The Clock is Ticking

The dark nights are closing in now, bringing with them bitterly cold evenings and swirling rains.

It is shaping up to be a long, uncomfortable winter for Nottingham Forest.

This evening’s drive home was one of the gloomiest in a long time and the afternoon’s football preceding it gave cause for grave concern.

Again Forest created enough chances and enough sustained pressure to secure all three points.

Again Forest entered the dressing room at full time with nothing to show for their efforts.

There is only so many times supporters will hear “we didn’t deserve to lose” before the camel’s back will buckle, and Paul Smith’s second half howler prompted the first ‘Calderwood Out’ chants of the season.

This time around I don’t think many people are holding Calderwood directly accountable, but with the club’s form spiralling into chaos it is inevitable that there will be demands for his head.

Just who else can be blamed? Calderwood’s superiors have financed a side that is tailor-made to suit his take on how the game should be played.

His players are making a suitable effort and his side is creating enough chances to land points, but Forest are rock bottom of the table and completely out of ideas.

Should any perspective be needed, it can surely be drawn from acknowledging the fact that Forest have taken one point from twenty four available.

It is a humiliating run of misfortune, almost akin to Derby County’s startling incompetence in the Premier League.

In the press Calderwood is persisting with an irritatingly collected veneer.
I can only imagine that behind the scenes he is acutely aware that his position is under serious threat.

If Nigel Doughty really does have no intention of removing Calderwood then it genuinely is time to worry.

There is no way that the side’s performances are a justification for sacking a manager, but satisfactory performances will not keep the club in the Championship.

Although he needed his fair share of good fortune, and though he took a scenic route, Calderwood did succeed in his obligation to restore Forest to the second tier.

On that basis I was content to back him until at least November.

I now fear that by November we will be too far adrift, and simply too used to slipping up.

Losing is a very bad habit to shake, and Calderwood has done nothing to suggest that he can do anything more inspiring than wait for our fortunes to change.

The footballing world will wince and articles will circulate about the impatience of chairmen in the modern game.

But it’s what one might refer to as a necessary evil.

Looking down at our defeated players, despondent, defeated and baffled once again, I just couldn’t see beyond the need for a major change.

The clock must surely be ticking for Calderwood.