It was written. Football can be as predictable as it is manic, and today’s meltdown has been lurking in the shadows for some time.
A performance that would have satisfied Colin Calderwood only compounded the inevitability.
From the first whistle our opponents had the upper hand, and for the first time this season our players were guilty of believing their own publicity.
The net result was arguably the worst performance of the season – and indisputably the worst result.
Nobody can argue that Forest are the superior side, even on today’s evidence, but we have been reminded of our frailty in the face of a side that will not let us play.
Whether most Championship opponents will have the resolve to sustain the work rate needed to topple us is another matter.
Nonetheless, today’s collapse is a blueprint for future failure.
When our equilaterals are scythed and our wingers are clipped we are as fond as the next team of ‘lumping it’ – and the cap doesn’t fit.
Not for a moment did we look capable of winning the game, and not for a moment did an opener for the home side seem anything less than inevitable.
But today’s fall behind enemy lines did not carry the same tear-jerking sense of injustice and rage that it has done in the past.
There was something hollow in the revelling of our adversaries, something defiant in Angry Billy’s upward gesture; something addictive in the burst of song that followed our players as they slumped to the dressing room.
I could be alone in this, I could indeed be completely wrong. But for some reason I feel more confident than I have at any point previously that Forest will be somewhere near the top of the table come May.
Promotion may well be too soon, but I have insurmountable faith that our manager will be more determined than ever to flip the odds.
Yes, we’ve been brought to our knees. But the snarl clouding Raging Bill’s face at the end of this afternoon’s match tells me we will not be down there for very long.
Ratings:
Camp – 7 – a fairly solid performance, despite the steady torrent of pressure leaking through his left back.
Gunter – 5.5 – a tireless effort from a player who was more angry than anybody to lose. But he was not at his best.
Morgan – 7 – one of the few players to escape with any credit. I dread to think how we’d have coped without him.
Wilson – 6 – reasonable but unspectacular, did not have the fire in his gut that we sorely needed.
Perch – 3.5 – a performance uncannily similar to Joel Lynch’s disastrous contribution on our last visit. Absolutely everything seeped through him as he cowered timorously in the corner. One left back please. Immediately and if not sooner. If Newcastle have any intention of using him at left back we should send him there for free.
Cohen – 5.5 – no end product to his labour.
McKenna – 4 – the defining memory of the game will be our skipper side-footing balls into no man’s land for seemingly no reason. His worst game in a red shirt by an almost immeasurable distance.
Majewski – 6 – flashes of excellence, but his stamina continues to let him down and he wasn’t consistent enough in his sparks.
Anderson – 5 – he just wasn’t up to it today, it was abundantly clear from his slouched shoulders.
Earnshaw – 5 – no service, no involvement.
Blackstock – 5 – failed to get a hold of the game as he chased nothing balls.
Substitutes – 3 – Moussi and McGugan floundered, Adebola just conceded free-kicks.
