Barnsley 1-0 Nottingham Forest

With a world of controversy currently surrounding the Nottingham Forest camp over the past few weeks, it's no wonder the fans went into this game with caution.

New injuries picked up by new signing but the yet-to-impress Rafik Djebbour and Simon Cox left more groans among the Forest faithful. This information was soon followed by the news that the not so outspoken but opinionated Forest gaffer will not do any interviews till March 26th following his recent 5 match touchline ban for 'abusing' a referee. Up to yet, what that term means we are unsure of; all we understand is that he's certainly made his feelings known on the poor refereeing performance during the Forest and Leicester draw.

The increased injury list, lack of manager and the "lower team" curse that Forest carry with them mean that a trip to Oakwell (a place we often struggle to pick up points at) left little for Forest fans to get excited about, but still we held faith that we may pick up the points we so desperately needed. With confidence shattered by 3 defeats in 4 games- it was vital Forest put in a performance to silence the doubters and install some hope back into the stands.

Unfortunately, this is not what we received. 

A poor game all round saw little chances, a string of poor passing, reckless decision making, few challenges and over all not much passion on the pitch. Abdoun, one of the players who split the opinions of the fans put in his performance of the season, putting in twice the workload of most other players. 

We saw the debut of Gomis, who despite a poor first fifteen minutes, actually turned in an alright days work, providing a Morgan-Elokobi-Moussi hybrid performance. Not the most sound player we've had at the back but he did what was asked of him. Darlow did nothing wrong to note of. In fact he had little to do in general but the one goal broke his clean sheet and left the away following questioning how we'd began playing so badly. 

Credit to Dale Jennings of Barnsley though- it was a fantastic finish.

Forest appeared to resort to heading the ball and keeping it up in the air rather than passing it on the floor. The fluency our fans had gotten used to seeing over the last 20 games was non existent. The final 20 minutes saw the addition of Matt Derbyshire- who also in my opinion put in a hell of a shift- earning his 90 minutes pay more than any other player on the pitch except Abdoun. His hard work and quick decision making (which we haven't exactly been used to seeing from him) allowed Forest to attack non stop for the final ten minutes. 

Unfortunately there was no break through. 3 points went to Barnsley whose fans made a fantastic atmosphere as their survival hopes were kept alive.

Granted Abdoun hit the post and forced an amazing save out of Barnsley keeper, Steele, and Jamie Mackie missed a header from yards out; we had chances. 

However the performance must be scrutinized. Whether the performance is based on injuries or issues behind the scenes or simply little effort from the players is what's got everyone scratching their heads. It is possibly a mixture of all three. Fans are losing patience with below average performances and some eye brow raising antics from Billy Davies which is causing a black cloud over the dressing room. The players are professionals but are obviously lacking in confidence and in some areas of the pitch, ability. 

Over the next few weeks we should hopefully see some of our players return from injury. On the managers front- it's hard to say. 

Every fan is entitled to their opinion, but whether you love or hate the way the club is being run, unfortunately there is little that can be done. The only thing we have left to do is support the lads the best way possible, look forward and hopefully hang on to that play off place. Negativity will get us nowhere- even if it is hard to stay positive at times. 

Next Game- Middlesbrough vs Nottingham Forest (11/03/14)

Come on you reds!