Forest Nil 0:2 Crystal Palace

Thought I’d best give this a couple of days, give my self time to calm down a bit, no knee-jerk reaction here.

So, after calming down, letting the dust settle and making sure my knee is still at the correct angle on my leg, this is my honest, unbiased and intelligent opinion on the game last Saturday.

It was b******s.

I sent a text to an absent fan at five past three. It simply said:

One up front, at home, three defenders on the bench and one nil down after 3 minutes. For f***s sake.

And that sums it up for me, whatever the ability of the players, if they’re told to go out and play with just one striker on the pitch, then they’re not going to be in the most attacking frame of mind from the off. All week there were reports coming out of the club that Rob Earnshaw would be fit, so Palace would have been set up to deal with a pacey attack. When they saw the Forest team sheet with only one centre forward on it, they must have though it was Christmas. To have two on the pitch at Sheff Wed and not look like scoring is negative enough, but to then REDUCE the number of attacking options beggars belief.

I like Nathan Tyson, he’s clearly good enough, quick and puts the effort in, a good sign in a Forest shirt, and he’s got a bright, settled head on his shoulders. It’s just that when he plays from the off, and this is in no way his fault, our only tactic is to aimlessly hoof the ball forward quickly in the hope he’ll get to it first. And then what ? He’s the only one up !!!

And then the manager, Colin Calderwoodout, has the nerve to pretend he’s playing some kind of deranged 4-3-3 formation. Well, I can see us getting completely over-run in midfield, so there’s your three midfielders, but where are the three attackers when we go forward ?

I don’t want to knock Paul Smith because (as a goalkeeper myself) I think he’s a fantastic shot stopper, but I’m going to. Sorry. For Clough’s sake open your mouth once in a while. And learn how to kick straight. And don’t go walkabout when there’s defensive cover. And release the ball quicker, just once in a game would be a start.

There’s no complaints from anyone at any lack of effort, a symptom of previous relegation struggles. And make no mistake, we are in a relegation struggle. Five points adrift before the clocks go back is not a good place to start our notoriously bad winter period.

Calderwoodout can complain about all the bad luck he wants, penalty decisions at Swansea and at home to Burnley hiding the fact that we deserved absolutely nothing from those games anyway. A goal off the back of Wes Morgan’s head at Wolves was cancelled out by exactly the same piece of good luck for our consolation, and ignores the other FOUR perfectly good goals scored that day, the two that were disallowed and the Wolves effort off the bar. A goal off a Plymouth players shins is unlucky, but letting a long throw-in bounce twice in the area before dealing with it is just rank bad defending inviting a ricochet in the area. We’ve had good luck ourselves this season, a goal off the post for the winner against Watford. A similar story for our consolation at home to Burnley.

All of these things hide the fact that we haven’t scored from open play since August. And that’s relegation fodder.

So, what next ?

I said on Saturday that I’d got to the end of my tether with Calderwoodout and a few days later, my mind hasn’t changed. I’d like him to change it, I really would, but time after time after time he shows that his tactics are far too negative, there’s no attacking option for the team and opposition teams are still capable of scoring knowing they can ride the game out.

We haven’t looked like a relegation threatened side before Saturday, we’ve been nearly there, just missing that vital something.

But not any more. We look doomed already, and I’m pretty sure Calderwoodout doesn’t know what to do to stop it.