Win just an April Fool's Day gimmick...or the start of better things to come?

It's not April Fool's Day any more, and yet I still see the headlines on teletext that Forest won at Carlisle last night! We pulled off the seemingly impossible mission of beating a side that had won their previous FOURTEEN home games. And as if that wasn't freaky enough, Colin Deadwood conceded in his post-match interview that he had made mistakes!

I had very little enthusiasm for the game before kick off, so certain was I that we would turn in yet another pathetic performance and be on the receiving end of a deflating defeat. Carlisle's red hot home form in contrast with our wishy-washy record away from the City Ground surely will have had many people thinking it was going to be a foregone conclusion. But it turned out to be anything but as Forest actually, shock of all shocks, played really well!

The reason why we were good was simple – the tactics. For the past two months we had been playing five men at the back in away games, but uncharacteristicly, under-fire Deadwood decided to play a more attacking 4-3-3 formation last night, and as a result we were much better than we had been at Doncaster. We had a good amount of possession and made Carlisle look pretty ordinary. The three strikers didn't get into the game much owing to a lack of service, but the midfielders played well, in particular Chris Cohen, who played a great part in substitute Garath McCleary's first goal for the Club in stoppage time, which made certain of the three points, which we were clinging on to after Luke Chambers had given us the lead fourteen minutes from time with a powerful header from a free kick.

I didn't know anything about McCleary when he joined Forest from non-league Bromley a couple of months ago, but Deadwood predicted that he would make his mark in the first team at some stage this season, and he has been proven right. He took his goal really well, and if he is given a run in the first team, that may just be the first of many. He can play on the right wing or as a striker, so his versatility will be very welcome, and I think he is going to turn into a real City Ground favourite.

I usually fall asleep when Deadwood is interviewed on the radio, but I was startled last night when he made the astonishing confession that he had got the formation wrong at Doncaster! He has never ever said anything like that before since he came here! If that is not evidence that he knew that his job was on the line, then I don't know what more you want. That coupled with the change in tactics seemed to suggest that a defeat or even a draw might well have cost him his job. Now, following this victory, it looks very likely that he will hang on until the end of the season.

With just six games left, including four at home, starting with a couple of (dare I say it?) winnable home matches against Cheltenham and Bristol Rovers, I admit it probably makes sense not to change the manager now, unless our play-off place is in severe danger. If things go according to plan against Cheltenham and Rovers, we will have been virtually guaranteed of a play-off spot. We all know that, barring a miracle of epic proportions, we have no chance of overhauling Doncaster and Carlisle for that second automatic spot. Nine points is just too big a gap to make up at this stage of the season. It's possible, but very improbable, and Forest just don't do miracles.