Forest Fire

Forest were too hot for The Addicks yesterday

Our first league defeat of the season then and no shame in that given that Forest are a strong force in this division, especially so at home.

No surprises in Andy Reid being so influential throughout the game. A surprise that Stephens was omitted aside from the shock of his transfer to Villa not going ahead. I'm amazed we didn't accept any of the bids reportedly offered. Dale can be good when at his best but sadly that's not often enough and the money received could have been spent elsewhere. Anyone else notice that Quinn went to Hull and Eccleston to Blackpool ? Either or both of those I'd have happily seen arrive at the Valley.

We now have a player who may well be treading water waiting until the January transfer window when he may or may not move on. It's far from the ideal scenario.

Given the absence of Stephens, based on what I've seen to date then I view Kerkar as the man most likely. He has time on the ball, can pick a good pass and looks like the creative player we need. He also takes a mean free kick. I note from the highlights that he had an impact in the short time he was on the pitch.

Sir Chris wasn't happy with either goal conceded and quite rightly. We've all praised Hamer recently and he's probably been our best player to date but he clearly should have done better with the first. For the second, no one picked up Hutchinson's run and the on loan Chelsea man was given the freedom of the penalty area to slot home.

I did feel that Forest would be suspect to crosses into the box and it seems we only managed to do that late on with a goal a distinct possibility on each occasion. Solly provided a decent cross for the goal ( a marked improvement on his efforts against Hull the previous Saturday ) and Fuller's header merited a goal which I hope he duly gets credited with. 

Sir Chris did make use of his subs, however, it looks to have been a little too late. Kerkar and Fuller should have had at least 20 minutes each I feel. Given from what I saw, I note the impact that both had in the time they were on the pitch.

Anyway, clearly the better team won and we can but hope that lessons are learned from the game. We're going to need to think about getting some width in the team, especially when playing at home.  

A break for international games next weekend ahead of the following Friday's game against Palarse. Let's all hope for a much improved performance for that one !