.Forest To Learn Lessons?

Nottingham Forest boss Colin Calderwood today admitted that Bournemouth had ‘taught them a lesson’ last night.


The struggling Cherries brought an abrupt end to the Reds’ proud unbeaten away record, as they claimed a deserved 2-0 success on the south coast.

Reds boss Calderwood said his side paid the price for allowing their standards to slip, as they registered their third successive game without a win.

But he challenged his players to remember what qualities had fired them to their four-month run without a defeat away from the City Ground – and reproduce them at Gresty Road this weekend.

‘We are better than that and we have got to prove it now,’ said Calderwood.

‘To a degree, you want to keep things in perspective and the important thing is to try to remember why we have been unbeaten for so long away from home.

‘We have been better away from home than we were last night, when we were below our usual level and I think we will see renewed vigour on Saturday.

‘It doesn’t matter whether you have got high standards or low standards, it doesn’t matter what we have done before – we just have to be better than we were last night.’

Following their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy defeat at the hands of Bristol City and the weekend draw at Salisbury in the FA Cup, Forest have not won in their last three games which, by their high standards, represents a dip in form.

But Calderwood said: ‘I don’t think it is a blip, we have just been second best. We will look at how they react.

‘We have had enough efforts on goal, but we were chasing the game and we can’t always do that. Hopefully it will be a good lesson for us. We were deservedly beaten.

‘It is the longest journey we have had so far and it was the first defeat, so that will only make it all the worse. It is a long way home and it will certainly feel like it.

‘We are disappointed, we didn’t make good decisions with the ball, when we had opportunities. We had enough shots and attempts on goal.

‘But we were really second best in some periods. In the second half, we tightened it up a little bit more.

‘We persevered, but it was not good enough. It was not a lucky win for them. Too many out there thought they were players, but were not.

‘You have to do your job, you have to perform when it comes to the



Nottingham Evening Post