lost that loving feeling

Despite collecting 8 points from 4 games over the ‘Christmas period’, it is pretty safe to say that any hopes of reaching the play-offs Forest might have had have long-since faded away. We’re now 9 points behind 6th placed West Brom and our erratic form suggests that we will not be able to address that difference in 18 games.

But considering the recent financial doom and gloom, another finish in mid-table would be a good place for Paul Hart to kick-off his Forest reign. Especially when you take into account the recent turn-around in fortunes, ending the November slump.

Forest have got back to playing attractive football (we’ll just forget the Sheffield United cup game for the moment) and winning games against the League’s top sides. The wins against Norwich and Coventry showed great ability from the Reds and certainly helped set the record straight concerning Forest’s on-the-field problems.

We always knew that Paul Hart would need time to get things working his way, especially with his hands being tied financially, preventing him from bringing in new faces. In some ways, he gave himself rope to hang himself by giving the Forest fans a taster of the quality to come. Our November “wobble” came at the wrong time. We should have started the season like that and gradually progressed through to the way we played in our last City Ground outings. But instead, a drop in fortunes and it looked like the wheels had fallen off the Hart bandwagon. Combined with emerging news of money-related perils, doom-sayers were all over the place and the early signs of a backlash were rearing their ugly heads above the voices of reason that called for patience.

Fortunately, Hart has got us back on track and our development as a side can continue. And over the last four league games or so we have seen an exciting glimpse of what might await us next season.

It’s too late for a promotion race this season, but if Forest can compete with the likes of high-flying Palace, Norwich, Coventry and Birmingham this season, with another year of experience under our belts, then we will almost certainly be contenders for the 02/03 season.

Everything is fitting into place. The arrival of Summerbee providing another piece of the jigsaw and hopefully the recent rumours about him putting pen to paper in the near future are true, rather than those about him leaving for a better deal elsewhere.

Elsewhere, and probably not unrelated to Summerbee’s creative influence, Stern John has done what he failed to do in two previous seasons at Forest - produce consistent form. We always knew he had talent, from the moment he burst onto the scene at home to Portsmouth back in 1999. But injury has too often prevented him from getting a good run in the team, long enough to show his true ability.

Darren Ward is fast establishing himself as the best shot-stopper in the division and despite the odd blunder here and there, his contribution to our recent point winning performances have underlined his value to the team.

He has been helped by the re-born Tony Vaughan, not to mention the sterling efforts of Scimeca and Hjelde this term. All over the pitch, players are finally living up to their full potential and we now have a side that looks very much like it could be among the Championship contenders, let alone play-offs, next year. For the first time in as long as I care to remember, I was proud of every name read out on the Forest team-sheet at Bramall Lane last Saturday.

Of course, the Sheffield game showed us that we’re not quite ready for whatever reason. A sharp reminder perhaps, designed to keep our feet on the ground. But every team has its bad days. I can re-call performances just as bad in our Championship winning season in 1998 and even during our successful Premiership seasons.

Despite the team finally looking like a decent unit capable of beating anyone in this league, I still dismiss any chances of seeing Cardiff this season. We blew our best chance of that on Saturday.

It is far too late to start chasing rainbows. It’s not that I think we’re not good enough or that we couldn’t do it, I just think it won’t happen. The winter months are always a bad time for us. Not least because we will be without the previously mentioned Stern John and Jim Brennan.

They will both be away for Trinidad & Tobago and Canada respectively in the Gold Cup for American nations. Today they have been confirmed to play in Saturday’s fixture with Barnsley, but after that they could be missing until after Forest’s game with Stockport on February 2nd.

Both will be sorely missed and I’m not sure how Forest will cope. On top of this, February normally involves the Forest squad being hit with injury en masse. Many players are already showing signs of tiredness and with Forest’s squad being so thin at the moment we don’t really have the quality back-up any casualties. The only real reserve left at the club I can see filling the central midfield role is Gary Jones and you’ll forgive me for doubting whether he is quite the right man to fit into Forest exciting, flowing style.

So no promotion for us this year, but at least the financial worries might be eased. As the season looks set to taper off into tedium during the long-stretch to May, one point of interest comes from the coming court case and EGM. In the next few months (and indeed days) we should see just how committed Nigel Doughty is to the Forest cause and whether or not he is the right man to put this club back on its feet.

And should all else fail, the ever comical demise of Leicester City and Derby County is enough to keep me entertained until the World Cup comes around.