We've had better days......



In contrast to the previous home game, Yann made sure he wasn't the last player to leave the pitch. In fact he left the remaining 21 players positively trailing in his wake !

The incident occured right in front of me and the sending off seemed ludicrous and over the top. When watching later at home I relaised it was the correct decision. It was wrong that Halford escaped scott free and his late booking should have been accompanied by a red for a second yellow.

The ramifications of Yann's dismissal did not manifest themselves in this game as we'd have lost anyway one feels. The effects will be felt in the upcoming 3 games when our French talisman is not available for selection.

I had been anticipating a good game of football on Saturday morning but the way we set up and our subsequent approach ruled that out almost immediately. Clearly if we were going to change things at home we needed to be positive against an attacking Forest side. Seemingly we were 4-4-2 but what on earth did we hope to get from Wagstaff being one of the two ! I believe that Yann was as frustrated as the rest of us and was probably one reason why he was wound up.

Sir Chris should have acknowledged the mistake after 10 to 15 mins, held his hands up and withdrawn either Stepehens or Wagstaff. I couldn't believe that we didn't change things even after Yann had gone. Leaving Wagstaff up there to see out the rest of the half defied logic as well as belief. He wasn't winning anything or creating any problems when Yann was with him, on his own there was no chance !

How good it would have been to be able to have Hulse come on in those circumstances. He would have been ideal.

The changes at half time should have seen Wagstaff and Stephens replaced by Fuller and Haynes with the latter playing wide right. His energy would have seen him get up and down with pace enough to get up to suppport attacks.

I'd love to know what the thinking was behind our formation and the players selected. Off the pitch it was every bit as confusing, we had 3 forwards on the bench ! Was that the plan B then ? We were going to go 4-3-3 or something ? That's about as believable as the declared attendance.

That so few players came away with any credit made the whole day deeply depressing. The weather did nothing to help and it was an awful day all round. Only Forest's passing and movement made it worthwhile. Andy Reid was superb as we always knew he would be.

I'm not sure that Hamer can survive into the next game. He has been good for most of the season and made some top drawer saves, however, his mistakes of late have proved costly. It doesn't do any player any harm to drop down now and again when they're not at their best. No one should be taking their place for granted or not feel under any pressure.

Home again next Saturday then and let's hope that we will witness better fayre than that. Sales of Findus lasagne is likely to be higher than those of our season tickets at present.