As I write this, the office is laden with Christmas decorations, yet this Tricky feels distinctively devoid of Christmas cheer as the wheels appear to have fallen well and truly off the Forest promotion wagon. A season which began with much promise, will now see Forest do well to arrest the current slump in order to maintain Division One status. Still, the festive period will obviously see many social slurps consumed to keep the spirits up. The fixture list looks a bit daunting with games against Palace, Coventry and Norwich, to mention three. Now, in the good old days, these fixtures would render three wins, but not any more folks. Anyway, let's not get too down cause at least we have the sheepshaggers to laugh at!!!

I found the “sack the board” chants at the Gillingham match an absolute joke. Our current board are miles better than the prats we had previously who did all they could do to bankrupt this great club of ours. People such as Phil Soar should be the one’s on the receiving end of our vitriol, not the board who took a risk on us and seem to be finally steering the club in the right direction. Just look at the manager, youth set up and ticket pricing. All three of these factors have improved beyond question and I challenge any Tricky to argue otherwise.

Now these chants were only from a small minority of the crowd, but happened to be the most vocal. Maybe a “save the board” chant would be appropriate! Whilst on the matter of the A-Block, it appears that it is now not possible to buy a ticket in this area of the ground on matchdays in a continuation of the whole standing/seating debate. Personally, if the whole block wants to stand, then let them. A prime example of taking rules to the extreme was last season against Bolton at home when I was told to sit down despite being on the back row with no-one whatsoever in front of me! Ridiculous.

Personally I think quite a few Forest fans need to wake up and smell the coffee. Jim Brennan is not a good defender. Since signing for £1.5m he has been shite, and a few decent performances this season have had Reds singing his praises. Now I am up for giving the lads all the support possible but his application in a Forest shirt is more than disappointing, especially in the tackle. Imagine a fifty-fifty between him and Gary Crosby! I would have Tony Vaughan ahead of him any day. Another player who has received a fair amount of praise has been Jon Hjelde. Now for the duration of his time here, he has been either injured or a liability but a few decent performances at the start of this season has seen many conveniently forgetting this fact. Also take note that his improved performance have coincided with the fact that his contract needs renewing. Recently, his performances have slipped back to ways reminiscent of old. Sorry to moan, but I needed to get that off my chest!

Enlightenment was found at the Brixton Academy where a group of us took in the mercurial King of the Monkeys himself, Ian Brown. Now for those of you who haven’t been on the planet for the last ten years or just too young to remember, Brown was the frontman of the superb Manchester four-piece The Stone Roses before embarking on a highly successful solo career. Brixton itself was a less than pleasant experience, especially when one considers that I am strongly convinced that I saw a man hiding a gun up his jumper! Loads of Old Bill added to the atmosphere, as well as numerous randoms being searched for drugs etc. The crowd resembled that spotted at a football ground, with more Stone-Island gear than Limeys! A top night and a definite must for anyone considering seeing the great man in action.

In search of entertaining, exciting football action, I have been forced to drag out one of my old football videos where my team destroy a bunch of no-marks 13-0! Despite playing the entire game, I still didn't score, so draw your own conclusions! I am sure many of you readers will be 'scoring' over the festive period so if you cannot be good, be careful!

Well I am going to miss the Tricky action as I will be sunning myself in a country far warmer than England. My return will coincide with the clashes against Brum and the Blunts in the FA Cup 3rd Round. Hopefully by then, all things Forest will have improved and 2002 will be the year when Forest return to winning ways. In the meantime, have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.