongdoing. His very poor officiating without a doubt wrecked Forest's game plan, and made for a very frustrating evening for the sell-out crowd, most of whom had taken advantage of the £10-across-the-board offer. They had every reason to feel hopeful of seeing the Reds put on a bit of a show against the division's bottom team on the back of the win against Cardiff, but it just turned out to be one of those nights to forget.

Forest deserved to walk off the pitch at half time a goal down as they had been very poor. True there were a number of key figures missing from the team, but we still should have had enough quality to be able to deal with Preston. I just wish the players had heeded warnings not to treat this game lightly. But that's exactly what they appeared to do as the midfield players especially failed to close Preston down. We really missed Guy Moussi in the middle. Paul McKenna is a good player, but he is not a ball winner like Moussi is, and we really need that kind of player in the team. Moussi's injury which will keep him out for another six weeks at least could turn out to be very significant in our quest for promotion.

I refused to entertain the thought that Forest would lose their proud unbeaten home record against the Championship's worst team so was confident that we would get an equaliser at some point, so when Paul Konchesky equalised with a volley early in the second half, normal business was resumed, and Forest were playing much better and had several good chances to go in front. But a hamstring injury to Konchesky that forced him out of the action left us looking a bit vulnerable at the back as Joel Lynch came on to replace him. We were already severely hampered by injury as it was with Rob Earnshaw and Nathan Tyson both missing.

As the referee's performance went from bad to worse, hopes of Forest snatching a win were beginning to fade, but two minutes into five minutes of injury time Forest were awarded a free kick, which Chris Cohen took and curled it into the back of the net, much to the sheer delight of the Forest fans, who thought we had bagged all three points. But sadly the wild celebrations were a tad premature as the referee managed to add an extra minute – presumably because of the goal – and during that time Preston were able to get an equaliser with what was almost the last kick of the game. Just ten seconds later, Forest would have been second, but now they were back in fourth, two points behind Swansea, who along with their fellow Welshmen, Cardiff, won their game to overtake Forest. At least Leeds and Norwich only drew their home games, but Forest really missed a great opportunity to pull away a bit from the chasing pack, and with two away trips to Millwall and Middlesbrough coming up, it's difficult to be optimistic about them winning at either if they can't even beat Preston on their own patch.

Keep on going, Forest, and promotion will be yours

It would have been a rather bitter pill to swallow if we had been robbed of three points against Cardiff because of a dubious penalty, so thank heavens for Rob Earnshaw who scored against his former side to restore Forest's lead and set us on the way to a huge win over our promotion rivals, which saw us return to second place.

The Forest players were irate when the referee awarded Cardiff a penalty against Paul McKenna little over an hour into the game, and one-time Forest transfer target Peter Whittingham sent Lee Camp completely the wrong way to net his side an equaliser, which cancelled out Wes Morgan's earlier headed goal in the first half. But justice was secured only three minutes later when a great piece of link-up play saw Paul Anderson feed the advancing Earnshaw who buried the ball into the back of the net from 12 yards out to put Forest back in front.

Forest were once again indebted to Camp who made a number of important saves throughout the course of the match, and he would certainly have impressed Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington who had attended the game to observe Camp's performance after he was cleared to play for the country earlier in the week.

There was another good result at Elland Road where two of our promotion rivals Leeds and Norwich fought out a 2-2 draw. That meant that we had indeed secured second spot, and even got closer to QPR, who were held at Preston. We are only five points away from them at the moment with a game in hand, so don't rule us out winning the title just yet! On Tuesday we have what appears to be a very winnable home game against the division's bottom team Preston, who are some 11 points adrift of safety, and therefore probably have virtually given up hope of surviving, but Forest must treat this game just like the Cardiff one, and not for one moment think it will be an easy ride. Sometimes the easiest games on paper turn out to be the hardest, as last week's shock defeat at Scunthorpe proved.

Never mind, Forest, second place can wait for another day

It was quite a shock to the system last night to feel depressed about Forest. Now that sentence in itself is actually quite positive when you think about it, because I am talking about losing being a rare thing, rather than a common occurrence.

Unlike a few people, I never thought the Scunthorpe game would be a walk in the park, despite the fact that they hadn't won a home game since August and were looking down and out and League One bound. Forest didn't exactly have a glowing record against them at Glanford Park, where they had never won, so I was by no means expecting a victory this time. When it comes to the big pressure games, Forest always seem to come unstuck. They could have gone second had they won, but despite their best efforts just could not find a way past the goalkeeper. They had been dominating until Scunthorpe grabbed a goal completely against the run of play twenty minutes into the match when the ball unfortunately went in off Chris Gunter. It was a setback, but the fans had every reason to be confident that the Reds could come back from it.

Alas, it was not to be our night and Scunthorpe claimed a vital three points, and we missed the chance to go second, and in the process used up one of our games in hand. We are still in a great position, though, and with two home games coming up against Cardiff and Preston, this time next week we may well be back in the automatic promotion places.

Luke who's getting all the praise now

I would have been very satisfied to take home a point from QPR if we had all eleven men on the pitch, never mind ten. I really feared the worst when we had Radoslaw Majewski shown a red card for a two-footed tackle, but we showed great determination to recover from that setback and hold on for a well-earned draw.

Sky might have wished they could have billed this game as a battle between the top two, but results conspiring against us on Saturday meant that we had slipped down to fifth ahead of play, although victory at Loftus Road would have seen us close the gap on Rangers to just three points with two games in hand. With just one defeat at home all season, I didn't really rate our chances too much, although having won our last six games nobody had any right to call us underdogs.

Forest certainly began very brightly forcing a number of corners in quick succession, but QPR took the lead after a quarter of an hour had passed when the Forest defence were caught out when Tommy Smith made a good solo run before firing a 25-yard shot past Lee Camp.

The Reds were really up against it five minutes later when Majewski foolishly lunged in at Adel Taarabt and was promptly dismissed by referee Mark Clattenburg. Being notorious for dubious decisions, fans were not best pleased to hear he was officiating, but in this instance he had no choice but to send Majewski off.

I was feeling despondent then thinking the game was over, but Forest responded in the best possible fashion by equalising just three minutes later when David McGoldrick, who won the nod ahead of Rob Earnshaw to partner Marcus Tudgay, saw the ball fly off his leg into the net as a result of a Lewis McGugan free kick. The manner in which the equaliser came about may have been rather lucky, but nobody could argue that we didn't deserve a point as we really defended magnificently to really frustrate QPR and stop them playing.

Luke Chambers' recent solid performances at the heart of our rearguard have won him a lot of praise from Forest fans, but now he is being recognised by the wider football world, winning the Sky Man of the Match award for making a series of crucial blocks. We turned down a bid for him from Birmingham City on transfer deadline day, which says a lot for just how far he has come since he was given the chance to play in his much-preferred central defensive position. If he keeps this kind of performance up for the next three months, he will be a very strong candidate for Player of the Year, especially for his goals contribution at the other end of the pitch. When he was asked to play at right back, he got a lot of stick, but it was not his fault he was played out of position. He could have moaned about it, but he just got on with it without any fuss, and now he is in the best form of his whole career, and the fans are finally beginning to recognise he is a very good player who under the right management will do a great job. Bringing Chambers to the Club was one of the very few good things Colin Calderwood did for us.

Forest just keep on winning, and winning, and winning...

I'm dreading the time when Forest eventually lose a home game. When it happens often, as it did a few years ago, I just became inured to it and a quick shrug of the shoulders would suffice, but having not experienced that feeling, unbelievably, for nearly 18 months (let's not mention the play-offs), it's going to feel very painful when they do lose.

I'm not sure if the fact that we are 34 matches unbeaten makes us more likely to lose the next one, or less. After all the record cannot go on indefinitely, can it? We've had a few scares lately, coming back from two goals down against Barnsley, and coming from behind to beat Portsmouth in the final minute. And Watford were a very difficult team to play against, our defence having to work very hard, but we came through that unscathed and won the three points thanks to Marcus Tudgay who scored in the very first minute.

There may have only been one goal in it, but it was a highly entertaining match and you couldn't take your eyes off it for one second. Forest played some great passing football at times that had the crowd purring with pleasure. It makes me feel like a proud parent when I hear pundits in the media say really good things about us. Even Robbie Savage has been very kind, calling us a fantastic football club. He might be saying it for effect to make himself look good, but I have to admit when he does say things like that, I hate him just a little bit less.

We now find ourselves in a very enviable position of being in second place with two games in hand. We are also top of the form league, having earned six victories in a row. Things are looking very good at the moment, but there are some difficult games coming up in the next few weeks, not least starting with a trip to the leaders QPR next Sunday. If we were to win there, we would be able to catch them if we won both our games in hand, but a draw would be an excellent result, too. Last year we went to West Brom, who were top at the time, and not many people gave us a chance of winning there, but we walked away with a well-deserved 3-1 victory, so anything is possible. If anybody should be frightened, it's QPR, not us.

Forest need the challenge of the Premiership to keep their stars happy

Two things cost us automatic promotion last year – the lack of a decent left back and a crippling inability to win away from home. Both of those issues have been addressed this season with the signing of Paul Konchesky on loan from Liverpool and a huge turnaround in our fortunes on our travels which continued with a hard fought win at Coventry last night.

Forest are showing every sign of looking like automatic promotion challengers. They are defending well, they are good at recovering from setbacks, such as at Coventry last night, and they are not relying on just one or two players for goals. Although we are at presently fourth, the bookmakers have made us second favourites to go up alongside QPR. It might irk Norwich, Cardiff, and Swansea who are all playing well, but they obviously know a good team when they see one! I really have a strong feeling that we will be in the Premiership next season, something which I am a bit ambivalent about.

Some days I think it would be hugely exciting to see Forest back in the top flight mixing it with Man United, Chelsea, et al, but another part of me feels very uncomfortable about trying to compete with the richest clubs who are prepared to pay out obscene amounts to keep their best players. I really hope we don't go down that route and get into financial difficulty because we've overspent ourselves. Forest spent a decade trying to recover from their last escapade in the Premiership, which let's face it was an unmitigated disaster on all levels. I hope by going up, we are not in the long run taking two steps back.

Perhaps I am jumping the gun a little, though, because there's still three months to go of the season, and there's a lot of points still to be won. At least I can stop worrying about relegation! That is something which is too horrible to contemplate, and once I know we've avoided that I can relax, because I am very happy being a Championship club and am in no rush to leave it, so should we fail to go up again, I'm not going to be devastated, although I'm sure the players will think otherwise. Some of them might want to leave for a fresh challenge, and I know a few are out of contract in the summer. Everyone will be clamouring to stay if we get promoted, even if some will be surplus to requirements. But the likes of Chris Cohen, Rob Earnshaw, and maybe even Lee Camp will feel that the grass is greener elsewhere if we cannot offer them top flight football, and there will definitely be a lot of interest in them. There comes a point after a few years of coming close to success that if a team doesn't start turning promise into prizes, players will get restless and start to question their futures. If we don't go up this season, I fear that the squad will be broken up and we will start to slip away into obscurity again. So maybe, yes, I have to concede, much as I love the Championship, we need to be in the Premiership next season.