Forest travel to Queens Park Rangers this weekend knowing that the next ten games must bring more points than the first ten. The visit to Loftus Road will be the first since being condemned to the depths of League One on that ground - and the travelling Tricky Trees will be hoping for a much happier visit tomorrow.
A poor total of five points so far has left Reds fans and Colin Calderwood frustrated, disappointed and searching for a way out.
Just as the players have enjoyed a break for the international fixtures to take place I've flown off to foreign shores for my own overseas break so ahead of the Loftus Road showdown seems as good a time as any to assess the news/issues on Trentside.......
*Firstly, the last fortnight has been filled with rumours surrounding CCs job security thanks to the paltry points total. It seems obvious to me that Nigel Doughty rates CC highly and will give him time to turn things around. Doughty likes the fact that CC buys into his vision of a young, improving squad with great potential and sees the Stranraer supremo in the same light in managerial terms. Doughty also wants to create stability at the club - which he hopes can be achieved by keeping on to Calderwood, who is the 19th longest serving manager in the football league now!
All the gossip about Big Sam et al seems a little premature. It would take a disastrous run of the late Paul Hart era's proportions to make Doughty act. A bad end to October and a poor showing down the A52 may tip things against CC but he was never going to act so soon.
*The Ireland trip warrants little note other than that it showed a) our inability to find the back of the net without Earnie and b) that the likes of Garner are on their way back to finally have an impact on our on the field fortunes.
*The injured players' return will be crucial for a CC revival. To be fair to him the creative and attacking talents of Paul Anderson, Lewis McGugan, Robert Earnshaw and Joe Garner should increase our potency in the final third.
*Good news and bad news came at the end of the break. Carl Fletcher, the industrious Wales international should add some steel and competitive edge to the midfield after being drafted in on loan but he was surely primarily drafted in to deal with the Guy Moussi sized hole in the side following the Frenchman's injured in the Palace home game.
Reflection, speculation, a hopeful injury situation and a signing then all lead into the big game in the capital. The away games so far have shown little cause for optimism and CC will need to have used his fortnight to devise a masterplan to topple one of the division's most unpredictable sides.
With question marks over the lack of fitness of many of the returning players it is difficult to know what he will come up with. Will he once again rely on the pace of Martin and Tyson for a breakaway counter attacking game or will Cole's nous be preferred?
If forced to predict I feel he will go with - Smith, Chambers, Bennett, Wilson, Morgan, Perch, Fletcher, Cohen, Martin, Tyson, Earnshaw with Cole, Anderson, Davies, McGugan and Breckin on the bench.
I think we have the ability to take a point away from the game - which could be enough to spark a revival if backed up by the subsequent two home games. We must however, take at least something to avert the spiralling slide to League One oblivion, the harsh reality of which we all felt when we last left Loftus Road......
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