Forest's travel woes worsen as Baggies blast ahead

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.