Nottingham Forest blog: Positives to come from Ipswich Town draw

It is only thanks to Michail Antonio’s stoppage time equiliser that I am not bemoaning our first reverse of the season!

Stuart Pearce said after the game that positives could be drawn from the performance against Mick McCarthy’s rejuvenated side.

The former England international is not one to publicly condemn his players and I for one know that Pearce will be demanding more from his players over the next seven months.

Forest were in truth sluggish and lacklustre in Sunday’s encounter and the only real surprise come 4:45pm was that Ipswich hadn’t taken the three points they needed to leapfrog the Reds in the Championship table.

Former Celtic striker Daryl Murphy had twice given the Suffolk side the lead with two well taken goals.

I say well taken. Whilst Murphy’s finished both his goals with aplomb, Forest contributed to them with what can only be described as Sunday League standard defending.

For the first Eric Lichaj, playing in an unconventional left-back role, was brushed aside and then despite the advances from two additional defenders, the Ipswich number nine was still given enough time to curl his effort inside Karl Darlow’s far post.

The second was just plain soft. Outnumbered once again out wide Jack Hunt was this time the culprit as he failed to stop Tyrone Mings’ teasing ball into the box and Murphy was there again to cushion his header again past a full stretch Darlow.

One massive positive I would have to say from Sunday is that despite yet another below par performance at home we still didn’t lose and STILL remain unbeaten! Quite remarkable!

One thing Pearce has instilled into this newly resembled squad is that we simply never know when we are beat.

In two of the last three home games we have fallen behind in games only to claw back and rescue points from games.

The credit for that must go to the new management team as it is something we so desperately lacked last season.

I think what a lot of fans need to grasp is a bit of perspective on the current events at the City Ground.

At 1-0 down on Sunday there were certain fans booing. I don’t know why I am so surprised but booing! Goodness knows how these boo-boys would react if we were near the bottom of the league.

We have a new manager who has assembled near enough a new squad and his additions have really hit the ground running. One of his additions Britt Assombalonga is the Championship’s leading goal-scorer, our defence – before Sunday – was the best in the league and on top of all of that going into the second international break of the season we sit nicely poised in second position.

When Pearce returned to the club he made sure that he spoke to everyone associated with the club and made them fully aware that if we are to achieve our goal of promotion, we all need to pull in the same direction – and that includes the fans!

It is no good coming to games and booing when things don’t quite go according to plan or a team actually comes and gives us a game. Let’s remember Ipswich are also in the top six and came and played with three strikers away from home! It was hardly going to be a walk in the park.

I am not going to say I have never vented my frustration at some of the awful performances I have seen at the CG over the past 15 seasons as a season ticket holder, but I would certainly not consider booing when we sit inside the automatic promotion places.

When we do finally fall to a defeat, whether it be at home or away, that those with a Forest persuasion inside the stadium remember the fantastic start to the season which we have had and give the players the appreciation that they deserve.

Yes we have now drawn more games than we have won but the fact remains that a lot of our rivals are also drawing and dropping points. I have no doubt in my mind that with the squad that we have at our disposal it is only a matter of time before that next three points comes along.

Onto the next one...