On the back of Nottingham Forest’s draw against Stoke City at the City Ground last Saturday, Aitor Karanka’s side head into the November international break sat in seventh place in the Championship table.
With six wins from 17 matches, we are only a point behind sixth-placed Derby County and only six points behind now table-toppers Norwich City.
The Achilles Heel in some ways for Karanka has been the nine draws we have picked up. That carries benefits as we are taking points and not falling to defeats (only two this year) but there are those games, and Stoke was certainly one of them, where having the knack of taking a tight 1-0 would obviously suit us better.
Speaking in his recent Nottingham Post column that was exactly what Kenny Burns pointed out as he knows, like many fans, a Play-Off spot and maybe even more, is there for us to take if we can turn those draws into wins.
“A place in the play-offs is there for the taking for Forest, if they can put it together and win games consistently, if they can turn a few of these draws into wins.”
He does rightly point out that the foundations are there to do that with the attackers we have at the club and he’s right, I think, in believing that Karanka would’ve liked a little more, but he’s certainly not going to be unhappy with where we find ourselves at this stage of the season.
A couple of the sides above us have already shown they can slip up, a few are waiting for their next dip and it certainly won’t be all roses for Forest either – but that’s where those points from draws may provide the baseline.
