Opinion: Cash’s words are a symbol of a much bigger problem at the City Ground right now

It was a rather frustrating game overall.

Not just the fact that there was a lot of anger surrounding Joe Worrall’s disallowed goal, but the fact that despite our best efforts, we couldn’t break down a QPR team that holds one of the worst defensive records in the division.

And no player epitomised that frustration than full-back Matty Cash. Speaking to the club website after the game, Cash talked about how the game panned out and how there was only really one thing missing from their gameplan, and it was a pretty crucial one:

“I thought we played some good stuff, thought we were the better team overall and I think we controlled the game. We had a few chances to score and I don’t think they made it very hard for us. They’re obviously a good side but I think they opened gaps for us to create chances and we did that. We had one cleared off the line and a few headers so I don’t think they made it hard we’ve just got to put the ball away.”

The stats from the game will back up Cash’s point, as Forest managed 12 shots in total and only managed to get two of them on target. However, what is perhaps more concerning is the fact that Lewis Grabban failed to register a single shot on target throughout the whole game, with Joe Lolley and Sammy Ameobi contributing the only attempts to force a save.

This goes back to the problem that Forest have been having all season, and why there was so much talk about trying to find someone to take the load off of him, because the fact is Grabban can’t do it all on his own, and when the time comes for his teammates to bail him out, they can sometimes be found wanting.  And when the only option coming off the bench is the, largely unproven Alex Mighten, then you know that there’s a deep problem at the club.

Going back to what I said a few months ago, this needs to be more of a team effort rather than relying on individuals to get us out of trouble in games like this, and if the game against QPR is anything to go by, then there’s still a lot of work to be done between now and the end of the season.