It?s taken me a little while to come to terms with the Christmas Woe Ho we?ve had at Nottingham Forest. It is as if Santa came down that chimney, ate the mince pie, drunk the sherry and nicked all the prezzies then left naught but a traditional Yule log in the fire place. After being such good people all year you have to feel the injustice of being completely shat upon at the end of it.

Not that losing a seven point lead and slipping into third in the league really bothers me that much. It may be the kick up the backside that our increasingly complacent-looking squad require, although the way we have bottled it combined with our less than average penalty record this season does not bode well if we need to go through the back door via the play-offs to get out of this division.

More to the point our transfer strategy may have been completely scuppered off the back of such a depressing run. With the intention of building from a position of strength in the view of increasing quality for the Championship, Chairman Doughty has admitted we may only now be looking a making loan signings. Whether this is to truly dampen fans expectations or surprise us when we bring in David Beckham remains to be seen, however given the intelligent signings we have made since January last year (Tyson, Holt, Smith, Agogo), I?m confident Smoulderwood will be able bring in the right personnel for the club.

In fact, the only criticism that can be levelled at the Smouldering one by Forest fans so far this season is the ?guess the formation game? we?ve been playing. Whilst the fans were slightly confused, the players did at first seem to slip comfortably into the 352 so favoured at Northampton in his previous employment. Yet now them on the pitch just look as discombobulated as we are. During a phone in interview on Radio Nottingham at the beginning of December, several ?better? formations were put to the Manager by some fans to which Smoulds concluded that ?the fans have Championship Manager but I have to try and do it in real life?.

When it comes to Championship Manager, if I was being brutally honest I?d say I was average at best. The season always starts well with a couple of useful signings and the hope that yep, I may indeed win the league or be there or there abouts. Until mid season the computer seems to go crazy, turns my team into Accrington Stanley and with a mid table spot guaranteed, I switch off in frustration leaving the game for a few months before trying again.

Loosing 5-0 to Oldham Athletic on New Years Day, the computer seems to have gone crazy again. Yet amazingly these bizarre and perverse results do actually happen in football and however many times Ctrl-Alt-Delete is hit we are still third in the League with automatic promotion not looking as comfortable as it once did. Whilst I?ve always wondered if as a coach I could ever do better in reality than my unspectacular attempts in a computer game I have no desire to see that my computer game is not so far from reality than I once made myself believe.

It?s never been an easy ride in following Forest though the last 15 years so I guess it was asking just a little too much to expect us to run away with the championship this season. As there is no way in returning to December 1st and replaying the month again we can only look forward and to the plausible return of Andy Reid with his Charlton chums to the City Ground this Saturday. At last a game has come along where the pressure of the expectation to win is significantly relieved so the players should, for their sakes, just go out and enjoy. Give us a day to remember.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am and is filed under Nottingham Forest. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.