A bad week got worse for Nottingham Forest fans as the side made it winless in the last five as we made the trip to The Den to face Millwall in our final Championship clash of 2018.
The hosts had the lead nine minutes into the first half with what became their only shot on target, but despite dominating the ball, we couldn’t make our four efforts between the sticks count for anything.
With heavy speculation over manager Aitor Karanka’s future, the 1-0 defeat will do nothing to quieten those rumours doing the rounds and following the capitulation of a three-goal lead against Norwich City in the last one, we lose further ground when it comes to our Play-Off hopes this season and we drop down to tenth place in the second tier table.
💬 "It wasn't to be our day."#NFFC manager Aitor Karanka was left frustrated and disappointed following this afternoon's 1-0 defeat to Millwall at The Den. https://t.co/bCwfRpFie9
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) December 29, 2018
We are only six points from sixth place though, so the promotion battle will go down to the wire and we just have to hope we’ve kept ourselves in the mix.
Speaking to the BBC following the fulltime whistle, a frustrated Karanka said of his own future.
“The only thing I know is that when I signed, I signed on a two-and-a-half-year project and I am building a squad to take the first step. I arrived to a project as I did in Middlesbrough with two and a half years to try to do the same. I will work my best, be honest and try to put this club up where it belongs.”
As for the game, he credited the fans for their support across the 90 minutes, especially in light of the last game.
“I am really pleased with this group of players and with the crowd and I want to say thanks for their support. I want to keep going together. I am really pleased because you can win or lose but the fans support. I want to make this crowd proud of the team and I think they are. After six months we are only three points below the play-off positions. We have played the top teams and in January we have the transfer market and the team is improving every week. We compete against every single team and I am really positive. My target is to work here for many years. Why I signed is because I had a project in front of me.”
