Record-breaking Reds still looking good for promotion

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!