lost that loving feeling - Pride of the East Midlands

Well what a massive week it's been. Two local derbies in the space of seven days and two respectable draws which have set us up nicely going into the next few tricky encounters. The clocks may have gone back but the Red Army are marching forward whilst our neighbours struggle financially and the sheep continue to find life difficult on the pitch.

What a day last Sunday was. The atmosphere was fantastic around the ground and when you entered through the turnstiles the noise just hit you as the Red Army made themselves heard. After a good sing-song and a scramble to the bar, we made our way up to our seats where the big match atmosphere was building.

The banter with the sheep shaggers to our right went on throughout the match and this made for a good atmosphere. One thing that shocked me was the fact that they couldn't sell all their tickets. And they call themselves a big club - who are they kidding? It must be cold in Derby though, living in the shadow of the mighty Forest.

The game itself wasn't the best but in my opinion Forest had the better chances and yes, we were robbed. DJ's goal was never offside and the linesman on that side had a poor game throughout because there were a number of times Marlon was put through and was onside, but the linesman gave it to them.

Neither keeper had a lot to do but overall we had the best chances and deserved three points. However, a point away from home in a local derby with such a young side is a good result. Last season we would have lost that game but the fighting spirit is there for all to see this season and the lads did us proud.

After the match at Prideless Park, there was the matter of another local derby against Leicester a week later, and what a game this was. The build-up to this match wasn't as intensive as the sheep game but the atmosphere inside the ground didn't disappoint. A complete sell-out at the City Ground - the first since Scumchester United visited back in February 1999 - ensured that we were in for an enjoyable afternoon and we weren't disappointed. The Trent End even had some atmosphere about it and as normal, the A Block were in good voice.

The match itself certainly didn't disappoint, although many thought it was over by half-time - how wrong could they have been? You have to be as positive as possible but I have to admit going in 2-0 down at the break didn't fill me with confidence for the second half.

The first 45 minutes were strange because we had most of the possession but they caught us on the break twice as we struggled defensively, especially in the last 20 minutes when they dominated proceedings. The second half was completely different though. Once again the team spirit shone through and we dominated, taking the game to Leicester and they couldn't cope.

The lads created a number of problems and had them on the back foot. We had a number of chances to score but failed to do so until the 75 minute. David Johnson was tripped by Matt 'the twat' Elliot inside the area and scored the resulting penalty to give us a glimmer of hope. Forest kept pushing forward but it looked like the chance had gone until 5 minutes into stoppage time. A good cross came in from the Brennan on the left and there was Lester at the back post to nod home :Yeeeesssssss!

The City Ground went mad and we got what we deserved in the end. Doesn't it make a change for us to score in stoppage time instead of it being the other way around?!

I have to say I was very disappointed in the way Leicester played in the second half. They were clearly trying to run the clock down, which is fair enough but when players start going down when a tackle misses them by a mile then questions have to be asked. We had the last laugh in the end and got what we deserved for a battling, never-say-die performance.

Overall, two draws from difficult local matches will do nicely and perhaps we can consider ourselves unlucky not to have collected more points. As already been pointed out by Tricky Matt, if anyone from the club does read this, please don't sell Michael Dawson in January. The lad is a great talent and is a major part of the team. We would be stupid to sell him because not only would we be selling a very talented player but it would send out the wrong signals to the other youngsters at the club. Forest would be labelled as a selling club and become a production line for the big clubs when we should be keeping hold of them and going for promotion and when we do get to the Premiership we'd have a very talented team.

Another player I hope the club doesn't even consider selling is David Johnson. How long have we waited to have a striker that scores consistently? We'd be shooting ourselves in the foot if he goes in January.

That's enough of me. I'll be back in a couple of weeks so until then keep things tricky and hopefully we'll cement our place in the top six in the coming weeks with good results over Norwich and the Blunts.