Forest 1 Derby 3 – Rams give Forest a battering

By: Tim | February 22nd, 2009

Earnshaw gets a late consolation goal When Forest were sent crashing out of the FA Cup by Derby earlier this month, after going 2 nil up, I convinced myself that it would be ok, as long as we managed to take 3 points off them in the league, everything would be alright. What hurts most about the latest defeat by Derby is the manner in which it occurred.

Derby won this at a canter. Time and again they managed to expose the frailties of our defence, their first two goals coming from some inept set piece defending, particularly for Hulse’s goal just after half-time – Robbie Savage sent a free kick in towards the six yard box, when Hulse found himself unmarked he couldn’t really miss. Chambers was at fault for their first goal, too, after allowing a Commons free kick to brush off his shoulder the ball fell to Nyatanga to control it and hit the target from close range.

In general the team really didn’t look up for it. Cohen was uncharacteristically poor, as was Tyson, and although he bagged a goal late on, it was clear that Earnshaw is short of match fitness. Davies had this to say after the match: ‘Set plays cost us but they deserved their victory because we lost too many individual battles throughout the pitch. They clearly know how to battle in this division better than we can’. Well, we need to find out how to battle soon, because our run in looks especially tough.

Of our remaining twelve games, seven are against top-ten opposition, one is against a mid-table team (Coventry), and four are against fellow-strugglers. Realistically, to be assured of safety, we need to win all four of those games, and nick the odd point against the top sides. When you consider our recent results against top-half opposition, and that three out of the four games against strugglers are away, this doesn’t look like an easy task – it could go right down to the last day when we play Southampton at the City Ground in May.

In some good news, Anderson and Earnshaw both returned from injury for yesterday’s match. Moussi is on the verge of coming back too, and could be included in the squad against Reading on Saturday. With Perch absent due to a suspension, the Moose will be a welcome addition to the squad.

Lastly, although Davies insists he has faith in the ability of David Pleat and the board to come up with new signings, it still doesn’t look like we’re going to get any fresh faces in soon. It’s obvious that we need to bolster our defence, and a lot of anger is currently being directed at the board due to the lack of new signings – one Talk Sport rumour has it that Nigel Doughty and Mark Arthur decided to stay away from the match yesterday, fearing the reaction of the crowd after allegedly being sent 11,000 emails and letters demanding their resignation. We’re not talking about Southampton-esque demonstrations just yet, but you could be forgiven for thinking that the Forest fans are not far off from doing that.

Maybe it would help, given Southampton’s unexpected result against Preston yesterday. Personally I think we’ve just about got enough to stay up in this division, if we can remain injury free, but this sort of attitude towards the board doesn’t help, sooner or later it will filter down to the players, and they’re already de-motivated enough.