Forest fans may well have reason to feel hard done by the referee’s decisive penalty award this afternoon.
But penalty or no penalty, today’s showing fell some way below an acceptable level.
The buoyant spirits rippling through the streets after the Watford victory seem a world away, and supporters today left the City Ground grimacing at the prospect of a gruelling season.
Floating in mid-table and occasionally turning on the magic at tolerable all-seater stadiums has a vague charm.
But few among us will be at all enthused by a repeat of the 2004 and 2005 dogfights.
By no means is there any reason to panic just yet, but with tough fixtures against Preston and Charlton looming it could very easily be no wins in five by Saturday evening.
And perhaps the most alarming aspect of Forest’s sudden brush with reality is that we have slipped to our knees without much of a fight.
Burnley did very little to suggest that they are capable of anything more than treading water in the Championship, but Forest looked equal at best.
The entire afternoon was an unsightly collage of cul-de-sacs and wayward balls; neither side deserved three points, and the refereeing inconsistencies only made the afternoon more frustrating.
For perhaps 20 minutes Forest were the stronger of two dismal sides, but from the moment Burnley took the lead we never once looked capable of restoring ‘Fortress City Ground’.
Earnshaw’s equaliser should have triggered a siege for victory; instead the visitors looked just as likely to bag a winner, and a disputable penalty typified a dire afternoon.
Forest’s response to falling behind for a second time was decidedly meek.
Streams of red shirts poured through the exits with minutes to spare, and those rooted to their seats at full-time had the additional pleasure of taking in the exultations of the frothing, slurring Burnley vulgars in the lower Bridgford.
What comes next? It isn’t clear.
Calderwood is already playing with a side that should tend almost perfectly to his vision of how the game should be played.
The squad is loaded with all-action midfielders and pacy wingers that should, by rights, deliver the counter-attacking festival that Colin covets. But it just isn’t working.
Last season’s showpiece defence is looking predictably stretched and just one more injury would throw us into a certain level of chaos.
For the time being we have little choice but to hope for a revival of the spirit and form that had tongues wagging, albeit cautiously, in the opening weeks.
One thing’s for certain, if we can’t overcome teams like Burnley on home soil then we will soon be treading water with weights around our ankles.
