They gave their all, but in the end it was just not enough

If we are ever to return to the Promised Land, we would be better off trying to avoid the play-offs. Four times we have tried to reach Wembley, and four times we have failed. At least this time there was no humiliation as Forest came very close to forcing the game into extra time after going 2-0 behind in the first half.

Although Forest got off to an encouraging start when David McGoldrick hit the post following a burst of pace from Nathan Tyson, Swansea were soon making life very difficult for the defence and it seemed inevitable that they would score soon. It was quite ironic that Guy Moussi, who many Forest fans were very happy to see back in the side, kept making errors, giving the ball away in dangerous positions.

Two goals in the space of five minutes really knocked the stuffing out of Forest. The first came out of the blue from Leon Britton when he tried his luck from the edge of the box with a speculative shot which Lee Camp knew nothing about. And then Stephen Dobbie made it 2-0 and even with the game still being only half-an-hour old, it did feel like it was all over for Forest, as fears of a thrashing began to fill the heads of their dejected supporters.

To Forest's enormous credit, Swansea were really made to fight for their place at Wembley in the second half, as the Reds dominated proceedings. It may have been that Swansea were just prepared to sit back and soak up the pressure, but it almost backfired on them as Forest really stepped up a few gears and made the home fans very nervous. Lewis McGugan almost made it 2-1 when his thundering free-kick crashed off the crossbar, and although Swansea did come close to furthering their lead, Forest were the better team. I had just been thinking that Billy Davies' substitutions had been a waste of time when with ten minutes plus injury time remaining, Rob Earnshaw, who had only been on the pitch two minutes handed Forest a lifeline when he scored with his first touch and set the game up for a frantic finale.

Forest pushed and pushed and pushed and came agonisingly close to getting their reward when Earnshaw's shot hit the post in the first minute of injury time. What a hero he would have been and what a villain had the former Cardiff player managed to have broken the Swansea fans' hearts. Alas, it was not to be, and any more hopes of snatching a last-gasp equaliser at the death were well and truly snuffed out when Darren Pratley – remember him? - took full advantage of an open goal when Lee Camp had come up for a corner, to strike the ball all the way from the half way line into the empty net and confirm Swansea's place in the final. It's quite symbolic that it was Pratley, who Forest were strongly linked with last summer, should be the one to seal their own fate, and in a way poetic justice for Mark Arthur whose very public insistence that Pratley wanted to join Forest might have been the reason why the deal was scuppered.