Followers of every football team in every nation have favourite players, players who create a spark, who if having a good personal performance can carry a team to three points. These players receive the adulation of the fans and the media for their work and on occasion rightly so, supporters often turn a blind eye to when these players have a bad day or when they are distinctly average. But some players are not so lucky. A bad day for some can lead to months of criticism; others can consistently perform at a high standard week in week out and receive no praise as their work goes unnoticed. This goes out to the unsung heroes of Nottingham Forest.

In previous years we have had players like Kris Commons (traitor), David Johnson and Andy Reid to heap praise on when things go right, now we look to the likes of Nathan Tyson, Robbie Earnshaw and Lewis Mcgugan who on occasion are simply brilliant. It also shows that players such as James Perch, Paul Smith and Wes Morgan to name a few are so easily under-rated and rarely receive the same praise as the flair players.

Perch for example is deemed by most to be an average player; this is mainly due to many not realising or understanding the importance of what he does. Essentially James works non-stop for 90 minutes to balance the midfield and allow the more attack minded players to push on, his timing of the challenge is spot on and his positioning in the midfield is vital for our defence. The difference Perch makes to our team is seen most obviously when he is not in the team, at these times our midfield lacks balance, the defence is put under more pressure and unsurprisingly we concede more goals. His performances of late have been nothing short of outstanding and he has rightfully been made captain.

Wes and Cohen also seem to be to an extent underrated. Both play extremely vital roles for our club and I see both as very important pieces in Forests future. Morgan acts as a rock in our defence, being the most consistent member of the back four and easily deserves his place as first choice centre back. Chris Cohen is in a world of his own, rightly he does receive praise but in my eyes not enough, he is by far our best, most consistent, most committed player, add to that he has bags of ability and energy making him an integral part of our team. Cohen along with Perch holds our midfield together whilst also being extremely important in the team’s forward play.

Moving onto a topic never before discussed… Paul Smith. Smith seems to receive a good share of praise and indifference as well as a disproportional amount of criticism. Essentially Smith is a brilliant keeper, more than capable at this level. The obvious highlight is his shot stopping abilities which to be honest are on par with many Premier League goalkeepers. Equally his downfall is his distribution, which at times is on par with League One. This point however is not the area most criticised with Smith, which would be his command of area. For some reason the Forest faithful have got it into their heads that he should go for every ball within 30 yards of his goal which is quite unfair. So he doesn’t shout much and run for every ball but when he does wander from his line he gets the ball almost every time. Perhaps Smith makes judgements that he cannot get some balls that are floating around 10-12 yards out and he would have a better chance of keeping the ball out of the net by staying on his line. Simply most of the criticism Smith receives is unfair and silly.

These players along with a few others are key to our team and are what allow the flair players to perform their magic, without them we would still be languishing in League One without a hope in hell of being where we are now, and so for that I thank them.