An evening of rampant and unfathomable nonsense from a Forest side lacking any of the qualities showcased over the last week.
Davies dropped Earnshaw for the game, but his biggest mistake was dropping the work rate, movement and common sense.
This kind of performance not only thrusts Forest back into relegation peril, it also alienates supporters.
I travelled a total of 340 miles to see the game. My wallet feels somewhat dainty. Some squandered annual leave on afternoons away from work, while others will be patching together excuses for their day off school.
And for what? From the first minute Forest were second best against a team that boasts no upgrade in ability. I do sometimes wonder if football players have any real grasp of the sacrifices people make to watch them go to work.
The pitch was a squalid mass of ploughed turf and divots. Forest had trouble making 5-yard passes across it, but Watford somehow strolled through the handicap whenever they reached the final third.
It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that Forest’s defending tonight was the poorest in living memory.
Oh how they reeled at predictable through balls and sidewards passes. Smith blushed and shrugged, his vacuous comrades fell weak at the knees and Watford’s forwards skipped and sauntered through meadows of space.
The opening goal was the result of hilariously bad marking, and only minutes later the defence waved in a Don Cowie for Watford’s second. He spurned his shot impossibly wide from 10-yards, and Forest somehow lived on.
A gaffe from Guy Moussi, who played with his head floating in the clouds, should also have made it two. A little while later Smith was forced into a close-range block as Forest’s defenders attempted some kind of panic-stricken offside trap from a corner.
Matt Thornhill finished beautifully on 17 minutes, squaring the scores against the run of play. The 2,000 travelling supporters saw a lifeline, but their men gracelessly refused it.
Watford looked frail defensively, and the opportunity to seize the game was dangling in perfect snatching distance.
But at no stage did Forest look capable of taking advantage. Lynch’s injury landed another blow, and his replacement Ian Breckin was responsible for the second goal.
The veteran was left appealing for offside in piteous desperation as he staggered yards behind Rasiak and watched the goal from afar.
Earnshaw’s introduction at half-time showed spirit and ambition from Davies, but it proved misguided.
I would love to tell the story of a resurgent Forest battling to the death and missing out on a draw by sheer bad luck. It simply isn’t the case.
Had anybody left during the break, they would have missed out on absolutely nothing.
My enduring memory of the second half is Paul Smith kicking the ball as hard as he could towards midget Robert Earnshaw, catching the ball 20 seconds later, and then kicking it as hard as he could ad infinitum.
There are not many games to go now, and despite showing so much promise over the last week it looks as though our season will go the wire.
I have genuine faith in the manager’s shrewdness and ambition, but it will count for nothing if we cannot weather the storm and survive in this division.
One or two more performances of this standard will bring the buzzards to the City Ground. No question.
