Forest Feelings

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

2011-05-17T15:08:00.005+01:00

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.

Don't count against Forest turning Monday into a Swans wake.

2011-05-13T18:21:00.001+01:00

Many will say that Forest missed a real opportunity by not making the most of their home game against ten-man Swansea, but I don't see it like that. I don't think we'd be really any better off if we went into the second leg with a one-goal or even two-goal advantage.

That might on the face of it sound a bit absurd, but as we have learnt from experience, Forest just don't cope with expectation very well. Now they go to the Liberty Stadium on Monday knowing that they are very much the underdogs, even though the actual 'half time' scoreline is only 0-0. Swansea have only conceded 11 goals all season at home, so it will be a very tough task for Forest to win there. If they can keep it tight and hit them on the counter attack, they will have a chance, but they have got to play a lot better than they did last night, as even with ten men, Swansea at times really overran our midfield. It certainly did not help that our players were incapable of keeping the ball. The biggest culprits were Paul McKenna and Lewis McGugan. I was very disappointed to hear that Guy Moussi was injured, as I think he could have made all the difference. We just look a much better team when he is in the side, and we tend to lose far more often when McKenna is playing, especially away from home. So let's pray that Moussi will be fit for Monday, because if he is playing, then I really do think we have a good chance.

When Neil Taylor was shown a red card for a vicious lunge on McGugan just two minutes into the match, the fans were buoyant thinking that this was really a huge boost to Forest. But if anything it turned out to be a problem for us as it altered the game plan. Forest now found themselves with the unwanted tag of being favourites, and this just made them nervous and edgy as they failed to make the most of their extra man. Swansea did not seem fazed by their setback at all, and at half time they were much the better side, having forced Lee Camp into a number of important saves.

Forest did get their act together in the second half, but they were still guilty of giving the ball away far too much, and although they did test the Swansea goalkeeper Dorus De Vries a bit more, they did not have the right to feel hard done-by when the whistle blew. The Swansea fans were in very good voice at the end of the match, believing that the job was done, but don't rule out Forest just yet. They are capable of pleasant surprises, just as much as they are of giving us nasty shocks.

Let's hope the Swans will be singing a week on Monday

2011-05-08T12:11:00.012+01:00

It's very rare that I am able to watch a Forest match in a complete state of relaxation! I will certainly not be able to say the same about the play-offs, so I made the most of it. The next two weeks are going to be extremely stressful indeed as Forest take on Swansea in the play-off semi-finals, hoping that it will be a case of fourth time lucky and they will finally make it past the first hurdle.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Forest's performance at Crystal Palace. I really thought it would be a very dull end-of-season game, but the players seemed determined to go into the play-offs on the back of a good win and reward their 3,000+ loyal fans who had made the long and awkward journey down to Selhurst Park. We really dominated the game from start to finish and made Palace look exactly what they were all season: relegation fodder. It was a good job for them that they had secured their safety last week as Forest were just far too strong for them and looked full of confidence on the back of a fantastic run of form with four wins in their last five matches and a glut of 14 goals. Forest knew that a point would definitely seal their place in the top six and even a defeat would in all likelihood not be damaging as Leeds needed to overturn a six-goal deficit on their goal difference, and as they were away at Champions QPR, who were in buoyant mood after the FA decided not to hand out a points deduction despite finding them guilty of two charges of wrongdoing, Forest had every reason to be very confident. As it happened Leeds did manage to beat Rangers, but only by a one-goal margin, and even if they had won 10-0, it wouldn't have mattered as Forest were taking care of their own business at Palace, romping comfortably to a 3-0 win thanks to a trademark long-range effort from Lewis McGugan, a Marcus Tudgay header and a fantastic 25-yard screamer from substitute David McGoldrick. Forest's cause may have been helped a bit by the straight sending-off of Dean Moxley nearly half an hour into the match for an awful tackle on Tudgay. This was the second time Moxley had seen red against Forest this season as he was also giving his marching orders in the closing stages of the win over Derby at Pride Park back in January.

The Forest fans might have been secretly hoping that Derby would do them a favour down at Reading so that Cardiff and not Swansea would be their semi-final opponents given the contrasting form of the Welsh sides, but alas Reading won. Swansea like Forest ended their season with a goal blitz and now two sides in red hot form will meet at the City Ground next Thursday night in the first leg. Hopefully Forest will continue where they left off and notch up a few goals, because to be frank it's going to be very difficult going to Swansea a week on Monday and pulling off a win there.

White-hot favourites Forest looking good for the top six

2011-05-01T14:10:00.013+01:00

Forest are almost home and dry, but while there's a faint question mark hovering beside our play-off place, we cannot afford to get too carried away, because in football freak results do happen sometimes, and we do not want to look really silly next weekend if against all the odds Leeds do manage to overhaul that six-goal deficit.

I said last week that if Forest could mete out a thrashing against Scunthorpe, it would do them the power of good, and that's exactly what happened as they in the end cruised to a 5-1 victory which in the first half had seemed rather unlikely as Scunthorpe were making life very awkward for the Reds. It seemed rather unfair on them that Forest had a two-goal lead after 25 minutes thanks to an 8th minute strike from the in-form Kris Boyd, and another header from newly crowned Player of the Season Luke Chambers. Forest's first half performance left a lot to be desired, and they were given a wake-up call when Scunthorpe pulled a goal back from the penalty spot ten minutes from half time. But while there were a lot of doubts floating around about Forest's ability to win this match given their poor first half display, the news from elsewhere was very good as Millwall were losing at home to Swansea, meaning that if Forest could net three points only Leeds, who had beaten Burnley earlier, would be able to catch them on goal difference.

The message from Billy Davies at half time would have been quite simple: we need goals, and lots of them. He made a double substitution for the second 45 minutes, sending on both Guy Moussi and Paul Anderson, who made a welcome return to the squad following a month on the sidelines with cracked ribs. And Anderson had only been on the pitch a couple of minutes before he was celebrating scoring Forest's third goal as he scored from a tight angle to make it 3-1 and give the Reds a nice comfortable cushion. And after that it was pretty much plain sailing for the Reds as further goals from Chambers and Boyd completed the rout and ensured that the Reds start as white-hot favourites to book their place in the play-off semi finals as they complete the season at Crystal Palace. Hopefully we will get a result there for ourselves and not have to worry about the unlikely scenario of Leeds winning handsomely at Champions QPR.

You know what you have to do now, Forest. Don't let us down

2011-04-26T17:10:00.002+01:00

Mercifully, it appears that Forest have hit form at exactly the right time of the season. Their 3-2 win at Bristol City was their third victory in four games and now they have established a two-point cushion between themselves and seventh place with just two games to go.

Forest seemed to be cruising when Kris Boyd made it 2-0 from the penalty spot, having put Forest into an early lead just four minutes into the match. But Bristol City staged a second-half comeback, making it 2-2, and Forest's hopes of finishing the day in sixth position looked to have been quashed as news filtered through that Millwall were winning their game at Scunthorpe. All the other results were going really well for Forest as Leeds, Burnley, and Hull were either losing, or drawing. So if Forest failed to capitalise on these results, it really would be a bitter blow. Thank god then for Luke Chambers, whose 73rd-minute header restored the lead and despite some very scary moments, including one deep in injury time when the ball actually ended up in the net, only to be thankfully ruled out for handball, Forest held on for a priceless three points.

Now the Reds have their fate in their own hands and are no longer relying on other teams slipping up. It would be foolish to assume that Forest are dead certs to win their home game against Scunthorpe next weekend, but with Scunny all but relegated to League One and now only playing for pride, Forest really should claim three points, and if they don't, they don't deserve to be in the play-offs. It's unlikely that they will secure a play-off spot next weekend, so it's almost certain to go to the last day at Crystal Palace. If we beat Scunthorpe by a handsome margin, we can really do our goal difference a power of good and then a draw at Palace should be enough.

A right royal end to the season could be in the offing at the Palace

2011-04-24T20:12:00.006+01:00

Friday was indeed a very good one for Forest as they climbed back into the play-off places with a win over East Midlands rivals Leicester, and they remained there over the weekend thanks to other results going their way.

Forest had taken the lead twice, only for it to be wiped out soon after, but Paul McKenna's 84th minute goal, which came about after the Leicester goalkeeper Chris Weale failed to keep hold of the ball when he had made a seemingly comfortable save, proved to be the all-important winner and give Forest a crucial three points.

The game was rather a strange one as the 3-2 scoreline might suggest that it was end-to-end, but actually the goals were the only significant moments. Marcus Tudgay's 15th-minute header was his first goal in two months, but his joy was not to last for long as within five minutes Leicester were back on level terms thanks to Matt Oakley's long-range effort following sloppy Forest defending.

Just when I was thinking how boring the second half was, it suddenly burst into life in the 73rd minute when Rob Earnshaw scored from a rebound shot after Lewis McGugan's strike was thwarted by Weale. But the supporters had not even sat back down after celebrating when Leicester equalised immediately when they were awarded a free kick, which substitute Darius Vassell got on the end of to put the ball past Lee Camp.

The long-awaited debut of Robbie Findley excited the Forest fans in the last ten minutes, and he certainly looked quite promising and almost had a dream start to his City Ground career when his pace nearly caught out Weale. But soon after Forest found themselves back in front when McKenna tried his luck with a volley, which crept through the hands of Weale, much to the delight and relief of the Forest fans, and thankfully the Reds did hold on this time and moved back into sixth position.

Leeds United's goalless draw with Reading kept Forest in the top six over the weekend as they have a superior goal difference to the other sides. They could well find themselves back outside the play-off places following Easter Monday's round of matches – Forest visit Bristol City while Leeds are at Crystal Palace, who are fighting relegation, and then there's Hull, Burnley, and Millwall, all breathing down Forest's necks, waiting for them to slip up. But whatever happens on Monday, if Forest beat Scunthorpe next Saturday at the City Ground, the quest for a play-off place will probably go right down to the last game of the season when Forest meet Palace at Selhurst Park. With Palace possibly fighting to stay up, and Forest looking to secure their play-off place, it could be a massive game.

Play-off hopes remain alive, but time is running out...

2011-04-18T12:17:00.004+01:00

If we are going to make it into the play-offs this season, it will be thanks to other teams' poor results, rather than our own form. We could quite easily have found ourselves four points adrift by Saturday teatime, but Leeds' failure to beat Watford on their own pitch ensured that the gap is just two points and gives us a fighting chance of climbing back into the top six with four matches left.

It was always going to be a difficult game at high-flying Norwich City, so losing to them is certainly no disgrace. We did play reasonably well for most of the match, but our lack of finesse proved to be our undoing as Norwich recovered from the early setback of conceding a freak Nathan Tyson goal to earn a 2-1 win thanks to goals from former Forest striker Grant Holt, and Andrew Surman. The sending-off of Paul Konchesky in injury time for a double booking was something we could have done without as he will now miss the local derby against Leicester on Friday night.

There was not an awful lot wrong with the way we played, and there was no question that the effort was there, but as the game wore on, I became increasingly convinced that we were just not going to score another goal. Norwich were far from being at their best, but they seemed to be pretty comfortable as Forest ran out of ideas. Victory would have put us back in the top six, if only perhaps for 24 hours, while defeat could potentially be very damaging if results the following day went against us.

The fact that Leeds were held to a 2-2 draw against Watford was a big boost, but it's not just the teams above us that we have to worry about now, as Hull are now level with us on goal difference, with Millwall, Leicester and Burnley all within two or three points of us. I think we're going to have to win at least three of our remaining four games to give us a good chance of qualifying for the play-offs, and even that might not be enough. It's all a far cry from January when people were talking us up as possible Champions, and a play-off place looked little more than a formality.

May this be the start of another winning run...

2011-04-13T09:41:00.003+01:00

There was a real possibility if results went against them that Forest could have found themselves seven points adrift of the play-off places last night. Thankfully, having beaten ten-man Burnley to record their first win in ten attempts, and Derby's victory over Leeds, the Reds are very much back in contention for the top six with the gap now reduced to just one point.

It took a very long time for the game to burst into life as Forest were struggling to get going. Burnley, who not so long ago were looking a good bet for a place in the play-offs, were going through a rotten spell of form themselves, yet they were playing with a great deal more confidence than Forest. They were forced to change their game plan, though, when Martin Bartley was deservedly given his marching orders for a two-footed challenge on Luke Chambers late in the half.

Although it took them a while, Forest took control of the game after the break, and an inspired substitution from Billy Davies saw David McGoldrick replace Marcus Tudgay, and within a minute he had put Forest in front when he bundled the ball home from close range following a Lewis McGugan free kick. And then deep in injury time McGoldrick made absolutely sure of the points when he netted his second of the evening.

As the scoreboard flashed up Derby's home win against Leeds, there was a huge cheer. We may hate Derby, but we love Forest more, and they really did us a big favour. Now we can go to Norwich on Friday night with a sense of purpose. Norwich have been quite superb this season, but their draw at Watford saw them drop down into third and so hopefully the nerves will get to them on Friday. It's really amazing what a win can do for confidence, and whereas I was convinced we were in for a stuffing at Carrow Road before the Burnley win, now I feel a bit more upbeat about our prospects.

It's not the despair, it's the hope we can't stand

2011-04-11T17:04:00.005+01:00

I wasn't that devastated when Reading stole the points in injury time, seemingly after we had earned ourselves a late point. The reason being I knew in my heart of hearts that our quest for a play-off place looks set to end in disappointment, and a draw simply wouldn't have been good enough anyway. We're on such a wretched run of form at the moment that I just can't see us suddenly going on a winning run in the last six games and storm back into the play-off places.

I don't know what has happened to transform us into likely title contenders into a team playing as though it was doomed to relegation in two months. Surely not the absence of Guy Moussi? If Forest can collapse when one player disappears from the team, then quite frankly they don't deserve to call themselves a football team. Of course having an injury list as long as the Bayeax Tapestry doesn't help either, but if Nigel Doughty had bothered to back Billy Davies properly in the transfer market, we'd have the strength in depth to cope with it. Instead we're having to make do and mend, using players like Gareth McCleary, who try as they might, are just not up to the demands of Championship football. If we're playing League One standard players, we will find ourselves heading back into that division if we're not too careful next season. There needs to be a serious influx of quality players in the summer, because don't forget several of them, including Rob Earnshaw and Moussi will be out of contract. And by all accounts neither will be signing a new one, having been offered reduced terms.

I've given up on this season, and will look back on it mostly in a positive light, but when I look into the immediate future, I feel quite apprehensive. Davies has always maintained that his teams don't get going until around November and the past two seasons would certainly testify to that statement, but he didn't point out that around February everything starts going wrong. There is no point playing well for around three months if all the hard work is going to be undone again. All that false hope is very hard to deal with. I'd sooner we never had any in the first place as it just messes with our minds.

The next two games are probably pivotal

2011-04-03T11:14:00.009+01:00

For nearly forty minutes Forest were really outplaying Leeds, but an injury to Paul Anderson and the sending-off of Chris Cohen really altered the game and in the end Forest were on the receiving end of a bit of a thrashing, which they really didn't deserve.

Forest, without a win in seven games, did not look like a team desperately short on confidence as they were passing the ball around really well and it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before they broke the deadlock. Billy Davies played a very attacking 4-3-3 team, and Leeds really found it hard to cope with us, but when Anderson was forced out of the action with an injury to the ribs, it was a blow for Forest, as he had been playing well. But an even bigger blow was to come eight minutes later when Cohen was adjudged to have lunged in at George McCartney, and to his dismay was shown a straight red card. The TV pictures showed that Cohen did not commit a sending-off offence, and Forest had been robbed of two of their key midfielders in the space of ten minutes. Not surprisingly the Reds were never the same after that, although they kept digging in and managed to keep out Leeds until half time.

But losing both Anderson and Cohen proved to be too much to cope with, and in the second half Forest capitulated, conceding four goals. Substitute Gareth McCleary, who had earlier replaced Anderson, did give us brief hope of getting back into it when he made it 2-1 with 25 minutes left, scoring a quite spectacular goal, but another couple of goals from Leeds condemned Forest to another defeat, and their day only got worse as results elsewhere saw them drop out of the play-off places.

Forest now have a couple of crucial home games coming up against Reading and Burnley, who are fighting for a play-off place. Reading's win yesterday saw them leapfrog us into sixth place, but if we beat them we will swap places with them next weekend. These two games are the most important of the season so far. If we don't get at least four points from them, we might well be facing an uphill struggle to even get a play-off place. When you consider that two months ago we were contenders for the Championship, it's a bit of a shock to say the least.

What can shake Forest out of this stupor?

2011-03-20T12:02:00.004Z

I'm so glad we haven't got a relegation battle to worry about, because Forest are in terrible form right now and look like a team devoid of direction.

Even though the 3-2 scoreline might suggest otherwise, Swansea really outplayed Forest yesterday and totally deserved the three points, which keeps them in the hunt for automatic promotion, and all but rules Forest out. Seven points separate us from second-placed Norwich now, and even though with eight games remaining that deficit is not impossible to make up, such is the state that Forest find themselves in at the moment, they are not likely to snap themselves out of this malaise and notch up a significant number of wins to claim promotion. We really have to concentrate on keeping our play-off place, because it is looking increasingly likely that we won't even achieve that. We can only hope that Billy Davies is right that the international break will do us good and that we will return a team full of confidence and energy.

Maybe the long-awaited return of Guy Moussi will make all the difference in the world, but I'm not building my hopes up too much. He will need a couple of games to return to match fitness for a start, and after reading that he has rejected a contract, it's bound to be unsettling not just for him, but for his team mates. So if anybody thinks he's the midfield messiah who will magically put everything right again could well be disappointed.

We'll be lucky to reach the play-offs at this rate

2011-03-13T10:27:00.003Z

I had a feeling that we might lose against Doncaster, so in that respect I suppose I should be happy that we got a point. But really, it was a must-win game for us ahead of two very awkward away trips to Swansea and Leeds, and it's difficult to see where we go from here now.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the football we were playing in the first half, as I really expected us to be quite poor, but once again our final ball was really letting us down with Rob Earnshaw and Marcus Tudgay looking out of sorts. Earnshaw limped out of the action at half time and was replaced by Nathan Tyson, but this failed to have an impact on Forest's ability to find the net.

Doncaster were not really in it in the first half, but after the break they gave Forest a few scares, but fortunately like Forest, their finishing was poor. Even though there was plenty of goalmouth action, the 0-0 scoreline basically summed up the match rather nicely.

I don't know whether it's a problem with the side's confidence and team spirit, or our missing key players, but Forest can't seem to be able to beat anyone at the moment. After all if they couldn't beat Preston on their own ground, then why should they win against anybody? Now we have only won one match in nine games, which as Radio Nottingham pointed out yesterday, is as bad as it has got under Billy Davies.

Even though Swansea themselves have suffered a bad run of form lately, I am very apprehensive about Forest playing them next week. Then a fortnight later after the international break, we visit Leeds, who are now above us in the table. We'll be lucky to get one point from either of those games, and yet if we really want automatic promotion, we need to win at least one of them.

We really missed a good chance to establish a bit of a gap between ourselves and 7th place yesterday as Burnley suffered a shock 3-0 home defeat against Millwall. But it's not just Burnley we have to worry about now, as Leicester and Hull are also closing in on us. Even though I don't think we will win the play-offs, I think it would be better for our morale to reach them and then lose them than miss out altogether. To have been knocking on the door for automatic promotion all season and then not even make the top six at the end would be a lot more psychologically damaging.

Boyd signing is pointless: he won't make a scrap of difference

2011-03-09T13:29:00.005Z

How could Forest have gone from being a team full of confidence and energy vying for automatic promotion, and then suddenly looking more like relegation candidates in such a short space of time?

Forest's habit of playing badly against teams at the bottom of the table is becoming a very unfunny joke. I suppose we shouldn't really be too surprised that Sheffield United, a team that had not won in 15 matches before yesterday evening's encounter, would beat Forest. After all we have a very good track record of being on the receiving end of a team suddenly recovering from a bout of bad form. It is sickening to think of how many points we have squandered against sides at the bottom of the table recently. And yet we are still not that far away from second place. Had we made the most of the fixtures against the sides fighting the drop, we would be sitting comfortably in second place, but for one reason or another the team's confidence is completely shot, and I am just not sure how on earth we are going to get it back for the remaining ten games.

The defeat at Bramall Lane has seen us slip down into sixth place, just three points head of Burnley who happen to have two games in hand. Oh dear. Just a few weeks ago we looked to be reassured of a play-off place at the very least, but it's all fallen apart at the seams now, and if we carry on like this we won't qualify for them at all. Mind you, maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing considering how well we do in them.

Until the last fifteen minutes of the match, it looked as though Forest might emerge with a morale-boosting win despite not playing all that well. Dele Adebola gave Forest the lead just before half time, and when Lee Camp saved Daniel Bogdanovic's penalty in the second half Lady Luck seemed to be favouring Forest. But it all went wrong inside six minutes when Sam Vokes equalised and with just ten minutes left, Sam Lowton headed the Blades in front and quite frankly it was all Forest deserved for a sloppy second half performance.

I am not too hopeful that our new loan signing Kris Boyd from Middlesbrough will make much of a difference. He certainly didn't last night when he came on as a substitute. I think it's pretty obvious that we need a central midfielder, not another striker. If players like Marcus Tudgay and Rob Earnshaw are struggling to score goals, then so too will Boyd. I think it's a pretty pointless signing and just proves just how out of touch the blasted Acquisitions Panel really is.

Forest don't need world beaters, just bodies

2011-03-06T12:01:00.008Z

Losing a home game is always a very unpleasant feeling, but when it's happened for the first time in 18 months, it leaves you feeling a bit shell-shocked.

All I've heard since yesterday's match is: 'Well, it had to happen sometime.' Er, no it didn't, especially not against Hull City of all teams. Forest could have gone on and maintained their unbeaten record at home for the rest of the season quite easily. But they've lost their way a lot recently, and they've gone from winning six in a row to winning just one in seven. I'm beginning to think that there may be some truth in the belief that the Manager of the Month Award is a curse.

In terms of the League Table, the defeat didn't cause us much harm at all as there were poor results for the other sides with Norwich being held at home to Preston, Swansea losing at Scunthorpe, and Cardiff slipping up at home with a defeat against Ipswich. But, to be honest, even though we still remain just three points away from second place, does anyone seriously think we are going up automatically now, given the state we are in at the moment? The players look exhausted and they are picking up niggling injuries because of this. Sadly I don't think this is a bad patch that we're going through, but more likely a permanent decline as the season winds down to its inevitable conclusion: That is we will still be a Championship side next season.

It's a bit telling that this week Billy Davies said in an interview that if promotion is not delivered this season, then we'll go for it next time. It sounds like an admission that the squad is not good enough, and that Nigel Doughty has told him that he is not willing to back him. We've been fobbed off with the excuse that we can't make loan signings because all the good players are not available at such a crucial time of the season. So how come the other teams are bringing in people? Even if the players are not world beaters, having a few new faces in the dressing room does give the other players a big boost, but the short-sighted Mark Arthur believes that we shouldn't be bringing in players who are not better than what we've already got. Keep on believing that, Arthur, and things will never change.

Is this season turning into a repeat of the last?

2011-03-02T12:18:00.002Z

The relief of Dele Adebola's injury-time equaliser at Middlesbrough last night must not be allowed to cloud over the fact that Forest were really poor and did not deserve a point.

Rather worryingly Forest's automatic promotion charge seems to have hit the buffers lately. Their failure to beat Scunthorpe, Preston, or Middlesbrough has seem them miss out on some crucial points, and now they are currently enduring an injury crisis, which seems to get worse as every match passes. The Forest fans are getting a sense of Déjà vu as the same thing happened last year, where Forest seemed unstoppable, and people were convinced they were going up, but when it came to the last few months of the season they just seemed to run out of battery. The lack of signings in the transfer window were to blame for last season's failed promotion bid, and our inability to bring in a left back following Nicky Shorey's departure. This time if we fail again, Nigel Doughty's reluctance to put his hand in his pocket last summer will come back to haunt him. The Forest fans will not be in forgiving mood if the Club again throws away a glorious opportunity to return to the Premiership, having repeated the mistakes of last season.

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

2011-02-27T11:28:00.011Z

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

2011-02-23T12:20:00.011Z

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

2011-02-20T11:23:00.005Z

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

2011-02-17T10:29:00.011Z

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

2011-02-13T16:58:00.013Z

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...

2011-02-06T10:09:00.007Z

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

2011-02-02T13:15:00.007Z

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.

No shame in Cup exit as Forest impress in East London

2011-01-31T12:47:00.007Z

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

2011-01-26T10:13:00.008Z

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!

2011-01-23T12:12:00.010Z

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

2011-01-16T10:54:00.006Z

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?

2011-01-09T17:57:00.005Z

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

2011-01-04T10:45:00.005Z

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

2011-01-02T12:09:00.007Z

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.

Such stuff as dreams are made on

2010-12-30T15:32:00.010Z

When I woke up this morning I wasn't sure if I had actually dreamt that we had thrashed Derby 5-2. I had a really poor night's sleep because after such an exciting occasion, it's very hard to come back down to earth, so as I write this, I might struggle to make sense.

Last season's encounter at the City Ground is memorable for the goal in the first minute that came courtesy of a stunning strike from Raddy Majewski. And Majewski was once again involved as his corner in the second minute was met with perfection by the head of Luke Chambers, who powered the ball into the back of the net for his second goal in successive games, and it gave Forest the perfect start to what was to turn out to be a highly entertaining match which saw a total of seven goals, five of them thankfully scored by us.

Although Derby hauled themselves level only 12 minutes later when Luke Moore cut through the Forest defence before unleashing a shot which just crossed the line after bouncing off the crossbar, Forest were in control for pretty much the whole half. At half time they looked to be well in control at 3-1 thanks to two headed goals from Marcus Tudgay, a former Rams player.

Unlike the second half of the match last season when Derby clawed their way back to 3-2 after trailing by three goals, Forest looked fairly comfortable defending their lead after the break. The fans really started to believe that the three points belonged to Forest when Robbie Earnshaw made it 4-1. But one or two alarms started ringing when Kris Commons, who was loudly booed throughout the game, immediately hit back with a free kick. And then Derby enjoyed their best spell of the game as they sought a way back into it.

Sensing danger, Billy Davies brought Kelvin Wilson on to shore up the defence, and thankfully Forest were able to weather the Derby pressure and they came through it unscathed. Earnshaw's second goal of the evening, in stoppage time, was a fitting way to end a magical misty night and a superb unbeaten year at the City Ground in 2010. This was the 30th League match that Forest had not tasted defeat in a row. The script probably said that Derby would be the team to end that record, so thank god nobody read it!

Icy reception for Palace as refreshed Reds return to action with a relish

2010-12-19T15:06:00.006Z

Maybe Forest should have mini winter breaks more often, because if yesterday's completely one-sided performance against Crystal Palace was anything to go by, it does them a power of good.

It's just a pity that I missed what was probably their best performance of the season. I had snow problems of my own yesterday down here in Bedford. While Nottingham was getting away scot-free, we were inundated by the heaviest snowfall we've had in nearly twenty years. I was so worried about the possibility of being stuck on a train for hours that I simply could not take the risk. So I sat at home and listened on the internet. I felt really sad not to be there, but at the same time very relieved that I was at home in the warm and didn't have to catch a train afterwards.

The 3-0 scoreline didn't even come close to being an indicator of how much Forest dominated. It seemed like the only time a Palace player got a mention was when it was their goalkeeper Julian Speroni making a save.

By the time Forest got on the scoresheet in the 31st minute thanks to a Luke Chambers header, it was no exaggeration to say that they could have been three or four goals up. They were playing such good football that it was a surprise at half time that they only had a one-goal lead.

It's quite rare that Forest are able to keep up the tempo for a whole 90 minutes, but in the second half they were even better. Marcus Tudgay, who was making his first appearance since joining on loan from Sheffield Wednesday, made it 2-0 with a lob from thirty yards out just a minute after the restart, and substitute Gareth McCleary, who had only just joined the action, completed the rout five minutes from time to set Forest up for a Happy Christmas, and hopefully a very good 2011.

The players will no doubt have dedicated the victory to the memory of former reserve goalkeeper Dale Roberts, who tragically committed suicide earlier this week.

The Leicester said the better

2010-11-30T13:19:00.001Z

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.

Blackstock blow might just force Doughty's hand

2010-11-21T12:40:00.007Z

Forest's fantastic away win at leaders Cardiff City was somewhat overshadowed by the terrible injury to Dexter Blackstock in the last few minutes of the match. He now looks set to miss the rest of the season with cruciate knee ligament damage. That is the last thing we need right now with the squad already depleted by a series of niggling injuries to several key first teamers.

Blackstock had just a few minutes earlier been celebrating after scoring Forest's second goal, which doubled their lead given to them earlier by yet another super strike from Lewis McGugan. But Blackstock's joy quickly turned into despair when he went down under a seemingly innocuous challenge and it quickly transpired that he had sustained a serious injury to his right leg. He was stretchered off the pitch after receiving oxygen for the acute pain and with some six minutes of injury time declared, a shell-shocked Forest had some serious defending to do to make sure they did not throw away their win. Luckily, although Cardiff did come close to getting back into it, Forest saw the game out, but their celebrations were understandably muted at the end in light of what happened to Blackstock.

With so many important first team players not being available owing to injury or illness – Paul McKenna, Paul Anderson, Kelvin Wilson and Nathan Tyson all failed to make the trip – Forest's chances of winning at Cardiff were rated as rather slim. Cardiff, despite their early season off-field problems, had only lost three games all season, the same as Forest, and with just one away win since January, it was hard to be positive about Forest's chances, even without taking into account their missing players. But sometimes when you're up against it, you are prepared to go the extra mile, and maybe that's what helped Forest to overturn the odds. At half time they were extremely good value for their lead which McGugan gave to them with another thunderbolt, from 22 yards out. Cardiff fans must have at that point groaned 'not again' as they will have remembered a similarly good McGugan goal scored against them little over a year ago in injury time as Forest robbed them of three points in their quest for promotion.

Cardiff could have no complaints about losing their place at the top of the Championship as they were made to look very ordinary, and for once the Forest defence did most of the hard work on their own and didn't have to rely on Lee Camp to bail them out so much. The win takes Forest into sixth position in the table, and might just trigger a good run of form that will even enable a challenge for automatic promotion. But that task would be made a lot easier if only Nigel Doughty would be prepared to sanction some loan signings to prop us up until January. The injury to Blackstock surely now means his hand must be forced.

How on earth would we cope without Lee Camp?

2010-11-14T13:21:00.004Z

I suppose with Forest's unbeaten home record of 27 games stretching over more than a year and QPR still being undefeated in the Championship, a draw was very much on the cards.

As nil-nil draws go, though, it could never be described as boring, at least not in the second half anyway where Lee Camp as ever was in top form to keep Forest in the game. Forest didn't actually produce a shot on target until well into the second half when lone striker Dexter Blackstock tried his luck against his former side from long range. And even though Billy Davies made a double substitution not long after bringing on both Rob Earnshaw and Dele Adebola so Forest could play with two up front, the Reds still struggled to create good chances, except for a powerful shot from Lewis McGugan which produced an equally good save from the QPR goalkeeper.

All in all, a draw was a fair result, but Forest are racking up a huge amount of debt to Camp, who match after match, turns in one fantastic performance after another. He must be Forest's most valuable asset because while the players who score the goals grab the instant headlines, it's Camp's heroics in goal which more often than not, it seems these days, are making many of the results possible. Where would we be without him?

Taking everything into account, we're not doing too badly

2010-11-10T19:08:00.006Z

Despite all the uncertainty concerning Billy Davies' future at Forest, on the field things are not going too badly considering. Last night's hard-fought win against in-form Coventry was our third straight home win, and it took us to within just one point of the play-off places.

I was rather unimpressed with Davies' starting line-up which saw goal machine Lewis McGugan and Nathan Tyson deployed on the left and right wings respectively, and questioned his decision to play Rob Earnshaw in a loan striker's role, but it seemed to work rather well, perhaps because Coventry already had a game plan in mind and they were really confused by Davies' tactics. The Sky Blues, who were in fifth place before the game, did go in front, however, completely against the run of play half an hour or so into the game when one-time Red Sammy Clingan's in-swinging free-kick met the unfortunate head of Luke Chambers who put into his own net.

Happily for Chambers, parity was restored only six minutes later when Radoslaw Majewski assumed McGugan's role for scoring fantastic goals when he struck a ferocious shot from 25 yards out. Majewski hasn't really made much of an impact this season at all, so it was great to see him start to pay off the fee we paid for his permanent signing in the summer.

Coventry demonstrated why they were placed in such a lofty position in the table as they made the Forest defence, and Lee Camp work very hard for their money, before the Reds took the lead just after an hour had passed thanks to a free-kick from Chris Cohen which went straight into the net from a tight angle.

Camp pulled off a terrific last-ditch save from another Forest player Marlon King, who had been roundly booed throughout the evening, in the first minute of six minutes injury time as Forest fought desperately to cling on to the three points. Thankfully they did just that, and the win was good news amid all the press talk of Davies falling out with the Club's hierarchy.

Forest must stop reading from this tired old script

2010-11-07T11:22:00.005Z

Where would Forest be right now if it wasn't for Lewis McGugan? I shudder to think. It's sad to say, but I think he is carrying the team at the moment. Apart from Lee Camp, he's the only player who has really shone this season, and that's worrying.

I don't think the bookmakers would have offered particularly generous odds on Forest drawing and McGugan scoring the goal at Watford. Although the point was a good one taken out of context, given that Watford are pushing for a play-off place, it is getting a little bit boring now, don't you think? I have the match report half-written in my head long before kick off when Forest play away these days, so I'm sure the home opposition don't have to do too much homework when it comes to assessing Forest's threat. Basically the script goes like this. Forest will outplay the home team for long periods, have a few half-decent chances to score, then against the run of play, they concede a goal owing to a defensive lapse in concentration. If they're lucky, they (or rather McGugan) will manage to score occasionally, and this will give the fans (false) hope that a victory is on the cards. But after a lot of huffing and puffing and genuinely getting nowhere the game peters out into nothing. That has been the blueprint for a Forest away performance this season.

It makes winning our home games vitally important if we want to avoid slipping into the relegation places. But the next two teams visiting the City Ground just so happen to be fifth-placed Coventry and first-placed QPR. Oh dear. If we start losing at home, I fear for us, because it will put huge pressure on us every home game to make sure we win them. In front of 20,000+ impatient Forest fans that will be a difficult task.

We'll keep getting nowt unless we change our away approach

2010-10-31T11:10:00.003Z

Forest are not going to be making much progress this season if they can't sort their awful away form out. If we reach January having won only once in a year on our travels that really will be a shocking statistic.

Not that losing at Portsmouth, who have been in fine form of late, despite their recent off-field troubles, is a disgrace, but Forest really outplayed them at times, but once again came away empty-handed because they just couldn't make the most of their possession. As has been a familiar tale this season, Forest started very brightly but found themselves behind after 17 minutes when Ibrahima Sonko headed past Lee Camp from a corner. But Forest were level only ten minutes later thanks to Paul Anderson who got himself on the scoresheet for the first time this season when he powered a diving header into the net from a Lewis McGugan cross.

Forest paid the price for a poor start to the second half when Liam Lawrence turned goal-provider into goal-scorer when he restored his side's lead just after the hour, following a sustained period of Portsmouth pressure. Forest continued to exert their influence as they sought an equaliser, but their final ball eluded them. They might have played well enough, but it was Portsmouth, who little over a week ago feared they were going out of business, who got the all-important goals, and Forest only had themselves to blame.

McGugan's worth his weight in goals

2010-10-24T11:10:00.007+01:00

Yesterday's 2-0 win over Ipswich will be remembered for one of the most astonishing goals ever seen at the City Ground. And who else but Lewis McGugan would be the man responsible for it?!

People around me were gasping when the ball crashed into the back of the net from 35 yards out. I wasn't even sure if it was an in-direct free kick or not as it was so far out. But McGugan seems to do no wrong at the moment, and this was his seventh goal in eight games – an excellent tally for a striker, let alone a midfielder. And it's not as if any of those goals have been tap-ins. All of them have been worthy of being nominated for Goal of the Month. In fact it will take something very special to beat yesterday's exquisite strike in the Goal of the Season competition. Not that I expect McGugan to win it, being a Championship footballer rather than a Premiership one.

But I wonder how long it will be before McGugan is plying his trade in the top flight. It's almost inevitable that he will attract a lot of attention when the January transfer window opens, and I'm not sure if Forest will be able to stand in his way if a big Premiership club comes knocking. But all these goals he's scored has made him a more valuable asset, and if we let him go for £5 or £6 million, we can buy a couple of very good Championship players with that. I'd sooner keep McGugan, though, because he is making watching Forest quite exciting at the moment. You just never know when he is going to pop up with a brilliant goal, but we have come to expect it every match now!

While McGugan not surprisingly got all the plaudits for his goal, we must not forget the fact that it was David McGoldrick who set us on the way to victory in the 13th minute with his first goal of the season on what was also his first start. He was named in the starting line-up by Billy Davies as Dexter Blackstock, who has been through a bit of a lean spell of late, was rested.

Forest didn't exactly look comfortable defending at the back as Ipswich posed a lot of problems for them, so they were very grateful for McGugan's unexpected goal just before half time, and although Ipswich did their best to break Forest's defence down, they just could not find a way through, and so the Reds were able to claim their second successive clean sheet in a week and more importantly back-to-back home wins, which takes them into the top half of the table.

It has been a very positive few days for Forest both on and off the pitch. Nigel Doughty's announcement on Friday that he would be making changes to the Acquisition Panel's transfer policy, thus making it easier for Davies to sign players, is a welcome one. But we will still have to wait over two months before we can make any permanent signings, so in the meantime we will have to make do with what we've got, but judging by recent results and the rediscovery of McGugan, we seem to be doing just fine for the moment.

Reds might have to be content feeding off scraps

2010-10-20T12:19:00.006+01:00

People should be forgiven for thinking that Forest are a one-man team, such has been Lewis McGugan's recent influence. McGugan has made himself undroppable from the first team as he has contributed six goals to Forest's cause so far this season, and was once again the hero last night as his shot-cum-cross from a free kick early in the second half proved to be enough to beat managerless Middlesbrough.

The stunning strike, whether it was a fluke or not, was a rare exciting moment in a game which in the first half had really threatened to descend into a damp squib. The first 40 minutes or so were dire to put it mildly. I was bored to tears as Forest struggled to find a way through a dogged Middlesbrough midfield. The three-man central midfield combination of McGugan, Paul McKenna, and Raddy Majewski, who was handed a rare start by stand-in boss Ned Kelly, wasn't really working, and with Dexter Blackstock once again deployed in a lone striker's role, Forest were resorting to desperate long-balls. Middlesbrough, meanwhile, were having more luck at the other end and could have been one or two goals up at half time, were it not for the safe pair of hands of Lee Camp.

Thankfully the second half was a much better spectacle, and when McGugan scored five minutes in, it settled Forest and they were able to hold on to the three points for only their third win of the season. I get the feeling that victories are going to be hard to come by this season, and we're going to have to be grateful for whatever scraps we can get our hands on.

The only way is down if Forest can't find their killer touch

2010-10-17T11:47:00.004+01:00

I am getting so fed up of writing about Forest not making the most of their chances and ending up losing points. It's happened on numerous occasions this season, and we should have done enough to win the game at Barnsley, but instead walked away empty-handed.

Billy Davies missed the game because he was suffering from a virus so assistant Ned Kelly took charge in the dugout. I don't know how much influence Davies had on the team's selection, but it was a strange one, and not exactly set up with a win in mind. After scoring a hat-trick in the reserves, maybe the inclusion of Dele Adebola in the starting line-up was justified, but why put Lewis McGugan on the wing? That made no sense at all.

Forest found themselves chasing the game after only four minutes when Nathan Doyle put Barnsley ahead from a few yards out. But Forest had plenty of chances in the first half to equalise, but the final ball was once again found wanting. The Reds' hopes of getting back in the game were dealt a hammer blow when Barnsley were awarded a penalty just before the hour mark, and former Forest player Andy Gray scored from the spot. But little over ten minutes later, another excellent goal from McGugan reduced the deficit to just one goal again and with Forest playing well Barnsley had every right to be nervous.

Unfortunately for Forest, though, thoughts of a late comeback were banished when substitute Jay Butterfield made it 3-1 with only three minutes remaining. The decision to change to a 4-3-3 formation which saw Wes Morgan bizarrely pushed forward was to prove a costly one. Had Forest stayed as they were, they might well have snatched a late point. As it was they were left to rue a sackful of missed chances and ponder on their first defeat in ten games. Now they have two home games coming up against Middlesbrough and Ipswich. We've got to be looking at a minimum of four points from those. If our home form starts to deteriorate as well, I really fear we will get sucked into a relegation scrap.

Floundering Forest are crying out for creativity

2010-10-03T11:31:00.004+01:00

Forest headed into the international break nine games unbeaten after being held to yet another draw, this time at Doncaster Rovers. It was our seventh such result in ten games, which underlines the fact that we really could do with some more creative players to help convert some of these draws into wins.

Dexter Blackstock became the first Forest player to score at the Keepmoat Stadium in four attempts, netting his fourth goal of the season when he put the ball over the line following a goal mouth scramble. Unfortunately the lead lasted all of four minutes as Forest switched off defensively and allowed Adam Lockwood to head an equaliser unmarked at the far post following a free kick.

It was a rather dull game that never really got going until the final ten minutes when both teams upped the tempo. Donny could have snatched all three points in the dying moments, but thankfully Billy Sharp's effort went wide. Forest were once again left counting the cost of their inability to turn possession into meaningful chances. Nevertheless a point at Doncaster is not to be sniffed at, and we must be doing something right if we are unbeaten since the opening day. But it would be nice if we could actually start winning games more regularly. I get the feeling that this season is going to be largely frustrating. Boring boring Forest is what everyone will be singing soon.

Points alone won't win any prizes

2010-09-29T10:53:00.004+01:00

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

2010-09-26T13:19:00.005+01:00

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...

2010-09-19T10:25:00.000+01:00

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?

2010-09-15T11:34:00.005+01:00

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

2010-09-12T10:46:00.009+01:00

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.

Players' body language speaks volumes

2010-08-29T14:05:00.007+01:00

Something is badly wrong behind the scenes at Forest at the moment, and it's blindly obvious that it's affecting the players' performances out on the pitch.

How we didn't lose against Norwich, I will never know. We cannot keep relying on Lee Camp to get us out of trouble. He was a very busy man yesterday as he made a number of top-class saves. How long, though, will it be before his confidence starts to wane, just as it seems to be the case with the majority of his team mates?

I'm not at all surprised that all the wild speculation flying about regarding Billy Davies' future, and reasons for lack of transfer activity is eating away at the players' confidence. Their body language is very negative and they look like they'd rather be anywhere but the City Ground. And to be honest I feel the same about Forest right now. I feel empty when I think of them. What a stark contrast to last season. I feel like I am going through the motions when I turn up to games. I just don't feel much excitement at all, so why should the players, who don't even love Forest like I do?

When Dexter Blackstock scored from a penalty yesterday to give us an undeserved lead, I uttered under my breath 'we don't deserve it'. And although I was very angry with the soft goal that was to be Norwich's equaliser less than ten minutes later, it was just reward for their dominance of the first half.

Given Forest's tendency to play well in one half of their home games only, there was hope after the break that they would be better. But if anything they were worse. The midfielders were very poor, especially Paul McKenna and Raddy Majewski, both of whom were substituted. We also suffered an injury blow when Paul Anderson limped off with suspected medial ligament damage, which could keep him sidelined for around two months. Terrific news really as we're short of wingers as it is. That news came on top of the announcement by Davies earlier that Gareth McCleary could too be out for months. It never rains, but it pours.

With transfer deadline day fast approaching on Tuesday, the injuries to Anderson and McCleary really do heap enormous pressure on the Acquisitions Panel to get a bloody move on and sign some players damn quick. If they don't, I think Forest will be staring down an abyss. I really fear being relegated. It's not that we don't have good players, it's just that they're so low on confidence, that even the good ones are not going to be performing anywhere near what they are capable of. Things have gone very stale, and before too long if something doesn't happen that will invigorate the team, we will soon be rotting at the foot of the Championship. With memories of last season still fresh in our minds, it will be a very sad sight.

If we can't afford new players, at least have the guts to tell us, Mr Doughty

2010-08-22T12:50:00.005+01:00

Forest have made a very slow start to the season. We've played four games in League and Cup so far and have yet to taste victory. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Last year it took us until the eighth match to record a win, and once that was achieved, the confidence just grew and grew. Hopefully it won't take us as long to notch up our first three points, but if the season follows exactly the same pattern as the last, I don't think there'll be too many complaints at the end of it.

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the performance at Reading. I really thought Forest would be lacklustre and disillusioned given all the rumours of unrest behind the scenes doing the rounds at the moment. Moreover, the late withdrawl of captain Paul McKenna, who was injured in the warm-up, was something else we could have done without. But we played really well and were it not for Reading's goalkeeper Adam Federici making a string of stupendous saves, we would have won the match. We really outplayed them at times. The three-pronged attack of Paul Anderson, Dexter Blackstock and Rob Earnshaw caused Reading all sorts of problems from the start as Forest dominated the early proceedings.

And yet, as so often happens to Forest these days, they conceded very much against the run of play when Alex Pearce gave his side an undeserved lead when he scored from close range. But Forest pressed and pressed, and really should have been on level terms when Federici somehow kept out a powerful header from Anderson. But the Reading goalkeeper turned from a hero into a villain four minutes into the second half when he made the fatal error of rolling the ball out into the path of Earnshaw, who then had the easiest tasks of poking the ball straight into an empty net. They might have relied on a huge slice of fortune to achieve their equaliser, but nobody could argue that Forest did not deserve it.

While it had been mostly all Forest in the first half, either side could have nicked the three points after the break as both goalkeepers were kept busy. In the end a point-a-piece was a very fair reflection of how the game had gone. If we play as well as that for the majority of the time, we may well be serious promotion candidates. It's really frustrating to see how close we are to becoming a really good team and day after day hear no news whatsoever from Forest of new players coming in. If we can't afford them, then fair enough, but at least have the guts to tell us please, because all this uncertainty is doing nobody any good.

Reds will struggle if transfer panel doesn't get its act together

2010-08-16T13:45:00.008+01:00

I must admit I was not really looking forward to going back to the City Ground for the first time in three months in the wake of a very uninspiring summer in the transfer market. But as kick-off approached for our big game against Championship returnees Leeds, all those old pre-match feelings of excitement came flooding back again and I was itching to get back into my seat and hopefully witness a good Forest performance.

Well, for fifteen minutes Forest were very good indeed. The football was excellent and harked back to some of the best displays last season. When Dexter Blackstock headed us into an early lead after just nine minutes, it was a rich reward. And within a few minutes Rob Earnshaw hit the post with a shot from a tight angle. Had that gone in, such was Forest's dominance at that stage that Leeds would have felt like abandoning all hope. As it was, Forest seemed to lose confidence as Leeds began to find their way, and an unfortunate error caused by Wes Morgan when his pass was intercepted by a Leeds player led to an equaliser for the away side from Lloyd Sam who headed past Lee Camp, who until then had had hardly anything to do. Forest only really had themselves to blame for not making the most of their earlier superiority.

After a poor second half display in which Forest failed to carve out a single shot on target, I was just very relieved to come out of it with a point. We were hanging on by a thread towards the end, and I was just counting down the six minutes of injury time not even thinking about Forest possibly nicking a late winner. We were actually rather fortunate to end the game with eleven men on the pitch after Chris Gunter escaped with just a yellow card for a blatant stamp on a Leeds player's foot. That provoked a furious reaction, which led to a bit of a mêlée in the goal mouth. It could have developed into a brawl, which is not something Forest could afford to get involved in, having been punished by the FA for failing to control their players twice in the past year.

Listening to the post-match phone-in on Radio Nottingham as I walked back to our car, I had to keep reminding myself that Forest hadn't actually lost the game. Some fans sounded pretty much suicidal. It is only August, isn't it? We've only played two games, and while it is concerning what is happening behind the scenes with the lack of signings, it's not as if we need major surgery to make us competitive. We just need one or two additions – a creative midfielder and a striker probably. We are relying too much on Earnshaw and Blackstock at the moment, and there is a danger that they might get too comfortable. David McGoldrick is crocked for three months, Joe Garner has gone out on loan, Nathan Tyson keeps being used as a winger, and Dele Adebola is...well Dele Adebola. God forbid anything happens to Earnshaw or Blackstock. We're not scoring enough goals when they're in the team, let alone if one of them is missing.

The end of the transfer window is little over a fortnight away, and Nigel Doughty and Mark Arthur have hinted that they will be waiting until then before bringing in any players. That is all well and good if they do manage to bring someone in, but there is a danger that they will miss out completely. Then we will be forced to patch the side up with loaned players until January. We're only allowed a maximum of four in the squad at any one time, don't forget, and with Ryan Bertrand already at the Club, that leaves us a maximum of three players. We really do need to sign somebody permanently, but after reading Doughty's programme notes, I'm not at all confident that we will be signing anyone now. Basically he said that Forest's difficulty at being able to bring in new players this summer was down to the 'current financial climate'. Well, how does that explain how other clubs, some much smaller than us, have managed to do it? Basically the much-maligned Acquisitions Panel didn't try hard enough. Their bids for Peter Whittingham have been quite rightly labelled as 'derisory' by Cardiff. I sometimes think Forest actually don't want to get promoted the way they go so half-heartedly about their business.

The League Cup needs melting down, and I'm not just saying that because we're out!

2010-08-11T14:43:00.006+01:00

I can't pretend that I felt gutted about last night's defeat at League Two side Bradford in the Carling Cup. To sum up my feelings if losing to Derby feels like being punched in the stomach, this didn't even feel so bad as pricking my finger. They should rename this competition the Couldn't-give-a-damn Cup, because that's how I now feel about it, and I know it's the opinion of many of the game's top managers.

While there will be some Forest fans scratching their heads over the team's inability to beat a side two divisions below them, I am not very surprised at the result. In fact the only unpredictable thing about last night was that the Reds even bothered to put in any effort at all. With so many key players missing owing to international duty, Billy Davies struggled to put a decent side out, so there were recalls for seemingly forgotten men Joel Lynch and Matt Thornhill.

Nathan Tyson was given a rare chance up front on his own as Paul Anderson and Gareth McCleary were handed their first starts of the season occupying the left and right wings respectively. Bradford were hardly in the game at all in the first half as Forest dominated proceedings. It was therefore of little surprise when Thornhill became the first player to score for Forest this season when he converted Anderson's cross in the 36th minute.

The Reds did more than enough to bury Bradford once and for all, but a sloppy mistake from Luke Chambers at the back let them back into it early in the second half, and despite their best efforts, Forest just could not find a way past the Bradford goalkeeper, who was in inspired form, denying Chambers the opportunity to atone for his earlier error.

By the time the match went into extra time, Forest looked like they had run out of ideas, and Bradford took the lead ten minutes into the first period thanks in part to an ex-Notts County player, Simon Ramsden, whose free-kick was spilled and James Hanson bundled the ball home. That proved to be the winner and sent Forest out of the competition at the first hurdle. It's all a far cry from two decades ago when Forest used to take it very seriously, winning it four times in little over a decade between 1978 and 1990, but it's a different climate now. The Championship is where it's at, and that's all we have to concentrate on between now and January. Hopefully the result at Bradford was not a sign of things to come in the League, because if it is, we really do have big problems.

A new season, but it's the same old story for Forest on their travels

2010-08-09T10:29:00.011+01:00

So here we go again, the start of another long season, which for Forest has started pretty much in the same way they ended the last one – still with no idea how to win away from home.

To be fair, Forest did play very well at Burnley, and it was a vast improvement on our last trip there two seasons ago when we were thrashed 5-0. From what I saw of the live stream on the internet, we looked the better side in terms of possession. Burnley, just relegated from the Premiership after one season, looked fairly ordinary, but a goal on the stroke of half time proved to be enough for them as Forest's final ball was dreadful, and I don't recall them having one shot on target. Our midfield was very lacking in creativity and dynamism. With the defensive Paul McKenna and Guy Moussi in the middle, that wasn't much of a surprise. Billy Davies left Raddy Majewski on the bench and his persistence of playing Nathan Tyson on the left wing will never get us anywhere. This time last year Tyson was the Trent End darling following his now infamous corner flag heroics after the win over Derby, but now he seems to have taken on the vacant scapegoat role following James Perch's surprise departure to Newcastle. I still think he has something to offer as a centre forward, but as a winger definitely not.

We have been trying to address the left winger problem with financially troubled Cardiff's Peter Whittingham being a subject of a couple of bids which have been swiftly rejected. According to Mark Arthur, Whittingham, along with Swansea's Darren Pratley wants to join Forest, although Arthur might well have unintentionally put the kibosh on both deals now as Cardiff and Swansea are said to be furious that Arthur had been 'tapping up' their players. If the clubs are now even more unwilling to sell because of Arthur's comments, Forest fans are going to be absolutely livid. Arthur has never been very popular anyway, so if the deals for Whittingham and Pratley fall through, a lot of vitriol is going to be heading firmly in his direction.

Forest's poor showing in the transfer market this summer has dampened the fans' spirits, and it's no secret that the players too have being feeling very disillusioned about the lack of new faces. One might think that they would be happy about the lack of competition for their places, but that does not seem to be the case. The players feel that being forced to fight for their shirt turns them into better players. Competition is the key to a successful team because everybody is busting a gut to get into the side, rather than just be happy to turn up, put in a lacklustre performance and take home a hefty pay packet, as we have suspected has been the motivation of several of our less popular players over the years. Naming no names, of course.

At least we have sorted out the long-standing left back problem anyway. I won't pretend that I know anything about Ryan Bertrand, but I gather he's being talked up as being the 'next Ashley Cole'. We've got him for six months, so that's something, although I would have liked to have signed someone permanently. We had been trying to bring Nicky Shorey back, but his reluctance to drop down from the Premiership proved to be a stumbling block. Bertrand comes with a good Championship pedigree, having spent last season on loan at Reading, and the season before that at Norwich. He had an accomplished debut on Saturday, so I'm sure he'll do a really good job for us while he is here.

A painful but necessary defeat

2010-05-12T12:31:00.005+01:00

You didn't honestly believe Forest were going to get to Wembley, did you? Okay, so we hadn't lost at the City Ground since September, and hadn't conceded a goal there in eight matches, but when it comes to play-off semi-finals Forest just never deliver, so although the second half collapse against Blackpool felt shocking, it's not really a surprise.

I genuinely did want us to go through to Wembley, yes, but I'm secretly feeling relieved more than anything to be absolutely truthful. It was a very painful way to lose, but it would have been a lot harder to come to terms with if it happened at Wembley. We've now got experience of three play-off semi-final failures in the space of seven years, so we as a fan base have become used to dealing with it. But if you think I felt heartbroken last night, you would be quite wrong. 'Majorly disappointed' would best sum up my feelings. Usually I can't abide the players saying they are disappointed with a result when they should be saying they are gutted or devastated. But last night's defeat was nowhere near as soul-destroying as the Yeovil semi-final three years ago. Back then I finished the match unable to look up as the players trudged off the pitch in tears. I couldn't move out of my seat as I sat there crying my eyes out as my dad and brothers stood around trying in vain to console me. This time around, although I did come close to shedding tears when Forest found themselves chasing three goals, I made sure I stood with my scarf aloft my head as the players did a walk around at the end. Obviously they did not deserve to be applauded for their performance on the night, but the season overall has defied all our expectations, so for that the squad did deserve recognition. It made me feel so much better when right at the end of the game the Forest fans who had not already left the ground gave the dejected players a big round of applause. I was very concerned that people would be feeling very sorry for themselves and that the players would leave the field in disgrace. That would have been a very sad conclusion to a brilliant season, so I am so glad the fans had the good grace to do that, because it not only made ourselves feel better, but the players, too. Some of them had sunk to the ground with their heads bowed after the game, which made for a depressing sight, but I think they will realise it's probably best that we're still in the Championship because it will mean the squad will be largely the same next season with one or two additions.

Whoever we do sign, the absolute top priority is a left back. It's ridiculous that we've gone throughout the whole season not having a recognised one with the exception of Nicky Shorey who was with us on loan for a while. Had we persuaded Shorey to stay on, I think we might well have gone on to make automatic promotion. Instead, left back has been filled by a number of players since Shorey's departure, none of whom are comfortable playing there. Chris Cohen, Chris Gunter, Luke Chambers, and most recently James Perch have all been deployed in the position at some stage. It was the lack of a good quality left back that I think was our downfall last night as the defence completely fell apart in the second half as a four-goal blast from Blackpool, three of which came from DJ Campbell, put paid to Forest's Wembley hopes once and for all.

It had all started so promisingly when Robbie Earnshaw, who earned a recall to the side, gave Forest an early lead in the seventh minute. The roof virtually came off the City Ground. At half time, following a good first 45-minute display, the Forest fans had plenty of reasons to be hopeful of victory. But terrible defensive errors after the break saw Blackpool inflict a humiliating defeat on Forest. They went back in front on aggregate ten minutes into the second half when Campbell slotted past Lee Camp, who perhaps shouldn't have come out of his goal to claim the ball. But within ten minutes Forest were on level terms again when Earnshaw scored from six yards out for his second goal of the night. Cue very loud chants of 'Robbie Earnshaw is a red' from three quarters of the stadium. That must have left a lump in his throat, but his brace turned out to mean nothing in the end as Blackpool were out to spoil the party, although they were given a considerable helping hand by the Forest team, who defended woefully. Substitute Stephen Dobbie's deflected long-range shot made it 3-2 on aggregate to Blackpool with 18 minutes to go, and within four minutes a horrible mistake by Perch in a dangerous area allowed Campbell to score a second, and leave Forest needing two goals to draw level. With ten minutes plus injury time remaining, that might have been achievable, but in the 80th minute Campbell completed his hat-trick and left Forest's Wembley dream in tatters. A goal in injury time made the scoreline on the night a little bit more respectable when substitute Dele Adebola scored from close range, but Forest had to concede that over the two legs they had been second best and Blackpool deserved to go through. They may have finished sixth, three places lower than Forest, but having beaten us four times this season, we cannot claim to be a better side then them. Last night's performance showed that we have got a lot of work to do before we can genuinely say we're worthy of Premiership football. Good luck to Blackpool, though. If they go up, they're going to need it. As for Forest, we're probably better off out of it.

Advantage Blackpool, but home form makes us favourites for Wembley

2010-05-09T11:36:00.017+01:00

I had a feeling that if Forest could get away with a one-goal deficit in the first leg at Blackpool then they would have a great chance of emerging the winners on aggregate back at the City Ground.

I don't want to tempt fate too much (God knows we were all guilty of that three years ago against Yeovil), but I am very confident that we will do enough on Tuesday night to win and at least take the game into extra time if need be. We may have lost to Blackpool three times this season already, but let's not forget that their victory over us at home was right at the start of the season when we hadn't hit form yet. And besides, our team that day was a lot different to how it is now. Rob Earnshaw won't be up front all on his own for one thing, and Paul Anderson, who was left on the subs bench that day, should be occupying one of the wings. He terrorised Blackpool yesterday with his pace, so hopefully will be a key player for us in the second leg. There will be no point in man-marking him, because we have many other sources of danger in our team, so we will be very hard to stop. Blackpool could put ten men behind the ball, but they will still have a difficult job, so I think they are going to go all out on the attack and try and get a second goal. This should help us as they will leave themselves open at the back. Whatever happens, it's going to be a very exciting and nervy evening, but it won't be anywhere near as devastating as that terrible night in 2007 against Yeovil. We simply had to get out of League One that season, but I don't think many fans would be too upset once the dust has settled on another play-off defeat that we are still in the Championship, considering how far we've come in a year.

It was a tremendous boost to hear that Paul McKenna was back in the starting line-up after seemingly being ruled out for the rest of the season. There had been some murmurs that he would have an outside chance of making it. To be honest, I think he was probably available for the last couple of weeks, but Billy Davies sensibly decided to give him extra time to recover, and perhaps fool Forest's potential play-off opponents into thinking he wouldn't be playing. It was a huge lift for the Club at the end of a pretty good week that saw us clinch the permanent £1.5 million signing of Radoslaw Majewski, and Chris Cohen's quick recovery from a bout of Mumps, which had threatened to rule him out of the play-offs altogether, was also a shot in the arm.

Cohen must have been very worried that he would miss out on all the excitement when he fell ill, so it's no wonder he looked so delighted when he gave Forest an early lead with a long-range pile driver from the edge of the penalty area. It was a goal worthy of the good-quality passing football that Forest were playing, but their lead did not last long as Blackpool were back on level terms less than 15 minutes later when Kevin Southern netted from close range. It was a really entertaining first 45 minutes with Forest having the better chances. Dexter Blackstock and Wes Morgan both went extremely close to restoring the lead, while Lee Camp had relatively little to do at the other end.

While Blackpool failed to trouble Camp much after the break, sadly Forest offered little themselves. Perhaps Davies was content to play for a draw rather than go for goals, but it was a decision that may come back to haunt him as Forest had really looked very threatening before the break and could easily have gone on to score a few goals in the second half and set themselves up as red-hot favourites to reach Wembley. But James Perch, who it's got to be said had a very shaky game at right back, gave away a penalty just before the hour-mark, and Charlie Adam, a constant thorn in Forest's side all season, made it 2-1 from the penalty spot. The closest Forest came to equalising was when Cohen produced an excellent save from the Blackpool goalkeeper with another long-range shot in the dying moments of injury time. What a hero he would have been had it gone in, and considering his ill-health leading up to the game, it would have been some story.

Still, the result could have been a lot, lot worse. I think Davies will be much happier than Ian Holloway with the scoreline because really to have the upper hand in this two-legged tie Blackpool could have done with a two-goal cushion. It really is all to play for on Tuesday night. I actually think that the fact that we are chasing the game this time around could work in our favour. Against Yeovil, even before the game, the Forest players were accused of believing their place at Wembley had already been assured, and their shocking performance certainly backed up those claims. They will not be complacent this time around and know that they are going to have to be at their very best to go through.

Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be, this season has been lovely jubbly!

2010-05-02T16:52:00.011+01:00

At last the play-off final places have been sorted out, and Forest will be meeting Blackpool in the semi-finals with the first leg to be played next Saturday lunchtime. Bring them on!

As I've been saying throughout the season, I am not bothered if we go up or not. I personally feel right at home in the Championship and will feel sad to leave it, and if we do go up, I am not sure I will feel as high as a kite like I did two years ago when we got out of League One on the final day. I really want to feel ecstatic, and maybe I will be swept up in the euphoria on the day, but at the moment I just feel cold when I think of the Premiership. I will be very sad to see this wonderful squad of ours broken up after only a season. Only two or three of them are capable of making it in the top flight, so we would need major surgery just to make us competitive. We will be everybody's favourites to come straight back down, and we could end up being as bad as Derby were, or worse...perish the thought. It might be exciting at first, but after a while when we've gone something like 15 games without a win, it will be a chore going to games with the feeling that we are half-beaten before we've even kicked a ball. Do you really want ten months of that? I know I don't.

Blackpool are the only team who have beaten us both home and away this season so they may feel that gives them a psychological advantage, while Forest will be seeing it as a revenge mission. Forest only visited Blackpool two weeks ago, where we lost lost 3-1. Many of our first team players were rested that day, mind you, so it's difficult to gauge anything from it. But with Forest having not won away in ten games, Blackpool will have every right to feel confident in the first leg. They will be desperate to get at least a two-goal cushion because they would then come up against Forest's formidable home record of 18 wins in 20 games. Incidentally the last time Forest were beaten in the League at the City Ground was against...yes, you guessed it, Blackpool. We suffered a 1-0 defeat against them back in September, but it was a game we didn't deserve to lose, even if our team line-up that day was a little bit suspect. I remember being angry with Davies for playing the diminutive Robbie Earnshaw up on his own that day. No wonder we did everything but score!

I'm so glad that we finished third in the table, because we have had a great season and deserve to be rewarded for it as much as possible. It was a shame that we couldn't hold on to our 2-0 lead at Scunthorpe. We looked completely in control at half time after goals from Joe Garner and George Boyd (remember him?), but Scunny got themselves back into it early in the second half, and a ghastly mistake by substitute Gareth McCleary three minutes from the end gifted the home side an equaliser and denied Forest victory on the last day of the season. Not that the result really mattered as Forest still finished third as Cardiff, needing a win to overhaul us, lost at Derby. The really interesting games were elsewhere at Swansea and Blackpool, where victory for either could have seen them earn the final play-off place, but Blackpool were the ones who qualified even though they only managed to draw against Bristol City as Swansea failed to beat Doncaster. I'm just relieved we have managed to avoid Leicester. If we are to lose the play-off semi-finals, then I would have hated it to have been against them. We'd already endured a heavy thrashing at the Walkers' Stadium a couple of months ago, and the thought of them doing the same in the first leg filled me with dread. It would have been humiliating against a team that regards us as their biggest rivals. But if we meet them at Wembley, I think it would be a tight game. A Forest-Leicester final would be the dream scenario from a media point of view. I have had a gut feeling we would be meeting Leicester again this season for a long time, so I really believe it is going to happen! I may not necessarily want to get promoted, but I really do want to visit Wembley with Forest. I was only ten and just a teletext fan when Forest treated it like their second home, and it would make up for us missing out so cruelly three years ago.

Reds ensure home advantage in play-offs with easy win

2010-04-25T12:29:00.010+01:00

Forest ended their home programme in fitting style with an easy 3-0 win over relegated Plymouth. The victory ensures that the Reds will play the second leg of the play-offs at the City Ground. That should give Forest considerable advantage considering how dominant they have been at home this season.

Most of the first teamers who were rested against Blackpool were recalled to the starting line-up, which was something of a surprise as Billy Davies had hinted that he would be giving some of the fringe players another run-out. But with the play-off semi-finals looming ever closer, Davies was prepared to take the risk with injuries and suspensions by playing a near full-strength team. The 22,000+ Forest fans wouldn't have been best pleased to pay good money to watch useless long balls being lumped up the field to Dele Adebola after all.

Before the game, Lee Camp, who has had a magnificent season, was awarded the Player of the Year title. While it has been a tremendous team effort this season to earn a play-off place, Camp's heroics in goal, particularly away from home when Forest were on that long unbeaten run before Christmas, earned us a lot of points, which might not have been possible without him. I really hope that we can hold on to him next season if we don't get promoted, because I reckon there will be a few Premiership clubs enquiring about him in the summer. He is one of the few players that I think could make the step up.

Forest played some excellent football in the first half and took the lead nearly twenty minutes in when a neat ball from Radoslaw Majewski sent Rob Earnshaw clear through on goal before firing past the goalkeeper to score his 15th goal of the campaign. Their lead was doubled 15 minutes later when Bonza N'Gala scored an own goal, which may have deflected off Dexter Blackstock. Although Camp did have to make one or two saves, Forest looked very comfortable at half-time, and in the second half didn't seem in too much of a hurry to add to their lead. The crowd decided to make their own entertainment by instigating a Mexican wave. This created a carnival atmosphere, which with the backdrop of warm sunshine, made for an enjoyable day out. But with what was virtually the last kick of the game Forest did get themselves another goal when Paul Anderson, who had earlier come on as a substitute, exchanged passes with Lewis McGugan to score from a few yards out. It was a nice way for Forest to end their season at home by getting a goal right at the end. I just knew it was going to happen!

At the end of the match the entire squad did their annual lap of honour, which in recent seasons has been a bit of a misnomer, but this time around, even wben nothing has actually been won – yet – the players, Davies and his staff thoroughly deserve a huge round of applause for making Forest such a pleasure to watch again, which has rarely been the case in the 21st century.

Sea air fails to lift Reds' spirits as Blackpool do the double

2010-04-18T09:36:00.006+01:00

When you think about it, one point from 27 away from home is absolutely pathetic. It's hard to believe that until the end of January we had the best away record in the whole country.

Blackpool needed the points a lot more than us as they were chasing a play-off place, and if results went our way we could guarantee ourselves a third-place finish in the Championship. But Billy Davies decided that this was an ideal opportunity to give his key players a much needed rest with the play-off semi-finals just around the corner. Even Chris Gunter, who had until Saturday played every minute of Championship football, was left on the bench, which must have annoyed him as he was so close to completing a full season. His omission from the starting line-up gave forgotten man Joel Lynch a rare chance to impress at left back after spending most of the season out injured. There were also recalls for Dele Adebola, David McGoldrick and Joe Garner, who for so long has found himself playing out on the right wing when called upon and was given a chance in his more accustomed role of centre forward.

Blackpool were second best until they were awarded a dubious penalty half an hour into the game. Charlie Adam made it an undeserved 1-0 to the home side from the spot after David McGoldrick was adjudged to have tripped Seamus Coleman. Not for the first time were Forest forced to pay for their inability to turn their possession into shots on target. And in the second half, despite the Reds doing most of the pressing in the early stages, it was Blackpool who scored the next goal when DJ Campbell struck the ball from ten yards out, and it seemed that Forest were heading for yet another away defeat.

The introduction of substitutes Dexter Blackstock and Rob Earnshaw on the stroke of the hour gave Forest some much-needed firepower, and within five minutes, the Reds were back in the game when Garner scored his first goal in God-knows-how-long when he headed home from a Chris Cohen free-kick. But even though Forest looked the much more likely team to score, Blackpool killed the game off with seven minutes remaining with a second goal from DJ Campbell to make it 3-1, and set the Tangerines on their way to their second victory over Forest this season. Once again, despite their hard work, Forest had to face the long journey back to Nottingham with nothing to show for it.

With almost-relegated Plymouth being the next visitors to the City Ground, Forest will be hopeful that they can secure at least third or fourth spot and therefore have the home leg of the play-offs after the away tie. With their recent away record being so poor, it's probably going to be the key between us reaching Wembley or not.

Job done. Forest qualify for the play-offs

2010-04-11T10:47:00.010+01:00

Forest confirmed their place in the play-offs with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over former fans' favourite Roy Keane's Ipswich at the City Ground.

Ipswich, who not so long ago were embroiled in a relegation fight, but have since clawed their way to mid-table safety, came to Nottingham in good form, having won at Derby on Bank Holiday Monday. And they certainly began the game in a confident manner, and posed the Forest defence a number of problems with Lee Camp having to be very alert between the posts. Forest, too, got forward a lot and applied a lot of pressure, earning a succession of corners, but unlike Camp, the Ipswich goalkeeper had very little to do in the first half.

Ipswich really deserved to be at least one goal up at the break, but as things transpired in the second half, they were left to ponder what might have been, as Forest started the second half in the best possible fashion by taking the lead very early on, and just got stronger and stronger after that. Rob Earnshaw did all the hard work with a free-kick, which took a lucky deflection off Luke Chambers on its way into the net. Chambers was credited with the goal, but Earnie quite rightly deserved the plaudits. That goal really spurred Forest on, and just over ten minutes later Guy Moussi tapped in from close range following an excellent run by Chris Gunter to score his second goal in a week. The Reds really looked comfortable now with Ipswich appearing to have given up, and as if there was any doubt at all that the points belonged to Forest, Earnshaw made sure that his name did actually get on the scoresheet when he put Forest in cruise control with a close-range effort with quarter of an hour remaining. With the news that West Brom had won at Doncaster and therefore booked their place in the Premiership, Forest's ghostly faint hopes of stealing the second automatic promotion spot were ended, but the win and favourable results elsewhere mean that we will definitely be in the play-offs, as if there was any doubt about that. When you consider that a exactly a year ago this weekend Dexter Blackstock's last-minute winner against Bristol City saw us climb out of the relegation zone, you have to say what a fantastic achievement. Whatever happens from hereon in, Forest can be very proud of themselves.

Thirteenth-game unlucky as winning home run comes to end

2010-04-06T09:43:00.007+01:00

It's a rather strange feeling not winning a home game, having won our last 12, but I guess it was always going to come to an end sometime, and earning a point against an in-form Cardiff City is nothing to sniff at.

It would have been nice to break the record and win 13 in a row, but I'm sure that Billy Davies is more than happy to share it with Cloughie. Let's just hope that Forest won't suddenly crumble at home like they did away when they lost their 19-match unbeaten record.

To be honest, I'm just relieved to get a point out of it, because for a long time it looked like Cardiff were going to make mince meat out of us. They were dominating in the early part of the first half and Forest were playing like an away side. Thankfully we did get more and more into the game, though, and by the latter stages of the match Forest were looking the more likely to score. Our final ball was not good, though, with Rob Earnshaw and Dexter Blackstock looking out of sorts. Both of them had one-on-one chances to score, which when in form, they would probably have buried.

It was good to get yet another clean sheet at home. I can't remember when we last let in a goal at the City Ground. It certainly bodes well for the play-offs if we can take this impressive form into the semi-finals in a month's time. Whoever we play, I don't see us having an easy time of it, though. If we are playing Leicester, I can't see us thrashing them like we did back in December. And if our opponents are Swansea or Cardiff, we already know that we are in for a tough home leg against them. The key will be our result in the away leg. We might be able to get away with a 1-0 defeat, but if we lose two-or three-nil, I would say that's probably game over, because I can't see us overcoming that in the second leg. In the meantime, we have four Championship games left, and we can use them to discover our form in front of goal in readiness for the more important matches in mid-May.

Forest finally get some luck away as play-offs edge closer

2010-04-04T10:33:00.010+01:00

I'm so glad that Forest have ended that horrible losing streak away from home. It was in danger of becoming a real problem for us, so psychologically it was very important to put a halt to the run of defeats with the play-off semi-finals coming up.

We may be mathematically still capable of catching West Brom, but that would require Brom to lose four of their five games and Forest would probably need to win all five of theirs. It's just not going to happen. Brom had their sticky patch of form earlier this year, but they overcame it. Forest had the chance to capitalise on it, but they didn't take it, and ever since our superb victory at the Hawthorns we have got progressively weaker away, while the Baggies have got stronger. They deserve to go up on that basis, and we can have no right to grumble about it. Teams that go up automatically should have a good record away, and while that was the case up until the Derby game at the end of January, a team that loses seven away matches on the bounce has no right to call themselves Premiership quality.

With a place in the play-offs all but assured, and two games in three days, it was not much of a surprise to see some of the fringe players in the starting line-up. There were recalls for Luke Chambers at right back, and former Bristol City striker Dele Adebola, and David McGoldrick up front. Two of the changes were enforced as Rob Earnshaw and Paul Anderson were nursing injuries. The absence of Anderson gave George Boyd, who failed to even make the squad at Newcastle, a chance to impress on the left wing.

I was thinking 'here we go again' when Bristol City took the lead after just two minutes through a Liam Fontaine thunderbolt which caught Lee Camp completely off guard. But to Forest's credit, they dug in and were rewarded for their efforts half an hour into the game when Guy Moussi equalised with an exquisite 25-yard strike.

Substitutes Nathan Tyson and Joe Garner, who was given a rare opportunity up front, went close to putting Forest in front in the second half. And when Bristol City, who had used all three of their substitutes, were forced to play their statuesque 6ft 8 striker Stefan Mairerhofer in goal for the last five minutes following injury to their goalkeeper, victory seemed to be Forest's for the taking. But typically the Reds didn't even test him once, and seemed happy to settle for a point.

The last five games will be merely practise for the play-offs, so results are no longer that important as long as we enter the semi-finals in a confident frame of mind. We will probably finish third or fourth so the second leg will be at the City Ground, which in theory should give us advantage. I say in theory, because we all remember (although how we wish we could forget) the terrible capitulation against Yeovil three years ago when we thought we had done all the hard work in the first leg...

A performance to be proud of, despite defeat

2010-03-30T10:17:00.005+01:00

If we forget the fact that last night's defeat at Premiership-bound Newcastle was our seventh straight loss away from home, we should be really proud of Forest's performance. It took Newcastle seventy minutes before they breached our defence, and we were undone by a very good goal, too. That's why I don't feel in the least bit depressed about losing, because I expected a right good thrashing if I'm being honest.

Billy Davies' decision to revert to the 4-5-1 formation that had been so successful during our long unbeaten spell away seemed to work wonders as we looked much more like the side that looked a good bet for automatic promotion a few months ago. We defended brilliantly, particularly James Perch at right back, who put in one fantastic challenge after another. Lee Camp was also once again in fine form as Forest did everything they could to stop Newcastle from scoring. At least we managed to last until half time having not conceded a goal, which has been a rare occurrence for visiting opposition to St James' Park this season.

Forest have often been guilty of only showing up in one half, but they were just as good after the break and they continued to frustrate the Magpies. We clearly hadn't come for a point, either, as we looked very threatening on the counter attack and played some good passing football. Our finishing was very poor, though, and I don't remember us seriously testing the Newcastle goalkeeper once. The closest we came was when a below-par Dexter Blackstock badly mis-hit a shot in the first half.

Newcastle finally took the lead when substitute Shola Ameobi, who had replaced the injured Andy Caroll, who Forest probably were glad to see the back of, given his recent red hot goalscoring spell, scored a goal which would not look out of place in the Premiership. It had come just after Radoslaw Majewski had lost possession of the ball in midfield, but Forest could have no arguments about the quality of Ameobi's finish.

I don't know whether it was a coincidence, but as soon as Davies made his first substitution, bringing on Gareth McCleary for Nathan Tyson, Newcastle scored. It seems to have happened a lot this season. We make a change, then the opposition score. It seems to unsettle us. It's true Tyson had to go off sooner or later because he was struggling with a slight injury, but Davies seems to be obsessed with bringing on three substitutes every game no matter what. I can only think of one match this season where only two substitutes were used, and that was only because it was injury time and we ran out of time. I could see Dele Adebola ready to come on. I can imagine that Davies felt rather annoyed that his pattern had been ruined! I was none too impressed with his changes last night. All McCleary did was give away silly free kicks, and I really didn't see the point of swapping Blackstock for David McGoldrick. Rob Earnshaw's record of two goals away from home all season didn't exactly fill me with much confidence, either.

These three substitutions really sucked the life out of us, instead of making us fresh. We may as well have stuck with the same eleven players, even if they were at risk of tiring themselves out. Newcastle had no need to worry when four minutes of injury time were declared as Forest had long given up the ghost. A second goal in the first minute of stoppage time made absolutely certain of the points, and almost certainly Newcastle's Premiership place next season. As for Forest, if we are to join them, barring a massive reversal of fortune in our away form and West Brom's results over the next six games, we'll have to do it the hard way through the play-offs.

Home is where the Hart is as Forest win yet again

2010-03-24T11:00:00.003Z

Paul Hart's first return to the City Ground since his acrimonious departure six years ago ended unhappily as Forest beat ten-man Crystal Palace to record their 12th straight home win, equalling the club record set by Brian Clough 30 years ago.

In Hart's final season with the Club he was not a popular man as most supporters clamoured for his sacking as Forest were plunging dangerously close towards relegation into the third tier. But judging by the rapturous reception he got as A-Block chanted 'We love you Harty we do' which then prompted the rest of the home support to join in the applause, it seems that the majority of fans would rather remember him for those wonderful first two years when he brought through so many talented youth players into the first team. We reached the play-off semi-finals in his second year, but after losing to Sheffield United, Forest had a summer to forget as the silver was sold off and a bewildered Hart made some panic buys in the transfer market, and we ended up with a team full of past-it rejects. Hart was ultimately made to pay the price for the board's failings and he was dismissed half way through the following season. Forest survived relegation by the skin of their teeth thanks to the intervention of Joe Kinnear, but it turned out to be merely a stay of execution, and the following year Gary Megson couldn't prevent the inevitable and we were sent tumbling into League One.

Since then, a lot of water has passed under Trent Bridge of course, and looking back, Hart did more good than harm for the Club. In fact if it wasn't for his developing players like Michael Dawson, Andy Reid, and Jermaine Jenas we might not even be here, as it was their multi-million pound sales that staved off administration. Hart, like so many of the other managers who have occupied the hot seat since Cloughie's retirement, was made a scapegoat for the board's incompetence, so I am glad that he got such a warm welcome back.

I was surprised that George Boyd was not included in the starting line-up as Billy Davies decided to keep faith with the side that beat Peterborough, except for an enforced change in defence that saw Luke Chambers come in for the injured James Perch. Chambers swapped places with Chris Gunter so he could play at right back with Gunter moving to the left. This made more sense as although Chambers is poor as a right back, at least he's had plenty of practice there. I would much rather we just signed a proper left back, though. I mean how hard can it be? We shouldn't be having to mess around playing midfielders and central defenders in this position. The loan window closes on Thursday, so let's hope that Davies is working extremely hard to bring somebody in, because it could make all the difference in the play-offs, if that is we don't by some miracle scrape automatic promotion.

It took Forest a whole half of football before they finally broke the deadlock, and what a goal it was...from Wes Morgan of all people. He fired in a 25-yard piledriver, a far cry from the usual close-range headers he has scored from in the past. I had wondered if Forest were ever going to score as Rob Earnshaw and Dexter Blackstock had been very quiet, and Forest were resorting to a lot of long-range efforts, as exemplified by Morgan's stunning strike.

We played a lot better football in the second half, and when Palace had Matt Lawrence shown a straight red card for a professional foul on Earnshaw 50 minutes in, Forest's task was made considerably easier. Eight minutes from time substitute Nathan Tyson had only been on the pitch two minutes when he was fed the ball by Paul Anderson after a really good run on the counter attack, and Tyson stabbed the ball home from close range to make it a comfortable 2-0 and ease the Forest fans' nerves as the clock ticked down. It was a rare opportunity for Tyson to play as a striker, and this was his first goal since his strike against Derby back in August. For so long he has been used as a left winger, but as a centre forward he can be lethal on a good day. His goal will give Davies food for thought and maybe he will finally be persuaded to stop persisting with the useless over-the-hill lump that is Dele Adebola.

Restive Reds make heavy weather of beating Boro

2010-03-21T10:33:00.008Z

I wasn't foolish enough to believe that Forest only had to turn up yesterday to bag the three points. Even though Peterborough look down and out and destined for League One, I knew that they would want to give a good account of themselves, and they certainly did that. The fact that Lee Camp was made Man of the Match says it all.

We could hardly use the wet weather as an excuse, because that didn't stop Peterborough from playing good football. Our half time lead given to us by a Rob Earnshaw tap-in after only thirteen minutes rather flattered us to be honest. Our defence had looked very shaky, and Camp, so often reduced to being a mere spectator at the City Ground for long periods of games this season, was certainly made to earn his money on this occasion. We weren't helped when James Perch was forced to leave the action just twenty minutes into the game when he picked up an injury. He was replaced by Luke Chambers, who all things considered, did a reasonable job playing in an unaccustomed position at left back.

It's perhaps not much of a surprise that Peterborough looked a far cry from a team all but relegated, because with the pressure off them they could just enjoy playing football. Forest on the other hand looked very nervy at the back, and by the end of the match they were very grateful to Camp, who once again did his best to live up to his 'England's number one' tag bestowed on him by the fans. It was a bit embarrassing for the rest of the players that the goalkeeper won Man of the Match against the rock bottom side, but maybe you get these kind of results at this stage of the season, so perhaps we shouldn't be too harsh, especially when Forest have endured a difficult week that saw them lose two away games. The Reds have not been playing well lately at all and we have seen our automatic promotion chances all but disappear. We still remain eight points adrift despite the win as West Brom won their home game against Preston. But there are still eight games left and 24 points to play for, so it's not out of the question that we can't overhaul them still. If anyone wants any inspiration, they only need to cast their minds back two years ago when we were some 11 points behind Doncaster and Carlisle with eight games to go, and we all know what happened next...

Forest's travel woes worsen as Baggies blast ahead

2010-03-17T10:12:00.010Z

What is happening to Forest's away form? How did we go from being almost a year unbeaten to losing seven games in a row? It doesn't seem to matter who our opponents happen to be, be it Birmingham or Barnsley, we just don't seem to have a clue what we're doing on our travels at the moment, and consequently it's seen our automatic promotion hopes go up in smoke.

It says it all how badly things are going for us that Barnsley took the lead when they had hardly been in the game at all. It was Forest who were doing all the pressing, but a momentary lapse in concentration in defence allowed the home side to take the lead just 12 minutes into the game. And you got the feeling that despite it being only a one-goal lead, Forest's confidence would take such a dip that they would struggle to get back in the match. Even though their dominance of the first half had deserved a goal, their final ball was very poor, in particular from Dele Adebola who was starting in place of Dexter Blackstock, who was left out of the starting line-up because he was nursing a slight knock. Adebola found himself clean through on two occasions, but his shot was off-target both times. Had it been Rob Earnshaw or Blackstock, nine times out of ten, the ball would have been in the net, but Adebola really showed his age last night. He should never start games, as he just cannot cut it any more. Coming on as a late substitute to shore things up is fine, but his performance last night, and indeed throughout the season, proves that he should not be starting games.

Just when Forest were looking increasingly likely to equalise in the second half, they suffered a body blow when Earnshaw, who was doing some defensive work, tripped Filipe Teixeira in the penalty area. He was booked for his trouble, and Daniel Bogdanovic, who had scored Barnsley's first goal, made it a rather flattering 2-0 to Barnsley from the spot. Again, Forest's poor defending had cancelled out all their hard work, and they only had themselves to blame. Blackstock came on as a substitute for Adebola, and it took him only four minutes to score and resurrect Forest's hopes of getting something from the game. But, alas, it was not to be, and the Reds' disastrous away form continues as West Brom pulled further away from them in the table with an excellent away win at Swansea. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

Forest badly missing McKenna as automatic promotion hopes start to drift away

2010-03-13T18:52:00.007Z

Exactly a year ago today, Forest were on the receiving end of a humiliating 5-0 thrashing at Lancastrians Burnley. Fast forward 52 weeks later, and this time it was Burnley's near neighbours Preston who gave Forest a footballing lesson as the woeful Reds found themselves trailing by three goals after only half an hour. A brave comeback in the second half at least gave us a bit of pride and will hopefully help us rediscover our confidence on our travels, as this was our fifth consecutive away defeat in the League.

The big question before the game was how would Forest cope without influential captain Paul McKenna, who is likely to be out for the rest of the season. The answer to that is: badly. McKenna's replacement Lewis McGugan was very poor, and his central midfield sidekick Guy Moussi wasn't much better. As a result of our midfield being so flimsy, the defence was really under pressure, and Preston ran us ragged. It was of little surprise when they took the lead after 20 minutes, and then nearly ten minutes later had a deserved two-goal cushion when Chris Cohen gave away a penalty. Forest were absolutely awful and when Preston scored a third just three minutes later, it seemed that we were heading for a nightmare afternoon. The half time whistle could not come soon enough.

To the disgruntled Forest fans' pleasant surprise in the second half Forest were like a different team. Billy Davies' decision to substitute Luke Chambers for McGugan was a good one as this meant Cohen could move back into midfield where we were crying out for him so badly. It did mean Chambers playing in a strange position at left back, but at least we wouldn't look so hopeless in midfield. Forest could quite easily have given in after their shocker in the first half, but Cohen's presence in midfield seemed to make all the difference in the world as they played much more like a team chasing automatic promotion. Dexter Blackstock pulled a goal back from the penalty spot just before the hour after Cohen had been fouled, and a comeback seemed a real possibility when substitute Rob Earnshaw made it 3-2 with 15 minutes left. But try as they might the Reds just fell short of nicking an unlikely equaliser. Unfortunately they had to pay for their inept first half display.

It was a costly blow to our automatic promotions as West Brom's win over Blackpool stretches their lead over us to five points. Let's be honest a team with designs on automatic promotion shouldn't be losing five in a row away from home. If we are to be in the Premiership next season, it's looking very likely that we will get there via the play-offs. At the start of the season, we would have been delighted with that.

McKenna blow blackens Forest's late, late show

2010-03-07T14:27:00.013Z

Luke Chambers once again showed how valuable he can be in front of goal when he headed home in stoppage time from a corner to snatch all three points for Forest and deny Swansea what would have been a deserved point in their quest for a play-off place. But the euphoria of going back into second place in the table was tainted by the news that captain Paul McKenna could be sidelined for the rest of the campaign with ligament damage.

I knew something was badly wrong with McKenna when he limped off the field after just seven minutes and was replaced with Lewis McGugan. I didn't even see him get injured, and the fact that he was able to walk didn't suggest that he could be sidelined for a lengthy spell. Even though he had been playing not that well recently and Billy Davies had expressed a desire to rest him, it was still better to have a below-par McKenna in midfield than no McKenna at all.

Forest already had injury problems before kick-off as both Kelvin Wilson and Rob Earnshaw picked up training injuries on Friday. This meant a rare chance for Chambers to come into the side alongside Wes Morgan. I wasn't too unhappy about that as Chambers had done well earlier in the season in this position. But if we forget the fact that he scored the all-important match winner, he didn't exactly give Davies a good reason to give him an extended run in the team as he looked quite sloppy at times. This was probably down to rustiness more than anything as we've seen him play a lot better, but if Wilson is fit for the next game at Preston at the weekend, I think he'll be straight back in the side. It also highlights a need for us to sign another quality centre half, because although we have a very good defensive record this season, suddenly with Wilson's injury, the defence is looking rather flimsy. It's not exactly a good foundation to mount a promotion challenge upon. There are only 11 games left and it would be a shame if we were to fall just short because of our lack of squad depth, which could easily be sorted out with one or two astute loan signings.

At least we have signed a left winger anyway. The signing of George Boyd from Peterborough is a very inspiring one. They called him the 'White Pele' down at London Road, which is probably exaggerating his worth just a bit, but they insist he is the best player who has ever graced the turf at Peterborough. But then again it isn't particularly difficult to stand out at that Club! I thought he had a pretty good debut but he didn't see an awful lot of the ball. When he did get it, he looked quite impressive. I think he will turn out to be a big asset for us, and hopefully he will do enough to earn himself a permanent move in the summer. A fee has already been agreed between the two Clubs, and judging by his interviews he is delighted to be here. Middlesbrough were also interested in signing him, but our position in the table obviously proved more attractive.

It was important that with Swansea just behind us in fourth place, that they didn't beat us, because if they did they would have closed the gap to just two points with a game in hand. They were denied a penalty when Chris Cohen, who was playing at left back, brought down Darren Pratley, but fortunately for Forest the referee failed to spot it, and we got away with it. The way the game was going, I was more than happy to settle for a point and wasn't even thinking about us snatching a winner at the end. I was just counting down the time on my watch and hoping the referee would blow his whistle. I think it was nearly five o'clock when Chambers headed the winner unmarked at the far post. The game must have kicked off late because we did a minute's applause for Macclesfield Town manager Keith Alexander, who sadly died suddenly earlier in the week. I really like the idea of applauding rather than being silent. I think life should be celebrated no matter how short or long.

Travel sickness must be overcome if we want promotion

2010-02-28T13:25:00.009Z

I told you I wasn't looking forward to the trip to Leicester. I suspected we would be in for a really awkward afternoon, but even though losing to a good team like them is certainly no disgrace, the fact that it was a heavy defeat against a club that sees us as their biggest rivals is rather galling.

I wanted to get out of Leicester as quickly as I could after the game, and had an outside chance of catching my train back to Bedford at 17.30. I ran so fast that I was worried I would collapse from exhaustion when I boarded the train, about half a minute before it started moving out of the station. I was that desperate to get away from the hectoring home supporters that the thought didn't cross my mind that I might end up sitting next to one of them! Thankfully he was very friendly and kept insisting that Forest would still nick automatic promotion, but I told him it was more likely that we would be meeting the Foxes in the play-offs. Can you imagine a Forest-Leicester final?! That would be one red-hot (and blue) atmosphere, and I think after this, whatever the outcome, the perceived rivalry between the two Clubs would become a lot more tangible in the future. Even though I am not all that bothered if we go up or not – I don't believe we are ready for it – if it did come down to a Forest-Foxes showdown I would be feeling absolutely devastated if we lost to them. We would never ever hear the last of it , and what's more we would no longer be the top club in the East Midlands. Let's hope it doesn't come to this, but you have to admit that it is pretty likely that we will play them again this season.

It sounds like I am dismissing our automatic promotion chances by talking about the play-offs, and you may be right about that. Our away form has drastically nosedived from being 19 games unbeaten a month ago to losing four on the trot. Our home form remains very good, but that is not enough to keep us in the top two. We need to perform away as well, and at the moment we are really struggling. Billy Davies has got his tactics wrong recently and many of our players are showing signs of fatigue and loss of form. We have not been able to live up to the high standards we showed at West Brom back in January. In fact we haven't scored a single goal, never mind got a point. Why this is, I don't know. I had a feeling that as soon as the unbeaten run ended we would then go on a losing streak, and so it has proved. That run was down to us being full of confidence, and now it has gone we look like an average team on foreign turf.

I don't know what went wrong in the second half yesterday as I thought we looked in control before the break. We were the better side just about, but our inability to keep the ball was hugely frustrating and as a result there weren't many clear-cut chances. Our best opportunity came from an otherwise unanimated Robbie Earnshaw, whose overhead kick went wide. But Leicester themselves were no great shakes up front and resorted to long-ball. There were certainly no signs of the Foxes going on to win by such a comfortable margin.

But Forest were forced into a half-time substitution when Nathan Tyson replaced Paul Anderson, who apparently was physically sick at half time. That certainly explained his poor performance - he seemed incapable of beating anyone. Davies said later that there was a virus doing the rounds in the squad, which might seem a bit of a convenient excuse for the defeat. Unfortunately Tyson was as much use as a sieve carrying water, and Leicester began to assert their authority. Forest's cause was not helped by the referee, who seemed to be scared of awarding anything in our favour. Leicester took the lead mid-way through the half, and when they made it 2-0 direct from a free kick ten or so minutes from time, there seemed no way back at all for Forest, who were looking jaded and resigned to losing. Just a couple of minutes later the Foxes put the game beyond all reasonable doubt to make it a resounding 3-0, and thus condemn us to our heaviest loss of the season. The news that Derby had also lost was a small consolation, although the fact that it was at our main promotion rivals West Brom was greeted by unusually muted cheers.

Record-breaking Reds still looking good for promotion

2010-02-21T12:19:00.014Z

After being stuck on my regular Saturday train for the best part of three hours yesterday evening, I could have been in a stinking mood when I got home if Forest had lost against Middlesbrough. It could easily have been 'one of those days' where absolutely nothing goes right, and at times during the game when Forest couldn't appear to pass to save their lives, it did indeed seem that a defeat might be a strong possibility.

It was a very boring game with few moments of genuine quality from either side. It seems that lately away teams have come to the City Ground with a game plan to stop us playing good football. Opposition managers are well aware that we are very capable of thrashing their teams by four or five goals, as underlined in our performances against Doncaster, Leicester and QPR, but recently we have been forced to grind out results on our home turf, scrapping our way to slender 1-0 victories. It means that our defence has had to work a lot harder and keeping clean sheets suddenly becomes imperative rather than merely a bonus. Luckily Kelvin Wilson and Wes Morgan were once again excellent, and Lee Camp didn't let us down when called upon in the latter stages as we fought to hold on after Chris Cohen's 72nd minute opener following a brilliant piece of counter-attacking football involving Dexter Blackstock and Raddy Majewski.

By winning their ninth consecutive home game in one season, Forest broke a club record which had stood for some thirty years! No not even the great Brian Clough managed to achieve such a feat. And we were rewarded for the achievement by going back into second place, albeit possibly for only a day. It would be nice to think we could make it ten against Swansea in a fortnight as that's a good round figure, but Swansea will be tough to beat. In fact thay have lost fewer games than us this season, and they won at Derby this weekend. In the meantime, we must attempt to sort out our away form if we are to be taken seriously as automatic promotion contenders. It will be a tough task getting anything from Leicester who, notwithstanding their draw at lowly Plymouth on Saturday, have been in very good form lately, and what with it being a huge local derby (well, for them more than us) they are really going to be playing out of their skins. I can't say I am looking forward to it all that much, but you never know Forest might surprise us!

Forest back on form as bullying Blades get their just deserts

2010-02-17T11:55:00.007Z

I really wasn't looking forward to the Sheffield United game. On the back of two away defeats, I thought that a Forest side low on confidence would really struggle against a strong physical side. But to my surprise, we not only earned three points at home, making it eight straight wins at the City Ground, but we played some really good football as well.

When I heard the team news, I felt a lot more confident that we would do well as there were recalls for Paul Anderson, Rob Earnshaw and Dexter Blackstock. All three were rested for the Doncaster game at the weekend, and although he was criticised for it by some fans, perhaps Billy Davies felt vindicated by the fact that we started the game really full of energy. Most pleasing of all was that Paul McKenna and Raddy Majewski rediscovered their form and were at the heart of everything Forest did in midfield.

It took us all of four minutes to open the scoring when Earnshaw pounced from close range to tuck the ball over the line after Anderson's header had gone close. That turned out to be the only goal of the game as Forest failed to take advantage of their first half superiority and add to their lead. The second half was a lot more tense as United changed their approach and started to be a lot more physical, making it virtually impossible for us to play much free-flowing football. They resorted to dirty tactics, fouling our players every time we got forward. In fact we were only a minute or so into the second 45 minutes when the Blades were reduced to ten men for an off-the-ball incident involving Darius Henderson. He was alledged to have elbowed a Forest player, but not many witnessed the incident. In some ways, though, the red card probably did them more of a favour than us, as United realised they were really up against it and worked a lot harder as a result. In stoppage time they came close to grabbing an equaliser, but fortunately James Perch, who otherwise had a bit of a poor game at left back, made a great late tackle, and we managed to hold on by the skin of our teeth. There was more good news at the end of the game when news filtered through that West Brom had dropped a couple of points at Cardiff, and therefore we had reduced their lead over us to just two points. It seems certain at this stage that we will get a play-off spot at the very least as we are now some 13 points clear of seventh place, and it will take a very bad run of form to stop us now. The good thing is we have the bouncebackability factor. We could easily have got stuck in a rut after losing three in four games, but our performance last night showed that we are third in the Championship because we are a good team and totally deserve to be where we are.

Don't disrespect Davies, or he will walk

2010-02-14T14:18:00.008Z

I know Forest fans are notorious for being rather fickle, but to start booing Billy Davies as soon as we hit a blip is quite frankly pathetic.

Yes, we are playing pretty badly at the moment, losing our last three away games, but did you really expect us to be fantastic all season? Sooner or later we were bound to hit a stumbling block, but if the fans start getting on the manager and players' backs so quickly we will have less of a chance of getting out of the rut and start things going again.

Admittedly Billy's team selection for the trip to Doncaster was rather odd. Why on earth was Paul Anderson left out of the squad altogether? He hasn't been playing well recently, but it's not as if we had somebody better to replace him. In fact Nathan Tyson was awful, and if rumours are to believed, Anderson was not happy at being dropped.

The decision to play Dele Adebola up front on his own and leave Dexter Blackstock and Rob Earnshaw on the bench was another bone of contention with the Forest fans. Why be so negative against a good passing side like Doncaster? If we had played 4-4-2 like we do at home, we might have had a good chance of winning. It's as if Davies doesn't want us to get promoted. I always thought he was bluffing when he said that we were not ready to go up. Now I'm beginning to think he actually means it. Some people are saying on the forums that Davies deliberately fielded a weakened side to make a point to the board about squad depth. He keeps saying that certain players need resting to keep them fresh, but the fact is we need them out there for every game. I don't see why not they can't handle two games in a week. I don't think the players are all that happy about being 'rested'. They need to be playing regularly so they can discover their form. Earnshaw suffered badly from being constantly dropped, but once he got a run in the team he was back to his best. He couldn't even get on as a substitute yesterday. He and Blackstock might have made all the difference at Doncaster, but both were left out of the starting line-up. Adebola can be a good option to throw on in the last few minutes to see out a game, but playing him up front on his own is playing into the opposition's hands. Doncaster must have been delighted when they saw our line-up with players like Earnshaw, Blackstock and Anderson all missing. After the poor performance at Coventry on Tuesday, you couldn't blame Davies for wanting to change things around a bit, but the team he picked harked back to the bad old days under Colin Calderwood: i.e clueless. The midfield players were mostly dire. Tyson had an awful game, and yet he was the third player to be substituted, and Lewis McGugan failed to make the most of a rare chance to impress alongside Paul McKenna, whose performances just lately have really deteriorated. The only player to emerge with any real credit was Chris Cohen. But it was not much good him playing well when everyone else was rubbish.

It was not much of a surprise when Billy Sharp put Doncaster in the lead half an hour into the game. And the way Forest were playing you couldn't see a way back even at that early stage. It just didn't seem to be their day, and the state of the pitch certainly didn't help matters. When crowd favourite Radoslaw Majewski was later replaced by David McGoldrick, some of the Forest fans voiced their disapproval, which didn't go down too well with Davies, who after the match said that he felt he had been 'disrespected'. You want to watch it, Forest fans. Davies is not a man to be messed with. Once things start going badly, he can become very arrogant. We have one of the finest managers outside the top flight, and it would be an awful shame if he was to become unpopular with the fans over a few petty issues.

Faltering Forest could do with one or two fresh faces

2010-02-10T11:51:00.007Z

It's fair to say that Forest have gone a little bit off the boil recently. They have not played well in the last few games at all, and after losing for the first time since September last week, their confidence seems to have been sapped somewhat. Last night's 1-0 reversal at Coventry City was their second defeat in three games, and their third successive loss away from home if you include the Birmingham Cup game.

We were dominating the opening twenty minutes, but then Coventry scored completely against the run of play, taking advantage of some poor defending. Freddy Eastwood, the player who once said that Forest would be a sideways move from Southend, was the inevitable goalscorer. It was such a shame as until then Forest had looked the much more likely team to score, but the goal settled Coventry, and although they came close to equalising almost immediately through Joe Garner, who was making a rare appearance out on the right wing, they lost their way a little bit, and no amount of tinkering with the team seemed to make a difference.

The only good news of the night was that Newcastle lost 3-0 away from home. It's a pity it had to be against Derby of all teams, but just for one day we won't begrudge them their victory. It seems their win over us last week has really galvanised them. West Brom, as expected, won their home game against Scunthorpe, but we're still only four points away from both first and second place, so all is not lost in our quest to go up automatically.

I wasn't too depressed about losing last night because we can't expect them to be brilliant all season. Most good teams have a blip at some point during the season. Just look at what's happened to Leeds. They thought they had promotion all sewn up in League One, but now they're only four points clear of third place. And don't tell me that Derby are suddenly head and shoulders above Newcastle. See, it happens to all teams. We could probably do with one or two fresh faces on loan to see us through the remaining three months, especially a left back, as James Perch, try as he does, just isn't good enough to play there. It's a pity we couldn't persuade Nicky Shorey to extend his loan with us, rather than join Fulham on loan. But I suppose the lure of Premiership football was just too strong for him. But there must be other decent left backs who are available. Just somebody who plays in that position as a first choice would be a start. It's all very well playing Chris Cohen there, but then we lose him from midfield, and we really need him there. Let's hope that Billy is busy right now trying to bring somebody in, because it could be the difference between us playing in the top flight next season and staying where we are.

Playing badly and winning means one thing: we're a good team!

2010-02-07T12:56:00.002Z

After surrendering our unbeaten away record last week against our fiercest rivals, it was important that we got back in a winning habit as soon as possible. And although Sheffield Wednesday made life very difficult for us, a Dexter Blackstock strike ten minutes from time secured us our seventh home win in a row, and ensured that we kept the pressure on West Brom and Newcastle.

I was a bit puzzled when I heard that Billy Davies had elected to leave both Radoslaw Majewski and Paul Anderson out of the starting line-up. Davies perhaps felt that Anderson needed a rest and wanted to give Nathan Tyson a run-out, but to omit Majewski as well meant our midfield would be really lacking in creativity. Davies later told us on BBC Radio Nottingham that he left out Majewski because 'his head is not in the right place' due to not knowing whether he is going to earn a permanent contract with us or not. Please Forest do whatever you can to get him to sign permanently. He has been a revelation in midfield this season, and yesterday we really missed him. Even Paul McKenna struggled without him.

As Majewski and Anderson watched on from the bench, we really struggled to get going, and it took a very dubious penalty 25 minutes into the game to lift us out of the doldrums. The referee, who it's got to be said had a bit of a shocker, adjudged that a Wednesday player had hand-balled, even though the ball seemed to only ricochet off his arm. It was a bad decision from a neutral's point of view, and Davies later admitted as much, but it's not as if we haven't been on the receiving end of poor officiating, so it's a case of what goes round comes round. Without that, it was hard to see where Forest were going to find some inspiration.

The second half wasn't much better, but we did improve once Anderson was brought on for Tyson, who wasted his opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the side by doing very little all game. It wasn't much of a surprise when Luke Varney, on loan from Derby, grabbed a deserved equaliser for the Owls with fifteen minutes remaining, but their joy was short-lived as just six minutes later Blackstock scored his second of the afternoon, tapping in from a Chris Cohen free kick to restore our lead. Thankfully that proved to be the winning goal, and we were able to survive five minutes of injury time (though for what, the ref only knows) and hold on for our 15th win of the season, It was just as well too, as both West Brom and Newcastle picked up maximum points at the weekend. We have slipped down into third, but are only a point behind the Baggies, who have now played the same amount of games as us. We are now ten points clear of fourth place, so at the moment the pundits would tell you that the promotion race is between Newcastle, West Brom, and ourselves. One thing is for sure, the last three months of the season are going to be both very exciting and nerve-wracking. Would you expect anything less from Forest?!

Derby defeat is hard to take, but we'll have the last laugh

2010-01-31T12:55:00.008Z

I know we had to lose sometime, but did it really have to be against Derby of all teams? I am not ashamed to admit that at the end of the game yesterday I was in tears. The taste of defeat felt really foreign to me, and the fact that it was Derby made my stomach churn. Couldn't Forest have held on until the Coventry away game to lose their unbeaten record? It wouldn't have been nearly as sickening and I wouldn't have had to witness it.

Saying all that, I don't think we can have too many complaints about losing because (gulp) Derby were the better side. It was a rare off day for Forest. Whether it was down to nerves or tactics, or a bit of both, it's hard to say, but we were not nearly as good as we are capable of. We struggled to create much at all and it was only Derby's poor finishing that kept the scoreline respectable. We were possibly a bit better than them in the first half, but the Rams were all over us after the interval, and when they went in front with just twelve minutes remaining through a Rob Hulse header that came as a result of a Judas free-kick the writing seemed a little bit on the wall. I think Billy Davies rather messed up our chances of getting anything from the game by taking both Paul Anderson and Rob Earnshaw off. No sooner had Anderson departed the field for Guy Moussi when Derby scored. I am not entirely sure what Davies was thinking of adding another central midfielder into the mix and depriving us of Anderson's pace, but there you go. It was obvious that he was content to play for a point, but it rather backfired on him. Still, every manager no matter how great they are cannot get it right all the time, so we can't complain too much.

I was surprised at how quickly I got the game out of my system. I thought I'd feel pig sick all weekend and possibly all week, but I already feel like I'm over it. I think it's because Forest have been so fantastic all season that we have to expect bad days like this now and again. Maybe in some ways it's a blessing that the 19-match unbeaten run has finally come to an end, because it was perhaps becoming something of an albatross around our neck. The players might have developed a fear of losing the record and that might have adversely affected their promotion chances. Now it has gone we can go into games with a bit less pressure. We are still second and two points clear, and Newcastle dropped two points against ten man Leicester, so we've still got plenty to be happy about. At the end of the season when it comes to the final shake-up, it's Forest who will be able to hold their heads high whether we achieve promotion or not. Derby will no doubt be releasing a DVD of their 'famous' win over us, but it could be the case that we won't be playing them for some time now, so let them enjoy their moment. We might have bigger fish to fry next season.

Watch out, Magpies. There's some Tricky Trees disrupting your flight path

2010-01-27T12:12:00.009Z

One more goal, and we would have been top of the League. In all likelihood, it would probably have only been for 24 hours, but it would have been nice to see the good name of Nottingham Forest sitting on top of the pile for a change!

Not so long ago, 5-0 thrashings stood out for me as highlights, not just of seasons, but my entire lifetime. Now we're dishing them out week after week, and they're becoming less and less special as a result. We just expect it now! I used to think beating teams like Southend 4-1 was brilliant. I remember skipping all the way back to the car when we beat the Shrimpers a couple of seasons ago. But I was not feeling euphoric last night because I'm used to it...much like I was used to us losing away from home so often under Colin Calderwood. So it's true what they say about contrast. You have to have lows so you can enjoy the highs, and right now I feel like I'm being overindulged.

Billy Davies might disagree, but we are ready for the Premiership. We're more than ready in my opinion. I now actually feel rather excited at the prospect. I know I have been saying all season that I don't want it, but the closer we get, the more appealing the idea sounds. I have not been a season ticket holder watching us in the top flight yet, so maybe it's about time I was, even if following them around all the top stadia will practically bankrupt me.

It seems to me at the moment that if Forest actually want to win, then they will. And if they want to stuff a team four or five then they will do that. That's why when I was discussing with my dad about going top of the table that I felt really confident that we could get the six goals required. And we certainly came close. The crowd sensed a right good thrashing was on the cards when a quick brace from Robbie Earnshaw inside a couple of minutes put us firmly in control after twenty minutes, and the points were practically sewn up after just half an hour when Dexter Blackstock (and thankfully not Earnshaw) made it 3-0 from the penalty spot. A brilliant long-range effort from Chris Cohen a few minutes after the restart gave us real hope that we could go on to snatch the top spot from Newcastle, but we 'only' managed to score one more when James Perch, who was playing in an unfamiliar left-back role, bundled the ball home following a goalmouth scramble.

The crowd willed Forest on to get the all-important sixth goal as the last fifteen minutes of the game ticked away, but alas it never came, although there was some good news with West Brom dropping two points at Ipswich, so we have stretched our lead over them to five points now. To be honest, it doesn't feel like we're going to be needing any snookers to get us over the finishing line. We are just too damn good for this League and if we don't win the title, we look certain at the moment to be going up in second place. I keep waiting for the proverbial bubble to pop, but every match we get better and better. This really feels like it's going to be our year!

Camp's just champion as jittery Forest resist Reading fightback

2010-01-17T11:37:00.010Z

Forest's failure to kill off the game in the first half against Reading could easily have cost them three points, were it not for yet another remarkable goalkeeping display from Lee Camp.

Reading looked quite jaded following their mid-week FA Cup heroics in extra time at Liverpool. We completely outplayed them in the first half and could easily have been four or five goals up. Paul Anderson gave us an early lead after he was spotted clean through by Chris Cohen, who had just made an excellent break in midfield. And after we missed a sackful of chances to add to our lead, Robert Earnshaw, who to everybody's surprise was in the starting line-up even though he had been declared unfit on Friday, gave us a more comfortable cushion when he raced on to Radoslaw Majewski's through ball to make it a deserved 2-0, just a few minutes before half time. It really should have been 3-0 at the break, but Dexter Blackstock wasted a glorious opportunity to put Reading well and truly out of sight when he sent the ball wide when clean through on goal.

If Forest thought that the second half would be a stroll in the park they were in for a surprise. While Reading had failed to muster even one shot on target in the first half, restricting Camp to a mere spectator, they threw everything at us in the second 45 minutes and if it wasn't for Camp being at the top of his game, they could quite easily have caused an upset. Camp was simply amazing as he made two first class saves from Icelandic striker Gunnar Thorvaldsson in the space of a couple of minutes. This prompted chants from the Forest fans of 'England's number one', and Camp seemed to be loving it. His only bad moment came when he made a poor clearance and it led to Nicky Shorey unfortunately being sent off for a professional foul. But Camp, who last week celebrated being named Player of the Month for December, made a great save from Brian Howard's penalty. It was a shame that Reading did pull a goal back deep in stoppage time as Camp was so close to getting a clean sheet which his performance so richly deserved, but then you could say that Reading's gallant effort warranted something, as well. Fortunately our own hard work in the first half proved to be enough, but the fact that our goalkeeper was made Man of the Match tells its own story. Hopefully this will serve as a warning that we can't take our eye off the ball, not for one moment, because better sides than Reading will punish us if we let complacency creep into our game.

Oh well, we'll see you in the Premiership then, Everton?

2010-01-13T11:39:00.005Z

So our participation in the FA Cup is over for yet another year, and to use one of those time-worn footballing clichés, 'we can now concentrate on the League'. Our unbeaten record in all competitions may have come to an end, but we can still say that we haven't tasted defeat since September in the Championship, and hopefully that record will go on for some time yet.

I really couldn't care less that we are out of the Cup. I know that might offend some people, but that's just the way I feel. It's always been about the League for me. Maybe if we were doing nothing in midtable, it would be more important, but the prospect of automatic promotion, or if not, a virtually guaranteed place in the play-offs, is far more exciting, and now there are no annoying distractions that are going to get in the way. With two home games coming up followed by a trip to a Derby deep in disarray, we have a really good chance to accrue some serious points in our quest for promotion.

The only disappointing thing about losing last night was the fact that we were the better team. But we came up against a brilliant goalkeeper in Joe Hart, who many are tipping for big things with England. When Barry Ferguson gave them the lead just after the hour, it was very much against the run of play. But once Forest were behind, they lost their way a little bit, and didn't seem that interested in doing anything about it. We would have been rewarded with a trip to Everton's Goodison Park had we made it into the fourth round, which would have been nice, I suppose, but we might well be playing them anyway in the Premiership next season! Judging by Billy Davies' decision to rest no fewer than seven of the players who figured in the win at West Brom, he will welcome the break when Forest have a blank weekend on the day of the fourth round. The fact that Derby face potentially two extra games in the Cup heading into the big game with us could be seen as an advantage!

Forest are the cream of the Championship

2010-01-09T15:55:00.009Z

I feel rather sheepish in admitting that I thought our long unbeaten run was finally going to come to an end last night at West Brom. In fact I was secretly hoping that the cold weather would do us a favour and it would be postponed. Just how wrong was I?

We not only won at the Hawthorns, but we did so rather convincingly. We were just too good for them! For up until the hour-mark when they became the first team to breach our defence in almost ten hours of football, we were completely dominating. When we sailed into a three-goal lead, it was a fitting award for the wonderful football we had been playing, and it says a lot how far we have come when I was disappointed to concede and blow our chance of achieving a new club record of seven consecutive clean sheets. That is the only negative thing I can say, and have said for ages now!

We totally deserved our half-time lead given to us by Dexter Blackstock, who blasted the ball home from a corner nearly 20 minutes into the match. West Brom were very much second best and once we'd scored, we just grew and grew in confidence. Any fears of a Baggies comeback in the second half were quickly snuffed out as Forest continued to play superbly and two wonderful goals quick in succession from midfielders Radoslaw Majewski and Chris Cohen stunned the home crowd as Forest cruised into a 3-0 lead. Majewski has a reputation for scoring stunning goals, and his strike against the Baggies certainly belonged in that category as he connected with a Chris Gunter cross and fired an unstoppable shot from the back post straight into the net. And a couple of minutes later, some amazing pass-and-move football led to Cohen firing in a third, from the edge of the penalty area. It was looking so easy for Forest. Yet we weren't playing one of the division's strugglers. This was a team who scored goals for fun, riding high in second place in the Championship. They had only lost four games all season going into the match, but here we were completely destroying them!

I must admit my heart began to race when they pulled a goal back and started to look a lot more dangerous. But thankfully Billy Davies made some wise substitutions in midfield, and we saw the game out quite comfortably in the end. We could have been looking at a very different scoreline if the referee hadn't been so leniant towards Paul McKenna when a rather rash challenge could easily have led to him being sent off. The Sky co-commentator certainly thought so, but luckily McKenna was only booked. Even though we were 3-0 up at that stage, I would have worried about our ability to hold on, such is McKenna's influence. A three-game ban would also have ensued, which would have been a big blow.

As a result of our victory, we have swapped places with the Baggies and gone second, just five points behind the leaders Newcastle. Okay, so we've played one more game than both of them, but psychologically, we have a big advantage, especially as the Magpies are at home to WBA in their next game. We now have two home games against Reading and QPR, and if we can win both of those, we could end up putting some serious daylight between ourselves and the chasing pack! Newcastle not so long ago were runaway leaders, but if we keep winning and winning, that will not be the case much longer. I honestly think we might just be the best team in the entire division. We've beaten both Newcastle and West Brom, who everybody is tipping to go up automatically, but after last night's brilliant performance, the bookmakers are going to be revising their odds on us winning the title, never mind automatic promotion. Victor Chandler may be starting to regret their generous offer to buy everybody their season ticket!

My Cup runneth over

2010-01-03T11:27:00.008Z

If I've got one wish for 2010, it's that Robert Earnshaw never takes a penalty again. His horrible miss against West Brom at the start of the season quite possibly cost us a point, and having been given a chance to redeem himself in the FA Cup 3rd round tie with Birmingham, he did exactly the same thing as he did last time.

Earnshaw should really be the ideal candidate to take penalties, as in one-on-one situations he is absolutely clinical, but just like he did against West Brom, he did a silly slow run-up before taking the spot-kick. The ball went hopelessly over the crossbar, and he was left with egg on his face. Maybe he was feeling over-confident after his recent red-hot form in front of goal. Hopefully if he is to remain our first choice penalty taker, he will change his approach from now on!

At least all he's cost us is a potential place in the fourth round of the FA Cup, and not three precious points. I know to some people the Cup is still important, but to be honest I can't be bothered with it any more as I know we stand little chance of winning the damn thing. Years ago, it was one of my main ambitions to see us win it, but as each season passes and Forest have gone out earlier on, my interest has waned. The magic of the FA Cup is definitely dead now. Once the big clubs stop taking it seriously, it's the end of the road. We've now got to go to St Andrews for a replay. Maybe there will be some added spice if we know that we get to play a big Premiership team if we win, but that didn't seem to make Forest play well when Liverpool and Man United were the prizes on offer in the last couple of years. I just see the game as a nuisance that we could do without, and Billy Davies is probably thinking the same thing.

A fond farewell to 2009. Let's hope 2010 is just as fine

2009-12-29T13:06:00.007Z

When Big Ben strikes midnight in a couple of days' time, I'm going to feel very sad to leave 2009 behind. It has been an extremely good year for Forest starting with Billy Davies' arrival in January, and ending in us well placed in third position in the Championship ready to mount a serious bid for automatic promotion. The fact that it has taken such a short space of time to transform us from relegation certainties into a strong and vibrant team shows what a great manager Davies is, and we should thank our lucky stars every day that we have him.

Against Coventry, we weren't really at our best, particularly in the first half hour when they were all over us. They had a sackful of chances but for one reason or another just couldn't put the ball away. Had they been more potent up front, they could have been two or three up by half time. But once it became apparent that we were not going to let them score, they seemed to have the life knocked out of them and we got more and more into the game. At first we couldn't seem to string two passes together, but by the end of the half we were playing some lovely stuff, none more so than a stunning solo run from Radoslaw Majewski, who cut through the centre of midfield, running from one end of the pitch to the other before feeding the advancing Rob Earnshaw, who had just the goalkeeper to beat before chipping the ball over him to give us the lead, which we just about deserved having worked hard to overcome Coventry's game plan. An equally brilliant Dexter Blackstock goal 12 minutes from time set us well on course for the three points, and Coventry were left to rue their missed chances. If I was being objective, I would probably say that they deserved at least a point. But I'm not; we took our chances, and they didn't, so we deserved to win!

We now have nearly a fortnight before our next Championship match as it's the FA Cup 3rd round next Saturday. I must admit I'm struggling to work up much enthusiasm for our home game against Birmingham. I know that they are in the Premiership, but we played them twice last season and in a pre-season friendly in the summer, so it's not very exciting. I can't see the crowd being very big for this one, especially as the tickets are so expensive and people being out of pocket after Christmas. For me it would cost £40 including travel expenses, and I am not sure I can justify that for a match that I'm not that interested in. My mind is firmly focussed on the West Brom match six days later, which is being televised live on Sky on a Friday night. I bet Sky are really happy at the way things have turned out as whoever wins this game will be second at the end of it. It will be interesting to see how Davies approaches this match given the prize on offer. Will he want to go all out for the three points or will he be content with a draw? If we can get anything from the Hawthorns, it will be a brilliant result after all, and if we carry on playing as well as we are in the second half of the campaign, I think we have every chance of pipping the Baggies, or dare I say it, even Newcastle to automatic promotion in May. We are going along just nicely, and it's not where we are now, but at the end of the season that matters. My gut feeling is we're going to do it!

From third bottom to third from top: what a difference a year makes

2009-12-26T20:41:00.008Z

Even if it was just for three hours, seeing Forest in second place in the Championship made me feel really warm inside. If I'm not too careful, I'm going to get a real taste for it!

Forest have become a formidable force away from home this season, and will now enter 2010 unbeaten on their travels since last March. That is a remarkable statistic by anyone's standards, let alone a team that was struggling against relegation to the third tier little more than six months ago. Home teams must be really scared of playing us. It must affect their confidence, but the longer this record goes on, the harder teams are going to try and beat us, and sooner or later we are going to come unstuck. I very much doubt we will see the season out unscathed, but let's hope when we do finally succumb that we will bounce back and not let it damage our confidence.

At Watford, mind you, we did ride our luck a bit. We played very well in the first half, but in the later stages of the second 45 minutes, we were run ragged a little bit. We could count ourselves very fortunate indeed that the referee Andy D'Urso, a man who is no stranger to controversy, failed to spot Nicky Shorey's blatant handball clearance off the line in stoppage time. It would have resulted in a penalty for Watford and Shorey's dismissal, so we rather got away with it. In terms of our overall performance, though, defeat would have been harsh, and it would have been a cruel way to see our proud record be ruined in such a way, not to mention spoil Christmas.

Speaking of which, it has now been a whole year since Colin Calderwood was given the old heave-ho on Boxing Day! A few of the players that day may still be in the team, but Forest are completely unrecognisable one year on. This time last year after that dreadful 4-2 defeat at the hands of Doncaster we were third from bottom. If you'd told me that a year later the table would be completely reversed and we'd be sitting in third position, I'd have given you a funny look. It just goes to show that Billy Davies has a magical midas touch wherever he goes. I think the only thing we've got to worry about in 2010 is that clubs in the Premiership will be keeping tabs on Billy's progress. Because if I was a chairman looking to appoint somebody, Davies' name would certainly be high on my list. He will want to test himself in the top flight again, make no mistake. He will be remembered for overseeing the first few months of Derby's disastrous season in the Premiership, but he didn't get the right financial backing from the board. I think if we do get promoted this season, Nigel Doughty will continue to invest millions, as he does every season, and Davies will certainly be given until at least Christmas to prove himself. But let's not jump the gun here. There's another half of the season to play yet. We're not quite safe from relegation, although I have to admit, even I have stopped worrying about that now! Three more wins and a draw should do it.

Moody McKenna reminds me a bit of Psycho

2009-12-20T10:53:00.002Z

I feel safe as houses watching Forest at the moment. Every time they play now, I'm confident they are not going to lose. I'm actually beginning to think that we might just be a bit too good for the Championship now, and perhaps it is time we tested our mettle in the top flight again!

We were head and shoulders above Preston last night. We made them look like a team several divisions below we were that good. We kept the ball really well and we were allowed so much space. They just had no clue whatsoever how to handle us. It was written in the stars that Paul McKenna would score against his old team, and what a goal it was. I had a weird premonition just before we scored, as well. I suddenly got this gut feeling that we were definitely going to score right then, and as McKenna struck the ball speculatively, I knew instantly that it was going in. Sportingly, he didn't celebrate out of respect for his old team mates, but you could see a faint smile appear on his face. But I don't think I've seen him smile once since he's been here. He reminds me a little bit of Stuart Pearce, who always had a mean and moody face on him when he was out on the pitch. But maybe his sulky demeanour is what makes him such a good captain. He goes about his business in midfield quietly and doesn't grab headlines, but the difference he has made to the side has not gone unnoticed, believe me.

Even at 1-0 up we looked like we were coasting it, so when Dele Adebola made it 2-0 with a tap-in 25 minutes into the game, it felt like the three points were already in the bag as we were completely dominating. The only real surprise was that we didn't score any more until Lewis McGugan once again lived up to his 'super-sub' tag when he dribbled the ball into the net with eight minutes remaining.

As a result of several postponements owing to the weather, including West Brom and Cardiff's games, Forest have gone joint second on 39 points! If we had managed to turn a few of the nine draws we've had into wins, we would be breathing right down Newcastle's necks. But to be so close to the automatic promotion places at Christmas is absolutely fantastic and a terrific reward for the amazing work that Billy Davies and his staff have put in to transform us in such a short space of time.

It's official: Forest ARE promotion contenders

2009-12-13T14:04:00.009Z

I'm beginning to think Forest are invincible away from home! Now that is a sentence I never thought I'd be writing, but invincible is exactly what we are at the moment, having gone 13 games without defeat, losing none away since last March!

I really thought that Swansea would be a very tough place to go to as they had only lost once at the Liberty Stadium this season, but although David McGoldrick's 35th-minute strike was rather against the run of play, nobody could say we didn't deserve the win after a strong second half. Lee Camp was busy in goal once again, but Billy Davies got his tactics spot on and we managed to hold on for our third win in four games, an achievement that has been awarded with third place in the table, less than two weeks before Christmas! Now, who would have thought that possible at the start of the season?!

We're now five points clear of 7th place, so I think we can now say that yes, we are play-off contenders, if not automatic promotion. I doubt we will catch Newcastle, who are some ten points clear at the moment, but I do believe that we can overhaul West Brom easily. At the time of writing we're only two points away from them, but they have a very winnable looking home game against QPR on Monday night. Hopefully we will still have them in our sights when our away trip to the Hawthorns comes round in a few weeks. If not, I will be more than glad to accept a place in the top six for now! I never expected us to be doing this well so soon, so I'm really happy with them at the moment. That's not something I've been able to say very much in recent times, so I'm going to make sure I savour every moment, because there will be more dark times in the future. I've always believed that as long as I get to enjoy some happiness with Forest, I can accept there will be misery at some point, too.

Forest miss Davies in dugout but Camp saves the day

2009-12-09T11:20:00.005Z

I think we can forgive Forest for having an off-day against Sheffield United. It was a very poor game in which neither side played particularly well, so a goalless draw was about the right result on reflection. Bramall Lane is never an easy place to go at the best of times, so to come away with a point is very pleasing, considering the fact that Billy Davies was absent because of illness, leaving assistant Ned Kelly in charge.

The lacklustre performance last night really highlighted what a huge influence Davies has on the team's morale. At times we were very disorganised and all over the place defensively. Thank God for Lee Camp is all I can say, because he made some fantastic saves to keep us in it. He hasn't had that much to do this season because we've been so tight defensively, but he certainly was made to work for his money against United. He is the best goalkeeper we have had in a very long time. The fact that we have yet to lose an away game with him playing just shows how important he is to the team.

I must admit when I heard that Luke Chambers was back in the side at right back, it took me back to the bad old days under Colin Calderwood. I really rate him as a centre-half and thought he was very unlucky to get dropped a couple of months ago for Kelvin Wilson, but he's no right back, as he will admit himself. But luckily he did okay last night, so it was a decision that paid off. It was obvious we were playing for a point as Chris Gunter was pushed forward into midfield. This helped to protect Chambers' vulnerability, so he didn't get torn to pieces, as was frequently the case last season.

If we had won, we'd only be three points off second place as West Brom lost at home to Cardiff, who incidentally have leapfrogged us and gone third. But as I keep saying I'm not particularly desperate to win promotion, so I'm struggling to get worked up about it. The only thing I was worried about was being relegated – not that there was much chance of that happening after our summer spending splurge! - and now that is not going to happen, I feel really relaxed. Normally I'm a nervous wreck during Forest games, but I don't even worry about us losing at the moment as one defeat is not going to kill us, is it? We're surely not going to get through the whole season without losing an away game, are we?!

Robbie's on fire as red hot Reds slay the Foxes

2009-12-06T22:41:00.013Z

I feel like I'm living in Dreamland at the moment! Every week Forest just get better and better. Yesterday's awesome 5-1 annihilation of Leicester has to be the highlight of the season so far.

It really was a fantastic afternoon for everyone of a Forest persuasion, in particular for Robbie Earnshaw who scored a superb hat trick – his first for the Club – to give us a well-deserved three-nil lead. All three goals were taken really well, and it was brilliant to see him back to doing what he does best. It's hard to believe that little over a month ago, there was strong talk of him leaving the Club as he was struggling with injuries and lack of form, but since he returned to fitness, he has fought his way back into Billy Davies' good books, scoring five goals in the past three games. You really cannot ask for more than that, and now he must surely start every game. Before it was all about Dexter Blackstock, but Earnshaw is the one everybody is talking about again now, and I couldn't be more delighted for him, because he is such a nice person, and clearly loves playing for Forest.

While Forest fans play down the rivalry with the Foxes, insisting that 'we only hate Derby', for Leicester-born Paul Anderson, it was in his own words 'the biggest game of his career so far'. He said in a pre-match interview how desperate he was to score a goal, and when he struck the fourth goal magnificently from 20 yards out, he celebrated as if he had won us a cup or something! When he was interviewed after the game, he said it was the best day of his life so far! That's what scoring in front of 4,000+ Leicester fans, some of whom he knows personally and gets frequent stick from, meant to him, and I was really happy for him that his dream of scoring came true. It was bound to really, wasn't it?!

I never relax when we are three goals up, but once Anderson got the fourth, I felt sure we had secured the three points as Leicester were awful and had showed no sign of getting back into it. A little bit of doubt crept back into my mind, however, when they scored from a penalty with 25 minutes left to give themsleves a glimmer of hope, but when substitute Dele Adebola scored a fifth, even I, one of the biggest hypochondriacs you're likely to meet, was convinced that we'd won the game.

We are now flying high in third place in the table, having swapped places with Leicester, who slip into fourth as a result of the hammering we inflicted on them. I am not surprised to see us doing so well. We have a really good team now and in my opinion, the best manager in the Championship. Our confidence is absolutely full to the brim at the moment, and if I was a neutral, I would say Forest were definite automatic promotion contenders. It's very exciting to think that by the time the trip to West Brom comes around in a month's time, we could potentially go second if we beat them – that's if we're not already there, that is!

Four-some Forest finally crack the top six

2009-11-29T14:21:00.009Z

How proud do you feel seeing Forest's name in fourth place in the Championship?! Okay, so for a club of our stature and an honours list practically as long as your arm, taken at face value, it's not surprising at all, but in the context of our most recent history, it's an absolutely brilliant achievement.

Eleven months ago we looked cast-iron certainties for relegation back to League One after Doncaster embarrassingly demolished us on our own pitch on Boxing Day. But fast-forward nearly a year later, in Billy Davies' words, we are a completely different animal. The fact that the scoreline was eerily close to being a complete reversal of the scoreline that Doncaster inflicted on us last year (2-4 as if you need reminding) was a kind of poetic justice which underlined just how far Forest have come since that dreadful day.

Five of the players who played in the 4-2 defeat started the game this time around. Kelvin Wilson and Wes Morgan were still in central defence, but the key difference was the fact that we had decent full backs with Chris Gunter at right back and our on-loan signing Nicky Shorey, not so long ago an England international, making his debut at left back. Our midfield and attack were also a lot better, even taking into account the lack of Chris Cohen, Guy Moussi and Nathan Tyson.

We weren't that great in the first half, but just about deserved the lead thanks to a Paul Anderson shot that went in off a Doncaster defender. Officially it was recorded as an own goal, but Anderson really should take most of the credit as he did really well to get the shot in after his initial attempt was cleared off the line.

As so often seems to be the case this season, Forest had a really strong second half. When Wes Morgan made it 2-0 with a header from a corner on the stroke of the hour, we looked really comfortable. While Doncaster were quite good on the counter attack, our defense dealt with them really easily, and Lee Camp had hardly anything to do. Rob Earnshaw, back in the side following his free-kick heroics at Middlesbrough a week ago, put the game beyond reasonable doubt when he latched on to a Radoslaw Majewski ball to send the ball flying into the net from inside the penalty area. But it was substitute Lewis McGugan who stole the show when he made the grandest of entrances after coming on for Majewski. Somehow, from a really tight angle, he dispatched a shot (or was it a cross?) that crashed straight into the net to everybody's disbelief. It was certainly one of the best goals I've ever witnessed at the City Ground in almost a decade of going to matches. If it had been scored in the Premiership, they would no doubt be saying it was world-class! As it is, I bet it hardly gets mentioned, but who cares, it was a special moment for us.

After weeks of knocking on the door of the top six, we have finally been awarded for our excellent first four months of the campaign and are now fourth, just behind Leicester, who we just so happen to be playing next Saturday. If we beat them we will go third, and who knows, maybe even close the gap on Newcastle and West Brom, who at the moment seem to be running away with it a little bit. As we've almost reached the half-way stage in the season, I think people are going to have to take us very seriously regarding promotion. I'm even beginning to like the idea of being in the Premiership! We don't have a very good record there, having been relegated from it three times, but if teams like Stoke, Wigan and Bolton can do well in it, why the hell not us? So, yes, let's go for it. If it all goes wrong, then it does, but if we do come straight back down, at least we know that the Championship is a really good League to be in, so really we have nothing to lose.

A well-Earned point as Forest's impressive away form holds firm

2009-11-22T11:28:00.009Z

I am so glad I didn't slit my wrists when Forest were crushed 5-0 at Burnley back in March. Because, although it may have seemed like the end of the world at the time, that was actually the last time Forest lost an away game!

We still remain the only team in the seven top divisions not to have lost a single game on our travels this season, and that is something we can be really be proud of. It's about time that we made positive headlines for ourselves, as we were so used to doing in the glory days under Cloughie. It hasn't been much fun being a Forest fan in recent years, but since Billy Davies arrived, it's been pretty much plain sailing, and I can't tell you how good it has been for my health, both mentally and physically. I'm no longer getting stomach palpitations worrying about permutations. It's a very pleasant feeling, and I'm going to enjoy it while I can, because it is not going to last for ever.

It would have been a huge injustice if we had not got something from the Middlesbrough game. To be quite frank, we were pretty awful in the first half as we struggled to get to grips with it. Boro were tearing our defence apart, and when they took the lead in only the fifth minute through Leroy Lita, I feared that a hammering could be on the cards. Fortunately that turned out to be far from the case, though, as we settled more and more into the game, and after the break we were excellent and completely dominated. The only thing lacking was our final ball, but it was great to see Robert Earnshaw get himself back on the scoresheet when he scored from a superb free kick to equalise with twenty minutes remaining. I really thought we might go on to win then, such was our superiority, but I was more than happy to settle for a point at the Riverside. It was our fourth consecutive draw, so maybe we could have done with a win, but I'm sure there is another victory just around the corner.

Hopefully that will be at home to Doncaster next week. It will be a tough game, because Donny are no pushovers, as we found out to our cost on Boxing Day last year.
I don't want to dwell on it too much, but suffice to say it was the moment when Forest hit rock bottom, but also the start of something much, much better as Colin Calderwood fell on his sword much to all our delight, and Forest have not looked back since!

Sorry Forest, but I just can't get used to not fretting about you!

2009-11-08T12:39:00.012Z

Usually I feel absolutely gutted when Forest concede last-minute goals of significance, but I only felt a bit disappointed that we were unable to hold on to our lead given to us by Wes Morgan just a few minutes earlier against Bristol City. We have been doing so well lately that I thought it was greedy to expect yet another victory, so I'm quite satisfied with a point. The most important thing was not to head into the international break on the back of a defeat.

I'm not at all desperate for promotion, and there's not much chance of us getting relegated, so I feel very relaxed about Forest at the moment, which is not something I have been able to say very often over the past decade at all! I want us to finish somewhere in the top ten, but don't think I can face the play-offs. Not because it would be a disaster if we lost them, but just that they can cause a lot of emotional upset and it would be a shame for a depression to set back in at the City Ground, just when the outlook has become so sunny again. But sooner or later I think I'm going to get bored of having nothing to worry about regarding Forest. I've got an addictive personality and crave a bit of danger, so I hope we do make a good fist of trying to get into the top six just to keep the season alive. We are almost half way there to being safe from relegation, and there's still two-thirds of the season to go. I predict that by February, we'll be virtually safe, as by Christmas we'll probably have something in the range of about 35-40 points.

I didn't think we played particularly well against Bristol City in the first half. There were a number of players who were having an off-day, giving the ball away too much. Billy Davies picked the same side that earned a late draw at Cardiff. This meant a five-man midfield with David McGoldrick up front on his own. I'm sure that if Nathan Tyson and Dexter Blackstock hadn't been injured, we would have played 4-4-2, but even so it still seemed a bit negative. I would have liked to have seen Dele Adebola on from the start, as Forest looked a much more menacing outfit once he came on ten minutes into the second half. Davies seems to get his substitutions right a lot of the time as Forest suddenly looked capable of scoring once Gareth McCleary and Rob Earnshaw were both on the pitch. The goal, though, came from an unlikely source in Morgan, who tucked the ball in from six yards out following a free kick. Once again Adebola had been involved, which just goes to show how effective he can be as a substitute.

But our celebrations were short-lived as Danny Haynes pounced in the last minute of normal time to equalise for City, and we were forced to settle for a point, which on reflection was what both sides deserved. We still managed to climb a couple of places in the table, though, into a very respectable eighth position. Now cast your mind back 12 months and if somebody told you we'd be in eighth in the Championship a year later, you'd be amazed, wouldn't you?!

Promotion a distinct possibility, but do we really need it?

2009-11-02T16:59:00.004Z

My mum says she did a dance around the living room when Lewis McGugan blasted home the equaliser in injury time at Cardiff. She keeps telling me she isn't a Forest supporter and only wants me to be happy, but isn't that how a lot of football fans start out, by wanting their parent's team to do well so they would be in a good mood? I think that must have been the case with my dad twenty or so years ago, so although my mum is approaching her sixties now, I think she is secretly developing a fondness for Forest! Before too long, she'll be accompanying me to home games!

I've very little to complain about Forest these days, and it feels very strange to be honest. We've been used to dire performances week-in-week out with the players showing a complete lack of commitment and desire, but that is hardly the case now with every single one of the players giving their all, and it is just wonderful to see. There is usually a weak leak in the team, somebody who we make a scapegoat and blame when everything is going wrong, but you can't pick anyone out at the moment. The fact that every game there are a handful of candidates for Man of the Match shows how good a team we have become under Billy Davies. Before he arrived, there were some talented individuals, but they had no idea how to play together. It wasn't their fault as it was down to the appalling coaching they were receiving, but Davies and his staff have sorted that out and made us into a very good professional outfit. Some of the players have really excelled under his leadership. Kelvin Wilson, in particular, since he returned from injury, has been very impressive in the heart of defence alongside Wes Morgan. I must admit I didn't rate him at all last season, but he's been back to his best recently. I thought it was harsh dropping Luke Chambers for him, but Davies must have had his reasons, and it looks like he's been proven right.

On the whole I thought we defended very well against a side that boasted the division's top scorers in Michael Chopra and Guy Whittingham, who between them had scored 21 goals going into the match. Lee Camp had an exceptional game and really showed what a quality goalkeeper he can be. In the first half he made a double reaction save, and was generally solid right throughout the game. But it had taken Cardiff a while to get going as Forest dominated possession in the first half, and could have opened the scoring when the impressive Paul Anderson shot wide, and David McGoldrick who was operating a lone striker's role, also went close when he found himself in a one-on-one situation.

Cardiff took the lead through Jay Bothroyd just after the hour when they caught Forest out on the counter attack after a corner. The goal had been coming as Cardiff were getting stronger and stronger, and when Davies made a couple of substitutions in midfield, bringing on Dele Adebola for Radoslaw Majewski, and Gareth McCleary for Joe Garner, Forest seemed to be struggling to adapt, and Cardiff began to assert their authority. But just when I was bemoaning how Davies had possibly cost us the game with his tinkering, his third substitute, McGugan, fired the equaliser one minute into stoppage time to deny Cardiff top spot and give Forest a richly deserved share of the spoils and stretch our unbeaten away record to eight games.

I was absolutely delighted to take a point away from Cardiff, who like Forest, had been in brilliant form lately. After winning five games in a row, Forest could afford to relax a bit and that's probably why we did so well at Crystal Palace and Cardiff as we played without fear. To get two draws at these grounds is excellent as both are very difficult places to go. If we can hold teams like Cardiff away from home, then we have to be considered as one of the front-runners for the play-offs, if not the automatic spots. We are only four points from the top, after all. The Championship is so incredibly tight this season in the top half of the table. Everybody is beating everyone, so it's impossible to predict who will be top come May at the moment. We seem to be holding our own against the strongest teams, beating the likes of Newcastle, and going to Cardiff and getting a point, as well as deserving something from the West Brom game, so there is no reason why we shouldn't be in the top six at the end of the season. I definitely think we are good enough to make the play-offs, but I just hope that nobody will be too downhearted if we lose them, because although we have made significant progress since last season, we've got to take things slowly, otherwise we might be in danger of burning ourselves out too quickly.

Fearless Forest still undefeated away from home

2009-10-25T10:42:00.007Z

This is going to sound a little bit strange, but I feel quite glad that our winning run has ended. It felt a bit like eating too many chocolates. Too much of a good thing is bad for you, and to be quite honest I was getting a bit sick of it! The glorious feeling of winning is only possible if you've felt the agonising lows as well. That's why when I say I'm not jealous of the likes of Chelsea and Man United fans I truly mean it.

I thought we did really well to come away with a point from Crystal Palace, who have been in very good form lately. We didn't really create an awful lot, but we packed the midfield and made life very difficult for them. The last five minutes of the first half were very dramatic as not only did Palace take the lead from a Darren Ambrose free kick, but Forest also were forced to make a substitution when Clint Hill elbowed Paul Anderson in the face. The challenge left Anderson on the ground for quite a long time, and it looked like Hill would get his marching orders. But the referee decided there was no malintent and he was only booked. Unfortunately for Forest, though, Anderson was unable to continue and was replaced with Gareth McCleary.

Rather bizarrely, although I didn't hear it at the time, the local commentary was then accidentally fed through the tannoy with the commentator's words 'out of his pram' being heard by thousands of people. This was clearly referring to Billy Davies who had reacted furiously to Hill's elbow on Anderson. I just wish I heard it, as it would have been hilarious! To be honest, I was so worried about Anderson that I didn't notice. Thankfully, he turned out to be okay, but Davies and Neil Warnock were full of criticism for each other at the end of the game. Honestly, would you expect anything less from Warnock? The man is a clown, and always has been!

Forest got their justice when they grabbed a well-worked equaliser just three minutes into the second half. David McGoldrick, who was back in the side in the absence of Dexter Blackstock, latched on to a Lewis McGugan cross and tapped in from close-range to score his second goal in Forest colours. Palace went close several times to retaking the lead, but Lee Camp was in superb form and kept us in it with some great saves, including one in the dying moments of stoppage time when he denied one-time Forest striker Stern John from grabbing a last-gasp winner. After all the hard work we had put in, that would have been a real heart-breaker.

Luckily, the whistle blew soon after that and we still remain undefeated away from home, a feat that has not been achieved by any other team in all four divisions this season! That record will be severely tested when we visit high-flying Cardiff next Sunday evening, but I don't think we have any reason to fear it at all. It will probably be a backs-to-the-wall job, but if anything it's Cardiff who should be wary of us, and not the other way round. Whatever happens, I'm sure we won't be as bad as Derby were when they got thrashed 6-1 there!

All hail King Billy, the best manager we've had for years

2009-10-21T11:14:00.009+01:00

I really thought that the game against Barnsley was heading for a goalless draw last night. Having won our previous four games, I wasn't all that desperate to win, so was counting down the clock when four minutes of injury time were declared, praying that Barnsley would not snatch a late winner, as they had threatened to do when Lee Camp made a couple of excellent saves. But it was us who broke Barnsley's hearts instead when the magnificent Guy Moussi struck deep in stoppage time to hand us our fifth straight win.

Moussi paid the price for jumping into the Trent End crowd when he was sent off, having already been booked a few minutes earlier, but thankfully Forest kept their nerve and saw out the last minute or so to hold on for another hard-fought victory. Although we remain in seventh place, we are now just two points away from the top of the table, believe it or not! The difference between being bottom of the table and the top is that even when you win, you might not make much progress as the other teams around you are in good form as well. It is not even November yet, so it's a bit early to say whether we will be serious promotion candidates come May, but I think we have a very good chance. We are a very strong and well-organised side with a great team spirit. That will take us very far. We are light years away from last season under Colin Calderwood. Billy Davies and his managerial team have done an absolutely brilliant job of transforming us from almost dead certs for relegation to League One into one of the best teams in the Championship in such a short space of time. I just pray that he isn't tempted by the offer of a bigger job elsewhere because he really is the best thing that has happened to Forest in years and years. I can't believe he was out of work for over a year. With such a promising Championship CV, I would have thought he would have been snapped up immediately by a club in that division when he was fired by Derby. It was a somewhat uncharacteristically brave move by Nigel Doughty to appoint somebody with a reputation for having forthright opinions, but at long last it looks as though this is one managerial appointment he has got right!

Dare we dream of the Premier League?

2009-10-18T11:18:00.002+01:00

I feel so PROUD of Forest at the moment! Everything is going so well, and following a well-deserved win over the leaders Newcastle, we could be on the verge of something special at the City Ground.

I was bowled over at times by the quality of football we were playing in the first half. We kept the ball so well and really dominated possession. Newcastle weren't a bad team, but they simply couldn't handle our abundance of pace. I was particularly impressed with Guy Moussi, who was playing in a three-man central midfield. He was excellent at winning the ball and distributing it. It was the best I'd seen him play in a long time. Paul Anderson, too, was looking very dangerous on the wing, and he was the orchestrator of a sublime bit of skill when he somehow kept the ball in play when it looked to be going out, before running with it and then dispatching a shot from a tight angle, which the goalkeeper just got his hands to. It would surely have been one of the finest goals ever scored at the City Ground had it gone in. Billy Davies got his tactics spot on by playing five in midfield and Dexter Blackstock up front on his own. It might have seemed a bit negative on paper, but Blackstock got plenty of chances, and when he gave us the lead on the stroke of full time when he latched on to a through ball from Radoslaw Majewski, it was all he and his team mates deserved.

For a lot of the second half, it was a backs-to-the-wall job as we soaked up a lot of Newcastle pressure. But luckily our defence was on top form, and the closest Newcastle got to equalising was when Kevin Nolan put the ball in the net only for it to be ruled offisde. That was sweet justice for those Forest fans who had read his comments earlier saying that we'd celebrate victory over them as if we'd won the European Cup (again). As if! I must admit, my celebrations were a bit more passionate than usual when we win, but no, it didn't feel as if we'd won the European Cup. At least Forest do know what that feels like, eh Kevin? It's not a feeling he's likely to ever experience in his lifetime.

So now that we have beaten supposedly the biggest club in the League, I think we can safely say that Forest mean business this season. There's no way that we will be sucked into a relegation battle. We are far too strong for that. Therefore, to keep the season going, we've got to target those play-off places, and who knows, maybe even automatic promotion. We are only five points away from first place after all. But, I agree with Davies. We're just not ready for the Premiership yet. We need another season or two down here first of all. We do not want to repeat Derby's awful experience. Davies is as yet unproven as a manager at that level, although I think he'd be up for the challenge given the right circumstances. If we can flirt with the play-offs but not actually reach them, then it will be a great season. We're currently seventh, and our odds on winning promotion are being shortened all the time, so people obviously like the look of us. We got off to a slow and uninspiring start, but it's all coming together very nicely now, and for the first time in what seems like eons, I can't think of a bad word to say about the Club!

I see trees of green...What a wonderful week for Forest

2009-10-04T11:17:00.004+01:00

Forest, you really must stop winning like this. I could get used to it! No, seriously, please carry on. I said the other night that we shouldn't get too greedy, but I've changed my mind now. I want more! We are on a bit of a roll now, and just one point away from the top six in the Championship two months into the season. Now that has to be a big improvement on this time last year when we were entrenched at the bottom of the table and couldn't buy a win for love nor money.

It was a great response coming back from a goal down at Peterborough to equalise immediately like that. Okay, so we were helped considerably by dodgy defending and the wind when Radoslaw Majewski's in-swinging free kick caught everyone by surprise and sailed right over Peterborough's substitute goalkeeper. But we still deserved to be level, and five minutes later we were in the lead thanks to Paul Anderson, who netted from close range for his second goal of the season. That turned out to be the match winner as Forest comfortably saw the game out without too much trouble. It wasn't exactly a scintillating performance, but just like the Plymouth win last Sunday, it was a job well done and another three points in the bag.

The past seven days have been great, yielding nine points from nine. You really couldn't ask for more than that. True, the games were against three poor teams who will probably be involved in the relegation battle come the end of the season, but these games are exactly the kind that Forest often slip up in, so to win them all is very pleasing, and it gives us a good idea of how good we are. We were only a few points above the relegation zone this time last week, but now we're 10th, which is the highest position we've been in this division for years. I don't see any reason why not we can finish even higher come May. But as long as we avoid being involved in the fight to stay up, I will be happy. Anything else we achieve will be a bonus. I'm not at all desperate to get back up to the Premiership, as I think the Championship is a very good division to be in for clubs like ourselves. I'm happy to stay here for a long time, as I can't stand the thought of us losing every week, trying to emulate Derby's 'achievement' of being the worst Premiership team ever! It might be nice visiting the country's best stadia, but not if we come away from them on the receiving end of a good spanking every time.

Anyway, I think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself talking about promotion. I don't think this team is good enough to mount a challenge – yet. But in a year or two if we keep this squad together and Billy Davies is still here, I'm sure we'll give it a good go. But for now, I'm more than happy with how things are going, winning three on the bounce. It sure beats fretting about relegation, and relying on a few snookers from teams around us. I practically made myself ill last year worrying about us going down. So it will be nice if Forest, just for once, gave us a stress-free season and finished in a boring 11th or 12th place or something like that. But in my twenty years of supporting them, I can hardly remember a season that wasn't exciting to some degree. Forest tend to be either shockingly bad, or really, really good, and no in-between, so don't bet against us making the play-offs in May. I just hope, though, that if we lose them we won't get too downhearted about it, as there is no doubt that the devastating 2003 semi-final defeat at Sheffield United really set us off on a downward spiral over the next half-decade. We're very much in the ascendency now and we shouldn't be in too much of a rush to achieve too much too soon.

Frustrating Forest finally flourish

2009-09-30T12:01:00.001+01:00

I was beginning to think that Forest were deliberately not scoring to wind us up last night. So it was a huge relief when Luke Chambers powered home that header twenty minutes from time to give us a richly deserved lead in a completely one-sided match against Scunthorpe.

Dexter Blackstock followed that up with a simple tap-in five minutes later, and that set us up for another comfortable victory, our second in a row following the televised win over Plymouth at the weekend. As a result, we've now gone three points clear of Derby, who incidentally were thrashed 6-1 at Cardiff on Tuesday, a scoreline that our very own scoreboard was only too glad to point out at both half time and full time!

Let's not forget that Scunthorpe had come to Nottingham on the back of a five-match unbeaten run, which included a 4-0 win at Crystal Palace. I really feared another home defeat might be on the cards, as I could really see them terrorising our defence. But thankfully that turned out not to be the case at all. We came out all guns blazing, forcing three corners in the first five minutes, and Scunthorpe were reduced to the odd counter attack, which never came to much at all. We looked very dangerous in attack with Paul Anderson, who was at last given a deserved first team start, Nathan Tyson, Blackstock, and Joe Garner all in the side. Yet at half time, after completely dominating the first half, we still had nothing to show for it.

The second half continued in much the same vein as Forest poured forward going agonisingly close to scoring on several occasions. I was just beginning to think that it would not be our night again when the impressive Chambers headed home from a Chris Cohen corner. And when Blackstock made it two, I felt I could relax a bit, as Scunthorpe had hardly troubled us all night, and looked completely deflated when they conceded the second. There was a rather amusing, if not scary piece of slapstick near the end, though, when Scunny were presented with an open goal, and the ball bounced off the crossbar, and looked like it was going in until Lee Camp appeared out of nowhere at the very last second to claim the ball. Not for nothing is he known as 'Super Camp'!

It has been a pretty good few days for Forest, with back-to-back victories. It was so important to put an end to that bad run of form at home, as the longer the run went on, the more our confidence would suffer, and with Newcastle being the next visitors to the City Ground, it was difficult to see where our next home win was coming from. Now we can go to Peterborough on Saturday in a very confident frame of mind. We're unbeaten in five away games, and Peterborough are in the bottom three, having only won once in ten games so far. With the two wins behind us, there is less pressure on us to get three points, so that may well be an advantage as we can afford to relax a bit more. It would be great if we could go into the international break on the back of three successive victories, but let's not be too greedy!

Forest struggling to fly without proper wingers

2009-09-27T16:20:00.013+01:00

While we should be happy and relieved to get another win in the bag, I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed by the performance against what was a very poor Plymouth side, who have yet to win this season.

To be honest, we didn't really deserve to be a goal up at half time. Plymouth had been very much on top, but just didn't take their chances, and what do they know, Forest grab the lead right on half time through the unlikeliest of sources in Chris Gunter, who had until then never scored in senior football. That was just about the only shot on target I can remember us having all match, but it proved to be all that we needed as Plymouth made life very easy for us in the second half as they hardly troubled us at all. Despite our dominance, though, we really struggled to create much, and that is a big concern, whether we got three points or not. We will not come up against many teams as bad as Plymouth this season in the Championship. At the moment they look like they're bound for League One, and if we don't see a big improvement in our performances, we might well be joining them.

Billy Davies has come in for a lot of criticism lately regarding his squad rotation policy, but in an interview with the Nottingham Evening Post he insisted that he would be continuing with it, so it looks like we're just going to have to get used to it. He thinks that each game requires a different set of players, which might be correct to a degree, but there's also a compelling argument that teams need to be settled and have time to learn to play together. If the players are different every game, there's no way they're going to be able to do that. Now even the defence is being rotated, with Luke Chambers failing to win his place back after being rested in mid-week for the Cup game against Blackburn. Kelvin Wilson stayed there instead, which I felt was very unfair on Chambers who had not done much wrong. But that's Davies all over, isn't it? He's always dropping players who are performing well. Namely Paul Anderson, who again was kept out of the side by Joe Garner, who mystifyingly keeps being selected on the right wing despite never actually doing anything good. Needless to say, Garner was replaced by Anderson twenty minutes from the end, and immediately you could see what a difference it made in our attack. Why Davies doesn't see this, I really don't know.

While the players publically say they are okay with the squad rotation system, deep down they must be pretty unhappy. And if we've got unhappy players, when they do come into the side, what good are they going to be to us if their confidence is low? In Forest's case, I think it's much better to have your first choice eleven and stick to it as much as possible. If you're good enough, you play, and if you're not, then you don't. Simple as that. Brian Clough once said that football is a simple game complicated by idiots. I'm not saying Davies is an idiot, but I do think he needs to take one or two leaves out of Cloughie's book if he wants to endear himself to the Forest fans a bit more. The last thing I want is for Davies to fail here, simply because with so many other struggling clubs potentially in the market for new managers, namely Derby and Ipswich, I can't see us getting anybody decent, and despite my misgivings, I do think he is still the right man for us, if only he wouldn't be so stubborn with his team selections.

Lack of goals hardly surprising, so why is Billy so baffled?

2009-09-23T10:28:00.010+01:00

First of all, let me make it clear that I couldn't care less that we are out of the Carling Cup. I rate this in importance almost as least as I do the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. And judging by the falling attendances year after year, most of the other big clubs think the same. But having said all that, Forest have lost yet another home game even though they were supposedly the better side, and that is something to be bothered about.

I'm getting sick and tired of Billy Davies saying in his post-match interviews how we are playing so well, so there's nothing to worry about. Well, I'm sorry, but quite clearly there is something very worrying going on. We're not scoring goals. And goals win you football matches, which we are not doing at the moment. Our big spending splurge in the summer was supposed to transform us into a team that was capable of pushing for a top ten place at least. Yet at this rate I can only see us being involved in another depressing relegation scrap. And that is purely down to Davies' negative tactics. He wonders why we can't score goals and is apparently scratching his head over it. So why is it obvious to the Forest supporters what's wrong with the team? It's quite simple really. We're not scoring because (a) he doesn't have a clue who his best two strikers are, and is constantly switching them around, thus giving them no time to form an understanding, and at the same time damaging the confidence of those who are left out. (b) He doesn't seem to like natural wingers, leaving Paul Anderson on the bench, and instead playing Joe Garner in his place, and even worse at the weekend played Chris Cohen there when Garner was suspended. And (c) he makes the mind-boggling decision to play the tiny Robbie Earnshaw up front on his own at home. That is why your team cannot score goals, Billy.

It was a case of the same old story as Forest were dominating possession, but it was Blackburn who took the lead against the run of play from a free kick late in the first half. Forest's poor final ball was letting them down time and time again, and when Dexter Blackstock missed a penalty mid-way through the second half, it just about summed up the evening, and Forest's hopes of reaching the later stages of the competition that they used to do so well in years ago were ended for another season.

Now we have just the League to concentrate on until January, so we have no distractions until then, which is a good thing, in my opinion, as we really need to sort ourselves out. Davies says that we are 80% there, but I think it's more like about 50% at the moment. If we can't score for toffee, and our defence is so leaky, there is only one way we are going, and it's certainly not in an upwards direction.

Our next game is at Plymouth live on Sky TV on Sunday. You would think that we have a good chance of winning there, but our confidence is pretty low at the moment, so Plymouth might see this as a good opportunity to get their first win. If Davies persists with his weird tactics again, anything could happen. Our track record on TV is pretty awful in recent years, and I can honestly see us getting a bad case of stage fright once again this weekend if we're not too careful.

Forest all at sea thanks to Billy's silly selection

2009-09-20T09:59:00.006+01:00

Call me fickle if you like, but I'm starting to lose my faith in Billy Davies a little bit. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that it was his bizarre team selection that was responsible for our third home defeat in four games, this time at the hands of Blackpool, whose 19th minute goal scored by Charlie Adam turned out to be the match winner on a hugely frustrating afternoon for Forest.

I couldn't believe it when I heard on the radio that Chris Cohen was to play right wing instead of Paul Anderson. What on earth was Davies thinking dropping one of our best players lately for a player to play out of position? It just made no sense at all. My only explanation is that Davies and Anderson don't like each other. Why else would you leave out a player that had destroyed Sheffield Wednesday last week and been Man of the Match? I just find it really bizarre. What is it going to do to Anderson's confidence if he's dropped even when playing well? While the likes of David McGoldrick, who are constantly rubbish, keep their place no matter what? Why is something so obvious to the Forest supporters completely escaping somebody who is supposed to be one of the best managers in the Championship?

It wasn't just the absence of Anderson that was puzzling. Playing Robbie Earnshaw up front on his own at home against Blackpool was another awful decision. How is that going to achieve anything? First of all why is Davies even contemplating playing one up front at home to some non-descript backwater team like Blackpool, let alone putting somebody there unsuitable for that task in the shape of a midget like Earnshaw? Needless to say, Earnshaw was awful and never got a sniff, and was substituted later. Why Davies thought that was going to work, I don't know. Again, I have no logical explanation, other than that Davies was probably drunk when he picked the team.

Also, why on earth were we playing two defensive midfielders? Why did Davies rush Guy Moussi back, at the expense of a balanced team? Pushing Cohen out wide so Moussi could take his place was stupid. We needed Cohen in the middle where he can be very effective, but now as a result of being played out of position so much this season, Cohen's confidence has been drained. Moussi should never have been picked at all after such a long absence. Anderson must have been baffled to be dropped for him, and now he'll hate Davies and not want to play for him again, and who can blame him?

I'm probably overreacting a little bit, and I know it's still mid-September and not even officially autumn yet, but I'm getting really worried. I really did think we were in good hands under Davies, but now I'm beginning to wonder. Every manager, good, or bad, sometimes gets his tactics wrong. I can accept that. But when he makes such bizarre decisions like leaving Anderson out, and playing Earnshaw on his own up front, you have to wonder.

We've now played eight games, and won just one. A very similar record to this time last season. In fact we are only two points better off. So much for the big improvement, Billy. Yes, we may be playing a bit better, but we're not getting results, are we? Even the win over Derby very nearly was thrown away, and look how bad Derby are right now, losing four in a row. If we're playing well, and not getting results, then clearly something is amiss. For a start, Davies should stop this rotation nonsense and pick his best team. We are not Chelsea. We are Forest. We don't have 22 Championship-quality players. I'm not even sure we have 11 decent ones. So stick to the same side for a few games, Billy, and we might just get somewhere. All this chopping and changing is helping nobody.

You've made your point, Forest. Let's have some more wins please!

2009-09-16T10:18:00.012+01:00

Ordinarily, drawing at clubs like Ipswich should be seen as a good result, but I can't help but feel that they were there for the picking last night, and we will look back on the game as two points dropped rather than one point earned, even though we did have to come from behind.

I remember Colin Fray saying on BBC Radio Nottingham just before kick-off that if either side could get an early goal it could really be important. In the previous two matches against Derby and Sheffield Wednesday, Forest had taken the lead within the first couple of minutes. But this time, it was the turn of the opposition to strike early. The match was only a minute old when Grant Leadbitter struck past Lee Camp. And yes, you guessed it, it deflected off one of the Forest players along the way.

To Forest's credit, they did not drop their heads, and they very nearly equalised immediately when Dexter Blackstock's header glanced just over the crossbar. But although Forest played good football, they were frustrated by a combination of poor weather conditions and a free-kick-happy referee who also seemed on a mission to book as many players as possible. Not surprisingly, Joe Garner was one of those names who entered the book. Unbelievably it was his fifth yellow card of the season already, and he must serve a one-match ban. I would think the odds on him being shown a red card in each game are very short. He's fast becoming a bit of a liability. I don't think Billy Davies does him any favours by playing him on the right wing to be honest, and he certainly hasn't impressed there lately. I would much rather Paul Anderson play there instead, even if he didn't have his best game against Ipswich. It will be interesting to see what happens on Saturday at home to Blackpool. Nathan Tyson should be available again, so I would play him on the left, Anderson on the right, and leave Garner on the bench. I think he's being wasted as a winger, but to be honest, I can't see him getting into the team to play up front, either, at the moment.

Forest's fortunes changed in the second half, thanks in no small part to a couple of substitutions up front. Dexter Blackstock, who had picked up a head injury before the break, was replaced by Dele Adebola, and just before the hour, Garner was swapped for Rob Earnshaw. Within seconds, Forest were level, when Earnshaw with literally his first touch raced on to a good ball from Adebola and fired the ball home from six yards out to hand Forest a well-earned equaliser. Talk about an inspired substitution!

Ipswich looked like a side desperately low on confidence, and Forest really should have gone on to win, but they were not at their best themselves, and their final ball was letting them down too much. The slippery pitch caused by driving rain certainly didn't help matters. Ipswich sometimes were a threat on the counter attack, though, and Paul McKenna had to clear the ball off the line at one stage.

Adebola could well have snatched Forest all three points in the last minute when he found himself in a one-on-one situation with the Ipswich goalkeeper. But Gareth McAuley tripped him up, a challenge that resulted in his dismissal, and a free-kick for Forest very close to the goal. Unfortunately, Earnshaw's effort was tame, and Forest were forced to settle for yet another point away from home.

This season we have drawn at three of the teams that we lost to in the corresponding fixtures last time around, so clearly progress has been made. Last season we lost our opening six away games under Colin Calderwood. It would be nice to think that we could soon start turning these draws into wins. Perhaps our chance may come next week when we go down to Plymouth, who currently sit bottom of the table with five defeats from seven matches. But then again, the Sky TV cameras will be present, so maybe not!

Travel-slick Reds not too far away from becoming a force

2009-09-13T10:14:00.008+01:00

Another away game, another point. What is it they say? Win your home games and draw away, and you won't go too far wrong. And when you go to big teams like Sheffield Wednesday, who have had a very good start to the season, and come away with something, you have got to be happy.

For the second game running, Forest took the lead in the very early stages of the game when just two minutes in, a terrific cross from the re-called Paul Anderson found Dexter Blackstock's head, and the ball looped over the goalkeeper into the back of the net. It was a pretty soft goal to concede from Wednesday's point of view, but Forest didn't care about that.

Whenever Anderson got hold of the ball, Wednesday didn't know how to live with him. His pace was absolutely frightening, and he put in so many good balls into the box. But it was such a shame that apart from the goal, our strikers just couldn't get on the end of them. If they had, I think we would have won the match. It was good to see Anderson get a full 90 minutes behind him, as he hadn't played at all away from home until Saturday, which really puzzled me. Billy Davies was picking Joe Garner ahead of him on the right wing, but we all knew that Anderson's pace could be a real handful for opposition defences just like it was last season away from home, and this was certainly the case at Hillsborough. I don't even know if Davies had originally planned to play him anyway, as Radoslaw Majewski (injured) and Nathan Tyson, whose wife had given birth overnight, were both missing. But Anderson's performance will now make it very hard for Davies to leave him out of the side against Ipswich on Tuesday night.

Forest couldn't have too many complaints when Wednesday equalised six minutes before half time through Marcus Tudgay, as they had been applying lots of pressure. Once again, there was a hint of deflection in the goal, and once again Wes Morgan seemed to be the culprit. Not for nothing has he been a mainstay in central defence for the past six years, and he is a favourite with the Forest supporters, but he does make quite a few glaring errors, which a more competent centre half wouldn't make. He was a good defender at League One level, but I don't think he'll ever become a top class Championship centre back. He's just too clumsy when he gets hold of the ball. Davies claims that he is impressed with him and Luke Chambers as a partnership, but the fact is we are looking to strengthen our defence – we tried to sign a centre half in the summer - so Morgan and Chambers know that their days could be numbered.

We've made quite a slow start to the season, but it hasn't been dreadful. Quite a few teams have only won one game in the Championship so far, so it's nothing to worry about. We're definitely getting stronger and stronger. You can see that in the performances. I think the Ipswich game looks very winnable. Roy Keane is under a lot of pressure as they have lost four of their six opening games and have yet to win. They were tipped by many to be one of the favourites for promotion, but have struggled so far. I think Davies will be targeting this game as our potential first away victory of the season. It's a difficult place to go and win, though, and our record against them recently has not been too good. Who can forget that six-goal thrashing four years ago? I wish I could! But there was also that amazing topsy-turvy seven-goal thriller, which we edged 4-3 after coming back from two down in 2003 in that wonderful season under Paul Hart. I think that there's every chance of there being a similar scoreline this time around with our abundance of attackers and our dodgy defence!

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Savage!

2009-08-30T14:56:00.008+01:00

It's been nearly twenty four hours since the final whistle confirmed our first victory over Derby County in six-and-a-half years of trying, and I'm still high as a kite. It really was a magical day in Nottingham yesterday, and I am going to make sure I savour it for a long time to come.

Nathan Tyson's post-match corner flag celebration has to go down as one of my favourite moments – EVER. He was already a cult hero with the Forest supporters anyway, but now he's been elevated on to another plane altogether. I don't care if the spoilsports at the Football Association land him with a fine for 'inciting a riot'. Who cares? I thought it was wonderful, and it wound up the despicable Robbie Savage good and proper – and that is absolutely priceless. The sight of Savage's ugly, greasy long-haired mug on Sky Sports News bleating about Tyson waving the flag in front of the Sheep fans was brilliant TV, and I hope somebody puts it on YouTube so we can watch it over and over again! What a hypocritical person Savage is. He really wound us up last season when he waved his Derby scarf in front of his fans at the City Ground, and although it was in front of his own supporters, rather than ours, it still rankled with the Forest fans and players alike. So it was only right that justice was done. The FA say they will investigate the mêlée as a 'matter of urgency', but to be honest it wasn't much of a big deal. Most of the players were trying to restrain people, not actually get involved. Tyson will probably be hit in the pocket, and that will be that.

Even though the second half was really frightening in the way we very nearly squandered our half time 3-0 lead. I am almost glad we did let in two goals now because the end was so thrilling when the whistle finally blew. I didn't for one moment think that we had won the match when we went three up. I just knew that we'd sit back after the break and let Derby back into it, and so it proved. I was totally depressed when we conceded a second. I thought 'here we go again', and just waited for Derby to equalise, and possibly even go on to win. But thank the Lord, it never happened, and we managed to hold on. It would have been absolutely devastating to throw away a three-goal lead. I did fear it at half time, but being such a hypochondriac, I told myself I was being silly. But blimey, it was close. Our defence is absolutely scary. Both the goals were needlessly conceded. The first was an own goal which went in off Wes Morgan's head fives minutes into the half. That gave Derby some real momentum, and just over ten minutes later they were well and truly back in the match when more slapdash defending from Forest saw Jake Livermore fire past Lee Camp, taking a deflection off Paul McKenna along the way. I bet bookmakers would have offered short odds on Derby going on to win the match such was their dominance throughout the second 45 minutes.

It was a far cry from the first half when Forest had raced into a three-goal lead. We had the perfect start when just 58 seconds into the game, Radoslaw Majewski, whose goal against Middlesbrough in mid-week had put us in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup, showed off his talent yet again with a powerful 25-yard piledriver, which crashed into the back of the net, giving Stephen Bywater no chance. That raised the roof off the City Ground, and it inspired Forest to pour forward. Derby just couldn't handle us at all, and when Dexter Blackstock made it a deserved 2-0 half an hour into the game with a close-range header from a Chris Cohen free-kick, the Forest fans were beaming with happiness. Things just got better and better when a couple of minutes before half time Kris Commons lost possession and Forest took full advantage. Blackstock put Tyson clean through on goal, and cheekily rounded the goalkeeper to make it 3-0, and send the home fans wild with delight.

The news that the lacklustre Commons had been substituted at half time was greeted with jeers, but actually his replacement Lee Croft, a summer signing from Norwich City, whom we had been linked with ourselves, really terrorised us in the second half, so it wasn't such a good substitution from a Forest point of view after all. Luckily for us Billy Davies got his tactics right when he brought on Gareth McCleary for Joe Garner on the right wing, and this seemed to help Forest calm down a bit in defence. I think Garner might well have been sent off if he had stayed on the pitch for much longer. He was already on a yellow card, and in such a hostile atmosphere, the money would have been on him to see red considering his track record with referees.

Davies also played a huge part in our win, although I didn't realise it at the time. I couldn't understand why when about ten minutes from the end the crowd suddenly started cheering really loudly, roaring Forest on. I thought perhaps my watch had stopped and we had only a minute of injury time to go. But what transpired was that Davies had urged the home supporters to be really noisy and help create an atmosphere. It was very tense and quiet until then – very understandably after Derby had looked like they were going to break our hearts again - but once the crowd became really vocal, it helped the Forest players to regain their composure and it shook Derby up a little bit. They were never quite the same threat they had been earlier on. It's often said in football that the fans can be like a 12th man on the pitch, and I think certainly yesterday that was very true in Forest's case. If only we could be like that in every game, though, and not just once a year against our biggest rivals. Just imagine how many points better off we might be then.

Now our season should finally get started!

2009-08-26T11:00:00.007+01:00

The League Cup might be pretty low down on our list of priorities, but last night's excellent win over Middlesbrough in extra time could turn out to be very significant if it helps us to get things going in the Championship.

Luke Chambers became the first player this season to breach Boro's defence when he scored what was arguably his best Forest goal to date, earning Forest a much-deserved equaliser right on the hour with an exquisite overhead volley from an Arron Davies corner. That goal cancelled out Boro's earlier strike, which had come just a couple of minutes before half time from Adam Johnson, who had exploited Chris Cohen's weakness at left back to give his team the lead.

There were less than 9,000 people in attendance, but those who did make the trip were rewarded for their efforts as it was a fantastic end-to-end game which either side could have won in normal time. Paul Smith, who was in goal in place of the rested Lee Camp, made some really good saves, while at the other end, Forest looked very dangerous once Billy Davies had made three substitutions, bringing on Nathan Tyson, David McGoldrick and Dele Adebola in the last fifteen minutes.

Rob Earnshaw, though, who had started the game alongside Dexter Blackstock looked like a player desperately short on confidence and rather worryingly his body language suggested his heart was just not in it at all. Not surprisingly he was one of the players who was replaced. Maybe rumours that he could be on his way out are not that far off the mark. If he keeps this sort of form up, I wouldn't be too unhappy if he did leave if it meant we could use the cash to buy a defender or two.

Not that the defence was terrible last night or anything. Far from it. Wes Morgan and Chambers both had very good games, as did Chris Gunter, and apart from the sloppiness that led to the Boro goal, Cohen wasn't troubled too much. But this was just a League Cup game when the big clubs are well known to perform well below-par, so I won't read too much into it. All I can say, though, is that apart from the Watford game a week ago, our defence hasn't done that badly. I'm still a little bit apprehensive about Saturday, though, when Derby are in town. It would be a shame if Cohen has to play left back again for that one as he is really missed in midfield. Hopefully Joel Lynch will have recovered from his back injury, although I'm not really a big fan of his to tell you the truth.

After six minutes of injury time (much of it awarded because of an injury to the referee!) the game went into extra time. Forest's triple striker substitution really paid off as it meant we were really fresh up front. I don't know what Gareth Southgate said to his Boro players once the full time whistle had blown at the end of the 90 minutes, but they simply were not in it in extra time as Forest completely dominated. Radoslaw Majewski who has been brilliant for us so far this season capped another fine performance with a well-taken goal in the 103rd minute. That turned out to be the match winner, which booked Forest's place in the 3rd round of the competition for the first time in five years. It would be nice to think that we could have a bit of a cup run this season. Far from being a distraction, it could well work in our favour and give us some real momentum for the more important games in the League. You need only look at what Burnley's cup exploits did for them last year for evidence of that.

Still winless, but there's plenty to be pleased about

2009-08-23T14:35:00.011+01:00

After the poor result against Watford in midweek, I am much happier after Forest earned a deserved point away from home against Queens Park Rangers. If we had been more clinical in front of goal, we would probably be celebrating our first win of the season, but I'm sure that will come sooner rather than later if we continue to play as well as we have been doing.

I'm glad to say we looked a lot better in defence after the horror show on Tuesday night. That was not a surprise seeing as we welcomed back Luke Chambers after his three-match ban, and this enabled Chris Cohen to slot back into the heart of midfield with Joe Lynch moving back to left back. The side definitely looked much better, and we looked very good going forward in the first half, and got quite a few shots on target, so we made the QPR goalkeeper work for his money.

But despite Forest being the better side, it was Rangers who took the lead when an unstoppable shot from Mikele Leigertwood crashed into the back of the net from 20 yards out, 25 minutes into the game. Rangers hadn't exactly not been in the game as they had always looked a threat going forward, but we really should have been two goals up by that stage. Fortunately, we didn't let the goal depress us too much, although we had to wait until after half time before we were rewarded for our efforts.

The equaliser came just before the hour-mark through David McGoldrick, who scored his first goal of the season, firing home from a few yards out after good work from Dele Adebola. It was the very least that we deserved, and we could have gone on to win the game, but then again so could QPR, who ensured that Lee Camp, who was celebrating his 25th birthday, would not be a mere spectator against his former side. A draw in the end was a fair result, and I would definitely have taken a point before the game even though we really needed three points to kick-start our season.

It is a little bit worrying that we still haven't won in the League yet after four games, but we have to consider the fixtures we have played so far. We have got good away points at Reading and QPR, and very narrowly lost at home to West Brom, who have had a very good start to the season. Our only bad performance came against Watford when we were forced to field a very weak defence. At Loftus Road, I thought the defence looked reasonably solid. Chambers makes a much, much better central defender than at right back. He had a very good game, hardly making a mistake at all. I think Colin Calderwood did him a great disservice playing him at right back for so long, but he didn't moan about it and just got on with the job. Maybe he can cut it at Championship level after all, but it's still very early days, and he will come up against much tougher opponents in future games. I still think we definitely need to sign another central defender, though.

We had been linked with West Ham's Calum Davenport. But a shocking incident on Friday night in my home town of Bedford has put paid to that rumour once and for all. He was stabbed in the legs following a fracas involving several people, and his mother was also attacked. His football career is now in doubt after doctors described his injuries as 'serious'. Weirdly, enough, although I think this is merely coincidental, the man arrested is from Derby. A few people have suggested that it might be a Derby fan trying to stop us signing him, but you'd have to be pretty warped to go that far in the name of football.

The solid performance at QPR has allayed our fears about the defence a bit, but whether or not that back four is capable of doing well, we still need cover for the inevitable injuries and suspensions that will be coming our way. The fact that Gareth McCleary had to come on and play at right back for the second half when Lynch went off injured with Chris Gunter taking over at left back just highlights how serious our defensive problems are. We are not going to get away with patching up our rear guard with misfits for long. If a team like Watford, who are not expected to do that well this season, could run us ragged, then we will have big problems when we meet better sides than them. There is not long to go now before the transfer window slams shut until the New Year. Are we going to see a repeat of the last transfer window back in January when we signed absolutely nobody? Let's hope that Billy Davies and the much-maligned transfer committee panel are working very hard behind the scenes because if we do strengthen the defence, I think we will really have a good team. Maybe not one that is capable of challenging for promotion, but we should certainly be good enough to avoid another frightening relegation battle. I was convinced before the season started that we would be alright, but until we bring in new defenders, all our hard work at one end of the pitch is going to be undone at the other. And that would be a crying shame.