Not yet a crisis - Review of August
01/09/04 | by Adam Gray

August is often a strange month of the season - there are always going to be surprise results, the unexpected high-fliers and, of course, the team who promises so much yet still manage to begin the campaign poorly. It is a great shame that Forest fall into the latter, but despite our current position of third from bottom, it cannot yet be described as a crisis. After all, only two of our six games so far have ended in defeat, one of those was to a debatable last-minute penalty at Plymouth, a team who have had a fantastic start to the season, despite being one of my tips for a relegation-threatened season.

If August has taught us anything, it is that once again we appear to be struggling when it comes to squad depth. On Monday, neither Paul Gerrard nor the first choice back four finished the game and - with the greatest of respect to their replacements - it was very apparent over the bank holiday weekend and the sooner we have them all back playing together, the better.

I didn't expect to be writing my first monthly review of the season without a league win to mention, but that is the predicament we find ourselves in. Not only have the team not won a game, but on occasions we didn't look like winning the games we got points in. In hindsight, a point away at Wigan and a draw at Leeds are decent results, but in all honesty Ipswich and Crewe are teams we should be beating comfortably at home. Another team we should have been confident against were Coventry, yet Peter Reid's side made us look very poor at times, even if there might have been the belief that 4-1 was a flattering scoreline.

On the positive side, Andy Reid - whether he likes it or not - is with us until January at least, so hopefully he will begin to recreate the sort of form that has attracted the Premiership interest in the first place. Two other midfielders to impress me this month were Paul Evans, who deservedly scored his first goal in our colours, and Eoin Jess, who after a couple of years on the fringe under Paul Hart, is finally part of Joe Kinnear's first team and I am glad that the player is finally performing at a level that I always thought he could. Those who used to give him a hard time aren't doing so now.

Despite our distinctly average start, Forest have rarely looked like a bad team, and certainly not a bottom three outfit. The comeback from 2-0 down at Home Park, despite the fact we still lost, filled me with confidence that the lads have the belief in their ability and are up for the fight. Once we win our first game of the season, hopefully against Cardiff on Saturday week, the momentum will be there and with a bit of luck on the way, we could even put an unbeaten run together, put some points on the board and start to catch up with the leaders. As I say every August, "It's a Marathon, not a sprint!"

Finally this month, I will take my hat off to Arsenal, who finally achieved the unthinkable feat of surpassing Forest's record of 42 games without defeat. Love them or loathe them, you have to realise that their record may never be beaten, although I assume they were saying the same thing in 1978!

E-mail me with any comments at adamgray50@hotmail.com