A 2-0 defeat at the hands of Birmingham City this afternoon left Nottingham Forest looking worryingly over their shoulders at the relegation mire. Forest remain four points clear but another victory for Doncaster Rovers means that they have now slipped to 19th position in the league table.

A none event of a first half saw Nottingham Forest produce a couple of gilt edged opportunities that they could not take. Tyson was guilty of screwing the ball wide with only three minutes on the clock after being played in by Chris (future captain) Cohen. Moments later Tyson carved out another opportunity, pulling the ball back dangerously from the by-line but again no one could capitalise by turning the ball home.

Kevin Phillips forced Paul Smith into a routine save before departing the field of play with injury after only half an hour of play.

Looking jaded in the second half, Forest were punished by Marcus Bent who found no problem in holding off Kelvin Wilson before slotting past Smith to give Birmingham City the lead and him his third goal of the season – this after having previously missed a back post header that surely was harder to miss than to score. Still, you get what you pay for…

Substitutions were made by either side during the latter part of the game but it was Birmingham City who were by now fully in control and they wrapped up a comfortable victory by scoring their second goal in the 75th minute courtesy of a delicate chip over keeper Smith by Keith Fahey.

In recent weeks Billy Davies has been heard to comment about youthful Nottingham Forest coming up vis-à-vis against teams with big money and big players; a quick fix solution in order to mount a serious promotion challenge to the Premiership. After today’s result, Forest must be considering that old Plan A and Plan B for this summers potential transfer targets: Plan B being the players needed to get Forest out of League One next season, if fate feels inclined to be so cruel.

Though with Norwich and Southampton both losing again today, the time is not yet to panic but to look to the future with eyes a-glazed and ambitions high.