Forest Fail To Fire Again

This was yet another poor performance from Forest today and a result that sees them kissing goodbye to any hopes of automatic promotion. The 0-0 draw against struggling Crewe, now leaves them 8 points adrift of Doncaster in second place and the playoffs, if we’re lucky.

Once again Calderwood opted for his new fangled and beloved 5-3-2 and gave a debut to Brett Ormerod up front. The new fella shouldn’t be criticised on his performance, as he rarely saw anything of the ball as his team mates conspired to give it away at every given opportunity. The only real moment of activity from The Reds in a dire first half was a clever run and shot from Arron Davies. Crewe fired a warning shot, when the defence went AWOL. New loan signing Anyinsah was allowed to power in a shot that went narrowly wide.

The second half started with a bit more purpose and sounded as though the lads might actually be up for it. But things soon changed and the game fizzled out with both sides bereft of ideas. A change was needed and Calderwood sent on Tyson for Ormerod, but not before messing up the changeover as Tyson was at first recalled to the bench amidst farcical scenes on the sidelines. It was to be a frustrating time for the returning striker, with nearly 10 mins of play passing before he even had a touch of the ball.

There will be concern over Arron Davies, as he left the pitch on 75 mins holding his hamstring and was replaced by McGugan. Crewe could have had a penalty with 10 mins to go when they had a man brought down in the box. Referee Jarnail Singh at first waved play on, but the linesman flagged. Fortunately for Forest, he awarded the free kick just outside the box.

You thought and hoped that Forest would step it up a gear in the dying moments, but they didn’t. This was a lazy, passionless and sorry display from the lads today. The players owe it to the travelling fans to put this right, but then again they already owe us for Monday night and countless games before that. So a win against Southend on Tuesday and payback for the fans at this stage looks unlikely, as does our hopes of automatic promotion. Without being disrespectful to Crewe, they were there for the taking today, but once again Forest failed badly. Sort it out Mr. Calderwood, we’re not happy.