A new era at Nottingham Forest

Well, that went well, didn't it?

The Steve McClaren era at Nottingham Forest is already over after just ten league games. The whole situation has left me disappointed for a number of reasons.

One aspect which annoyed me as a fan is that he and the team were never allowed to get on with the job. When McClaren was appointed in June, the national press was obviously and understandably interested in how it would work out, and what, if anything would change from the relatively successful couple of years under Billy Davies. What we got, however, was a national press, who in my opinion, were desperate for Forest, and particularly McClaren, to fail. We are very often, for whatever reason, slow starters to seasons, but the goldfish bowl atmosphere can't have helped at all.

I was prepared to forgive McClaren himself for Forest's disappointing run of results; after all, it wasn't he who was crossing the white line every Saturday. Some of the individual errors which have led to opposition goals have been little short of embarrassing, and I felt for the management team, who surely couldn't have legislated for them happening time and again.

That is why I wanted to give McClaren more time than some of Forest's fans were. Many wanted him out a lot earlier than yesterday, particularly after we were beaten, and frankly embarrassed at home by Derby County's ten men. Obviously a few didn't want him in at all, but that's neither here nor there. My opinion finally changed after the Birmingham defeat yesterday.

I expected a tough game, but Birmingham didn't really threaten much at all early on. The first half went entirely according to plan. Forest, back in the 4-4-2 formation after two games of 5-3-2, with very different outcomes, were stopping the visitors from playing, and we were moving the ball about well and creating decent opportunities. the 1-0 lead at half time was deserved, and with an hour gone, it could if not should have been 2-0 or more. There was no need for it to change. We all knew it, the eleven players on the pitch knew it. If only McClaren knew it.

Off went Radi Majewski, who yet again ran his socks off for the cause, to be replaced by Jonathan Greening, who was booed onto the pitch my a minority of his own supporters. There is protecting a lead, but this was entirely different. It completely changed the way the game was being played, to a point where Greening may as well have entered the pitch in a blue shirt. I have been unfortunate enough in my time to see some bad players play for Forest, but Greening's start to his Reds career has been little short of a shambles. When Guy Moussi is on his own in the holding role, he knows his place and he is an absolute colossus, but doesn't know whether to attack or defend with Greening, or Paul McKenna last season, alongside him. That, and Greening's incompetence and inability to pass a ball forwards or even to a red shirt, meant that we may as well have played the last 30 minutes with nine men.

Birmingham's equaliser, although well taken, was avoidable, and despite our dominance of the game up until that point, it then became pick-a-number stuff for the Blues. A comfortable 1-0 lead had become a desperate 3-1 defeat basically because of one manager's insistence to play his golden goose.

The reaction at the end was almost vitriolic. I for one have never seen or heard anything like it at the City Ground. McClaren just had to go. I am disappointed for him in a way, inasmuch as the promises he was given weren't being delivered, but that cannot justify the ineptitude of his team to throw the game away like they did. It has happened more than once, and had he stuck around, it probably would have happened again.

He leaves with the season still young enough for Forest to recover their league position. In terms of promotion or play-offs, the season is over, but I don't think we are in a relegation battle quite yet. The new manager simply has to get us to 50 points as quickly as possible, finish as high as we can, and start again next year.

There are a few candidates for the managerial vacancy, some obvious, some less so. As I write, Karl Robinson, the MK Dons manager, is the bookies' favourite. I'm not too sure whether he would get it, or who I would like to see come in quite yet. But for me, apart from the obvious task of win some games, his key objective is to make this Forest team his team. That was Steve McClaren's problem. It was still ultimately Billy Davies' squad, and I'm not too sure that there were enough players who believed they could play for McClaren like they could play for Davies.