The cliches were out in force on Saturday as Mick McCarthy's rampant Wolves tore the travelling trickies to shreds at Molineux. Was this a wake up call/reality check/timely reminder about the toughness of the task involved in competing at Championship level?
Probably. Wolves are, however, one of the divisions top sides and should feature in the promotion shake up. The alphabet soup strike force of Chris Iwelumo and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (an incredible 17 different letters between them Scrabble fans!) are certainly a threat to any defence. Wingers Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly also look a potent force and given our defensive naievity at full back they were always going to cause problems.
Also our shoddy record against the Noddy Holder lovers (aside from Christmas Wolves home games must be his sole source of royalties) meant it was always set to be a tough test of our Championship credentials.
To lose to Wolves is certainly no disgrace. The manner in which we got torn to shreds is more worrying.
However lets not panic yet. At home so far we have looked good. It seems a while ago now but the performance (and match) against Watford was fantastic and Reading was a solid start against a dangerous outfit. Away we've looked flimsy and that must improve.
To be fair there are plenty of players lacking experience at his level, or in Moussi's case in this country, and there are also players that need time to bed into our team.
Also, Calderwood needs to learn the complexities of Championship management. From looking at the pattern of many games an early goal seems to signal a 'basketball' style back and forth encounter. The hectic tubthumping pace of the game is a lot less simple to control than in League One.
On Saturday, it seemed as though CC may have played all of his cards too early against Wolves. Starting with a 433 with Tyson, Earnshaw and Martin was perhaps too ambitious (not normally the charge levelled at him!) and meant that once we went behind it must've been difficult to know exactly how to react. It was pointless to reign things in but equally necessary to change a line up that was being overran.
A fortnight now should give us time to clear the swelling numbers in the treatment room and come back refreshed. Beating Burnley at the City Ground shouldn't be beyond our abilities but like all sides at this level can't be taken lightly.
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As the transfer window closes it looks as thought we've missed out on Ben Watson. The ginger midfield maestro seems to have set his sights on a reunion with Ian Dowie at Loftus Road but by all accounts was asking for a massive wage.
The Evening Post reported that he was after 15k and we were 'only' willing to double his current 8k. I don't profess to know what the squad are on but it doesn't seem worth blowing the wage structure away for a player that would've been nice but is not essential.
To me an essential purchase was a right back but it still looks as though CC will show faith in his beloved Luke Chambers.
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The main drama of transfer window day was being played out far away from the banks of the Trent.
As the Berbatov and Robinho sagas rumbled on the unsung heroes of the day were the men charged with spinning out the news coverage until the last minute.
Hats off then to Jonathan Stevenson of the BBC (a Forest fan too) and Sky Sports News' cheeky chappy Jim White - their wit made the protracted 'so and so spotted at such and such' nonsense a deal more entertaining!
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