I would have taken a draw at Forest before the match last night.
However, at the final whistle and on the subsequent drive home I was left feeling annoyed that we hadn’t taken all three.
Most match reports state that a draw was a fair result which is possibly true however, the game should have been over after half an hour and definitely so when Blake missed an absolute sitter with the score at 2-2.
I was surprised that Rae wasn’t in the starting lineup. Sure, you can probably get away with the luxury of resting your best midfielder for home matches, when the opposition is more cautious, but we knew Forest weren’t going to let us win just by turning up.
After Sturridge had given us the lead at the second attempt, after a dubious offside ruling just minutes earlier, Wolves were well on top. A head injury to a Forest defender left them down to 10 men for about 10 minutes and in this time we really should have ended the game. A second goal at this stage would have killed Forest, but it didn’t come.
30 minutes in and you wondered what had happened. Wolves had been casually strolling around completely dominant and then they just stopped playing. Forest realised there was a way back into the game and began to take control. By half time, the tide had turned.
Forest had realised that the left side of the Wolves defence was the weak point. Camara and Lescott were not showing any great composure so Forest played everything down this channel. Andrews and Cameron were being out-fought and over-run and to me it was no surprise when Forest scored the equaliser.
The goal by Lescott was very much welcome and I thought that Forest would fade.
However, Forest soon got back on top. I felt sure that Jones would introduce Rae to stop the tide of Forest attacks and possession but only Ndah came on for Blake. It looked like it was a case of trying to hang-on until full-time - but we couldn’t do it.
Blake had a great chance to restore the lead and failed, if only it had been Deano in the same position. Deano himself went close and Andrews was unlucky with a firm header in the closing stages but it wasn’t to be the eighth consecutive victory.
In a match we could so easily have won, we could also have lost.
The worrying thing for me was that when Forest really went at us in the second half we couldn’t cope.
The defence was seriously edgy, the midfield over-run and the Wolves fans subdued. In the other seven victories we haven’t been tested in this fashion. Perhaps this will serve as a timely reminder to the players that we still have to compete for victories.
Birmingham on Saturday is not an easy fixture.
We need to re-group, examine what didn’t go right at Forest and make sure that we are on top of our game when we step out at St.Andrews.
There are still eight games to play and when you are top of the pile, you are there to be shot down.
Having said that we are still top of the league !
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