Another defeat on the road

We probably feared an onslaught in the early stages of the game but with the home crowd pretty subdued they put us under no pressure at all. Some home fans were wearing red shirts displaying the slogan, “You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” whilst banners inside the ground had the message, “You don’t deserve us.” The sober players in the Forest side must have seen them.

They created absolutely nothing and Danny Coyne was virtually unemployed other than a couple of routine efforts. They looked a side out of ideas and the biggest threat to the Clarets was when Gary Cahill went down clutching his face after a clash with the Forest captain Gareth Taylor who had made his way up field from his central defensive position.

We were hardly turning in a classy performance but even so we were stretching the Forest defence and both James O’Connor and Ade Akinbiyi put shots wide when it looked as if they should have done better.

O’Connor had another opportunity but put his header straight at rookie goalkeeper Doyle and by half time it was still 0-0.

One of the concerns over the half time interval was the refereeing of Peter Walton, probably the worst referee in the Premiership, and he was doing what he always tends to do and lean towards the home side much too often.
There were worries he might just give them something out of the blue.

We expected to have to defend in numbers, but Forest with Taylor now up front, were second best in the first period of the second half. They were hardly in the game and it was all Burnley as we came forward time after time.

The fans were really trying to lift the home side now but the struggle continued. Branchy run at them but just couldn’t get a shot in, we got balls in and around their box and then we missed a complete sitter.

John Oster - missed an easy chance to bring the Clarets level

It came from a low Mo Camara cross from the left that was aimed at Ade. It lacked the accuracy but dropped nicely for Lee Roche who had the simplest of tasks of knocking it in from just a few yards out.

I’m not so sure what he was trying to do but if his effort had not hit Ade it would have gone some yards wide of the goal. As it happened the deflection from Ade sent it on target and Doyle had to save down to his right.

It was an awful miss and shortly afterwards we paid the penalty. The referee did intervene and failed to spot a clear foul on Tony Grant and the ball went for a throw. Forest won it back and got the ball down their right hand side where Clarets were conspicuous by their absence.

In came the cross and Coyne made a complete hash of it, allowing it to drop to Kris Commons who gave Forest the lead. Not even the most biased of Forest fans would have been able to believe his side were in front, they really hadn’t offered a thing.

John Oster had come on just before the goal and the next chance fell to him. It is hard to determine whether his chance was easier than Roche’s but it certainly wasn’t any more difficult. The ball reached him about ten yards out and he blazed his effort way over the bar.

You sensed that was going to be it, that we wouldn’t get back into it, and so it proved. There was just time for Forest captain Taylor to go into the referee’s book after a shocking challenge on Akinbiyi that could so easily have put him out of the game for some time.

“Burnley reject, Burnley reject,” cried the Clarets’ fans as the yellow card was waved at our former players. He could be thankful that’s all it was.

James O'Connor, despite his misses, was probably our best player on the day. He gets through some work as he gets up and down the pitch but he really should have scored today.

It’s seems an age since we last picked up a point away from home, the 1-1 draw at Derby, but really without playing anything like as well as we can, we should have won this one against a poor Forest side that still look to have one foot in League One to me.

The teams were:

Nott’m Forest: Colin Doyle, John Curtis. Wes Morgan, Andy Melville, Gareth Taylor, Darryl Powell, Paul Evans, Ross Gardner, James Perch, Kris Commons (Neil Harris 90), Scott Dobie. Subs not used: Barry Roche, Chris Doig, Eugen Bopp, Jon-Olav Hjelde.

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Gary Cahill, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Lee Roche (John Oster 65), Micah Hyde, Tony Grant (Dean Bowditch 72), James O’Connor, Graham Branch (Jean-Louis Valois 78), Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Joel Pilkington.

Referee: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire).

Attendance: 24,165.