Thanks to Nat for the excellent – and wordy! – report from the City Ground and apologies for taking two days to post it up.

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A game from which before its kick-off Bluenoses would’ve been looking for three points and a handsome scoreline to boot, ended up convulsing into a fraught escapade where we struggled to hang on for just one point after wave after wave of attacks from a resurgent Forest.

Blues, to say the least, had not so much a mixed bag of performances, more a purse of good showings and a rucksack of bad ones, with only Maik Taylor, Nicky Hunt and goalscorer James McFadden emerging from the game with any real credit being attached to their names.

The abysmal nature of our second-half performance (using the word abysmal is being kind) left a bitter taste in the mouth of the hordes of Blues fans who made the relatively short trip to the East Midlands and, where this was meant to be the game where the questions of our so far minority critics were answered, more critics were born and more questions were asked of the team’s drive, legs, tactics and quality.

I suppose the omens of this being a game to be left as an unwanted footnote were there on show before the game. My journey to Nottingham had not passed without unusual circumstance. Getting a club coach from St.Andrews at 12.30pm, I thought I’d be arriving in just over an hour’s time. I’d be content-able to have a leisurely walk around the stadium’s perimeter, get in the ground, have a burger, find my seat, find my real seat (for those who don’t know, I tend to get as close to a back of an away stand as possible) and watch the game calm and concentrated on the spectacle. But, just like Blues on so many occasions on the pitch, things did not go according to plan.

We got to just outside Nottingham at twenty-five to two, and I thought ‘great, we’ll be there in ten minutes max’. It then turned out that the coaches would have to go the longest of all long ways round-minor hitch, but nothing to get stressed about. We reached a set of traffic lights, and I kid you not spent forty-five minutes in the same spot. What was frustrating was that we could see the back of a stand from the coach, but could get no nearer to it. As the time drew nearer to half-two, and with little progress made, I was beginning to wonder if we would make it for kick-off. A few minutes later we got into the complex (basically a cage for the Police to keep away fans in) and I got out filled more with relief than anything else. But then there was something else that shocked me-the fact that the Police herded Blues fans into the ground like cattle, the feeling of the Police was that they could treat us pretty much how they wanted. These events sent the balance of my karma lop-sided.

But the way the game started suggested this would be a good day after all. Blues started off with plenty of zest, and were attacking with a level of crisp and at speed not seen for many a game from the boys clad in Royal Blue. This was particularly true when James McFadden received the ball; his ability to turn, run towards defenders with the ball and to link play was already pulling the Tricky Trees up from their roots and making life uncomfortable. In this background, Forest had the first effort on goal, when on loan winger Paul Anderson cut in from the right-hand side to force Taylor to make an almost apologetically comfortable save. But the feeling was that Forest could sustain us only for so long and, as such, from a Larsson free-kick on thirteen minutes, a loose ball fell to McFadden who rounded Lee Camp in the Forest goal to finish from an almost impossibly tight angle.

Blues continued to press after the restart, and were perhaps unlucky when after some great exchange play in the middle of the park, the dominant McFadden sprayed an exquisite ball out to the right hand side for the sprinting Bent to run on to. He in turn squared a ball towards the marauding Nigel Quashie making his first start in a Blues shirt, who slid towards the ball but could not get a vital toe on it as it drifted harmlessly behind. At this point great excitement built up that today was the day it would ‘click’ for Blues and we would blow a team away.

However, as so often happens with games involving Blues this season, the half started to peter into meaningless nothingness, with the only real note of drama coming five minutes before half-time when Jaidi was adjudged felled summer signing from Carlise Joe Garner just outside the box on the right flank, with Forest players and fans alike appealing for the Referee Phil Dowd to give a penalty. But, even though we had created little since the twentieth minute mark, Blues had defended stoically and as the half-time whistle blew the feeling was that this game was there for the taking if we could control it as we did in the first-half.

The second-half however, as mentioned, was a completely different matter. It didn’t take long after the restart for Forest to draw level, when on fifty-two minutes, defensive confusion allowed James Perch to nod home from a Chris Cohen free-kick on the left hand side after a knock-down from Luke Chambers. Half-hearted appeals of offside by Jaidi were correctly dismissed and Blues were faced with the daunting task of finding it within themselves to regain the advantage they had so needlessly lost.

With little of note happening after that and with Blues looking sluggish to say the least, the first substitution of the afternoon was made when Jerome replaced the anonymous Agustien, but his first contribution set the tone for the rest of his game when he dragged a shot from twenty-five yards out about twenty-five yards wide of Lee Camp’s right-hand goalpost. The fact that Jerome appeared to be playing on the left of midfield rather than his preferred central striking role seemed to add to the growing frustration amongst the Blues contingent, as they had seen Jerome play in that position on Monday night during the poor home defeat to Coventry, to absolutely no effect.

This frustration was not alleviated by the growing amount of pressure Forest were starting to apply, or the fact that Blues were playing in a manner befitting the twenty-third place in the table Forest currently reside in. Their passing was inaccurate and uninspired, and they were no longer covering sufficient ground to even get close to a red shirt at times. This was in direct contrast to Forest, who were playing short, sharp passes at a tempo that Blues were simply unable to match when they occasionally won the ball.

Just after an hour had gone Taylor made a fantastic save with his legs after one time Blues target Nathan Tyson fired from close range on the left hand side of the six-yard box. This was closely followed by two Matt Thornhill efforts, both of which ended up going way off target, but there was growing apprehension that, far from getting a valuable point, Forest could easily nick all three.

Blues’ one meaningful attack of the second-half came in the seventieth-minute after the prolonged spell of pressure of Blues’ goal when a ball looped in by Quashie was headed over by unmarked Marcus Bent from just outside the six-yard box when he quite simply should’ve done better.

Soon after this Alex McLeish introduced Phillips for Quashie, but this decision was greeted partly with derision by incredulous ‘Noses who were incredulous that Phillips’ fellow bench-mate Quincy had not also been introduced into the foray to inject some much needed flair and pace to try and stretch the opposition’s backline. This was summed up in the chant “we want Quincy on”, but they were ultimately not to have their requests adhered.

There was one more clear-cut chance for Forest, who had quite simply overrun Blues in the second period when Maik Taylor had to pull of a superb save to deny an unmarked Garner who took it on the half-volley from close range. There was time in stoppage-time for Chris Cohen to hammer narrowly wide from long-range, thought it is fair to say Northern Irish international Taylor had it covered in any eventuality.

The final whistle were greeted with an ovation from content East Midlanders and derisive boos from Blues fans, who quite clearly see this as two points lost against a side who are second-bottom, as well as an abysmal showing. Eyes now wander to next week’s game at home to Forest’s fellow strugglers Charlton to see if Blues can shake off this bout of poor form.