Brighton 1 Forest 0: 5 pros and 5 cons

These days, you feel like the season hasn't begun in earnest until we've picked up our first injury do you? And, there it was, on 39 minutes Robert Tesche - returned from the wilderness (or St Andrews) to play a big role in midfield - broke his metatarsal following a nasty looking challenge.

With that we knew the football was back. If that wasn't enough disappointment for you then up popped Kazenga LuaLua to give Brighton a deserved 1-0 win. The hosts weren't exactly sparkling but had done enough to take full share of the spoils.

Cue another familiar football season sight: the social media meltdown. Amid a sea of rush judgements, panic, over-reaction and tweets to Fawaz it is worth remembering that this was just one game. Plus, if you're prepared to look at a league table before 4/5 games in then you need to question your sanity.

Sitting now, in the relative calm of Monday (a day before the next meltdown after a traditional Walsall defeat), it's worth reflecting on the good and bad of Friday night ahead of a trio of home games that could, in theory at least, breathe a bit of positivity into the early season on Trentside.

Forest fans at Brighton tonight #nffc pic.twitter.com/m0cesZdSIu

— Football Away Days (@footyawayday) August 7, 2015

Cons

1. Full back woes: I'll always try to defend a player but at the moment there's not getting past the fact that Danny Fox doesn't look good enough. Yes, he doesn't get much cover but he shouldn't need support for every one on one. I don't blame the man - he doesn't look like he's not trying - but there's no hiding from the fact that he's not up to scratch. Perhaps even more worrying was the fact that Eric Lichaj was every bit as bad on the other side. Whether it was the fact that he felt aggrieved for his yellow card or that he simply came up against a good player in LuaLua, Eric certainly didn't match his showings from last season.

2. Midfield: The Forest midfield, shorn of the sort of class Gary Gardner brought when on loan last season, struggled to dominate. The extra man didn't see us stamp our authority on proceedings - possibly because he was Michael Mancienne. David Vaughan looked off the pace and sloppy when he came on and Lansbury is always less effective when dragged too deep.

3. Tesche: As mentioned earlier, the ex-Hamburg man became the latest player to be checked into the ever-busy treatment room. It won't be long before the injured players could make up a better side than the one we're putting out each week...

4. Run continues: With a trigger happy chairman to appease and potential transfer targets to try to sway, Dougie could do without '9 games without a win' being brought up.

5. Struggled to chase: Despite a slight upsurge, it was disappointing to see that we couldn't mount a sustained late charge to try to rescue a point. My worry is that by being positive with substitutions (Tyler for Fox) we ended up simply conceding even more ground and in a 442 we're always struggling to get anywhere near enough of the ball to get the attackers into the game. Oh and Burke would've been a better sub than Pato for me.

Pros

1. Mills: This was an impressive debut for Matt Mills who slotted in well next to Jack Hobbs. He did his defending tidily and played a couple of smart forward passes to contrast with some of the less cultured aimless long stuff that poor old Dexter was forced to make do with.

2. Antonio: Michail doesn't look like he's letting the transfer speculation get to him. He didn't have it easy and was better marshalled than Brighton's match-winning wide man, but Antonio's pace and power meant the hosts could never truly settle.

3. Tyler Walker: While we're all watching progress of a potential new striker, there's no reason to stop being excited by 'Des' lad'. He injected pace and movement to the forward line and gave us a threat. Deserves to star in the cup.

4. Dorus De Vries: He showed Dougie that Ben Hamer, if he ever arrives, shouldn't automatically get the starting role between the sticks. His save on the stroke of half time was top class.

5. Not getting carried away: Perversely, one good thing about getting this defeat out of the way is that it keeps us all from getting carried away. The early season optimism bubble has burst and anyone who thought getting together a competitive side under an embargo would be easy should be thinking again.

One down, 45 to go...