There are currently one, two, three threads on automatic promotion live on the LTLF Forum, several about how we might fare in the Premiership and even one about the Champions League…

For Brian’s sake, guys, stop it! We’re not even properly in the play-off places until those games in hand have been played this evening! And even though we’ve just won five on the trot, in our next run of fixtures we’ll do well to win two or three…

Yes, the LTLF editorial staff remains committed to the cause of pessimism and practitioners of the feet-firmly-on-ground policy. A five-match winning streak is fantastic and worth celebrating, but maintaining that kind of form until the end of the season will be very hard. Too often as fans we allow our expectations to grow up too quickly and in a few weeks we’ve gone from describing ourselves as a laughing stock and a circus to believing we ought to be playing in the Premiership next season.

Of course, belief is better than despair and ambition better than complacency, but let’s remember that a few months ago we were wondering why Sean O’Driscoll was sacked for taking us into a healthy mid-table position in a season many of us thought should be about consolidation and building for the future.

Billy Davies might be solely focused on promotion, saying ‘everything else does not matter’, but Arsher Ali makes the point that what our recent turnaround really means is that, whatever happens in the remainder of this season, ‘optimism will still greet Nottingham Forest next season’. Losing sight of next season, a huge season for the club whatever happens, because we’ve got carried away with our slim chance of getting promoted this year, would be counter-productive.

There is a lot of positive stuff be to gleaned from the last month that has nothing to do with our promotion chances. Arsher highlights five things and Scott Eley picks out a couple more in his Wolves match report for Seat Pitch. Following Forest is fun again, so let’s just enjoy it, eh? Let’s just enjoy it without getting too hung up on play-offs, promotion and Premier League football.

Updates on LTLF have been somewhat scarce in the last couple of weeks, due to other commitments on the part of the editorial department and also perhaps because things are simply going so well since the second coming of Billy Davies that there isn’t the usual amount of griping and piss-taking to be done by our contributors. We’re sure it won’t last. It never does.

Anyway, as you’re not getting your usual amount of reading material from LTLF, we thought we would bring some interesting bits and pieces from other sites to your attention. Now, where have we seen that idea before?

Our first pick from the blogosphere is actually not about Forest, but indeed Derby County! Shudder! Nevertheless, Steve Wright of Mist Rolling in from the Trent, after recently analysing Forest’s finances, has now taken a look at the books down at the Sheep Dip. It’s a story of losses being made, debts rising and parachute payments running out, which might be amusing considering it concerns our biggest rivals, but as Steve points out, financial losses like this are a problem for most Championship clubs and it is easy to see why club owners are sometimes willing to gamble everything on the ‘impossible dream’ of promotion to the Premier League or bust – the alternative strategy simply isn’t financially viable.

When football allows itself to be run on such untenable bases, and when footballers regularly disgrace themselves in public, it’s nice to read some common sense from the mouth of one of your own club’s players. Andy Reid comes across as intelligent and down-to-earth in a recent interview with Left Lion. You may already have read the piece in the magazine, but if not, it is now available online.

If that isn’t enough Reidy for you, you can check out his other talent on the Reasons To Love Forest blog, which has recently sprung back into life. Perhaps, like Arsher Ali on The Garibaldi Gazette they have rediscovered that lovin’ feeling…

So, will it all last? That’s the question Tom Head ponders in his latest blog for the Mansfield Chad, in which Davies is likened to a Hollywood military general and, amusingly as the Wardon Hodges-esque comparison seems so apt, Napoleon. Passion and enthusiasm have played their part in our recent form, says Tom, but he concludes that luck could well be what takes us over the line. If Tuesday night was anything to go by, he may well be right.

Finally, on the subject of luck, good luck to all those taking part in the inaugural Clough-Taylor People’s Run this Sunday. Let’s hope those running in red shirts can mirror recent footballing form and finish a good distance ahead of those running in white!

With the recent retirement of two seasoned Forest blogs (eighteensixtyfive and then Through the Seasons Before Us), it’s nice to see a new site springing up.

Arsher Ali’s The Garibaldi Gazette came onto our radar this morning when a link to his stirring defence of the much-maligned Dan Harding was posted on the LTLF Forum.

Arsher’s argument centres around Harding’s attacking abilities and interestingly this is one of the things Adam White highlights in his report of the ‘must win’ game against Peterborough, mentioning his marauding runs which were ‘vital’ to the success of the diamond midfield, while new right-back Gonzalo Jara was the one being accused of mistakes.

A few weeks ago Paul Severn took to these pages to praise Andy Reid, and he made a point that Harding ‘has looked slow and flat footed’, putting the blame for our defensive weaknesses down that flank on the defender rather than the winger.

Interesting then that in a game when Reid can’t play because of injury, Harding comes away with praise from two independent sources. Perhaps the fault isn’t entirely with Harding – we’re slowly coming to the conclusion that Harding and Reid simply aren’t compatible in the same team. Arsher may have a point in that criticism of Harding has been too harsh, but if you had to replace one of our two left-sided players in this transfer window, who would it be?

Has the dust settled after the storm Sean O’Driscoll’s sacking kicked up on Boxing Day, or does the transfer window mean things are only going to get more hectic at the City Ground in coming weeks?

The transfer of Stephen McLaughlin from Derry was arranged under O’Driscoll, but it does show that the club recognises the squad inadequacies Rob Terrace highlights in his report on the 3-0 defeat at Blackburn on New Year’s Day.

However, such a result will have done little to lift the gloom of Alex McLeish’s doubters. Despite the warm welcome he received against Crystal Palace, the events of last week left one blogger filled with horror at modern football and another putting their site on ice.

eighteensixtyfive, who themselves recently announced there were closing the site, came out of retirement to urge against negativity, but it seems it’s going to require some good results from the new manager very soon if the Forest blogging community is going to get it’s mojo back.

It’s interesting though because the last few weeks do confirm one thing – supporting Nottingham Forest is never predictable and there is always something to write about for the budding blogger. There can’t have been many more eventful years in the history of the club, as James Bolton proves in his round-up of a crazy 12 months, and with Fawaz Al-Hasawi at the helm it looks like 2013 may well be just as eventful. Let’s hope it’s an eventful year for the right reasons this time.

Forest were back to winning ways at the weekend and the Forest blogging community, though now one site short, has thankfully been able to get back to talking about football matches rather than Twitter-based nastiness.

On Seat Pitch, James Bolton thought Forest looked ‘a bit disjointed’ in a ‘pretty sloppy’ match against Burnley, but decided to focus on the positive and said the ‘back four looked solid again’. James also praised Guy Moussi for his substitute role, a key switch that helped turn the game in our favour.

After a week in which Sean O’Driscoll was forced to explain his team selections in the street, Through the Seasons Before Us noted that ‘subtle changes’ in tactics were what eventually unlocked Burnley. ‘Sean definitely knows best’ is the message from that site, a message that’s certainly easier to put across after a win.

Now perhaps these reports are both from happy-clappers (as defined by Seat Pitch’s timely satire from last week), but after the doom-mongering of the last couple of weeks, who can blame them for looking on the bright side of a satisfying, if unspectacular, win? With tough away trips to Brighton and Watford coming up before Christmas, a bit of optimism is certainly what’s needed…