Another 250 miles, another disgusting performance, and another bold stride in the direction of League One.
I cannot begin to understand how Forest contrived to follow their best week of the season with by far the worst. But that is exactly what has happened, and performances like the last two are not worthy even of the league below.
Burnley is a miserable place for visiting supporters; a sprawl of decaying back-to-backs, crumbling community centres and a stadium screaming for demolition.
The wind and fits of drizzle painted the vulgar scene in a morose grey hue, adding to the despondency. But nothing ruined this afternoon quite like Forest did.
Squad depletion and bad luck are no longer valid excuses. We are being humbled by teams that are not even noteworthy by Championship standards.
One of the most frustrating things about this afternoon is that we allowed a leggy Burnley side to stroll through us as though they are Brazil. The difference between the two sides looked greater than it did last Sunday when Burnley played at the Emirates - the outcome was a deserved embarrassment.
They had total freedom to dismantle and disgrace us on their own terms. Our defending was, yet again, as poor as it ever has been.
Going forward we had nothing short of dead-end runs, and occasional flickers of life from Osbourne were about the only outlet.
A team including McSheffrey, Earnshaw, Tyson and Cohen should never be quite as useless as Forest were this afternoon, but useless is no exaggeration.
If Burnley had delivered the kind of performance that saw Chelsea defeated it would have been double figures this afternoon.
Our supporters, raucous in the early stages, began to show the strains of the peril we are facing. Pockets of supporters audibly booing Paul Smith almost came to blows with those who took offence to the dissent. Some were driven to heckling, others simply buried grey faces into their hands to shield their eyes from the carnage.
It is all seems terrifyingly familiar.
Champions elect Wolves are next in line. It could get worse before it gets better.
Ratings:
Smith – 4 – seven more games as Forest’s first choice keeper. Poor distribution all afternoon, and a howler that pulled open the floodgates.
Chambers – 4 – allowed almost every attempted cross to reach the box, melted into literal insignificance as they walked their second into the net.
Morgan – 5 – not as many gaffes as Chambers, but a defence conceding 5 goals is capped at a rating of 5. At five o’clock I’d have been inclined to set the glass ceiling at 1.
Perch – 5 – as above.
Gunter – 5 – he’s a good footballer, and potentially twice the quality of every other full-back at the club. A few training sessions with Super Luke and co should hammer him down a notch or two.
McCleary – 4.5 – one or two stepovers that succeeded only in ending our attacks. When he plays like this there is simply no point in him being out there.
Osbourne – 6 – his occasional breakthrough passes were our only hope.
Cohen – 5 – of course he battled and grafted, but he didn’t get anywhere.
McSheffrey – 5 – largely anonymous. I’m starting to think that we will never see his talent flourishing in a Forest shirt. He is a top quality player at this level, but we are very poor.
Earnshaw – 6 – I had a lot of sympathy with him today. Service?
Tyson – 5 – could not get involved.
Subs:
Garner – 6
Thornhill -6
McGugan - /
