Griffin Park groundhog day as Forest reverted to type in Brentford

Losing to a 96th minute goal is always pretty crushing. Yet, in some respects there was something of a grim inevitability about the Bees' late, late winner on Saturday.

No matter that we had more shots on and off target than the home side. No matter that we'd played the brighter football in an albeit lacklustre first half. No matter that Brentford went down to 10 men after Harlee Dean momentarily lost his head.

Given the story of our season so far, you still worried that this wasn't going to end well. Those fears proved well-founded when Philipp Hofmann's injury time strike took the spoils. It seemed to travel in slow motion, pinballing past the despairing dives of Dorus De Vries and his defence - catching a couple of them before settling in the net. It was messy, scrappy, preventable and, ultimately, enough to send us to an eighth defeat of the season.

The red card of Dean, who, to borrow the cliche, gave the referee no choice, initially looked to have offered a way back into the game for the away side. Henri Lansbury swiftly cancelled out Sergi Canos' earlier strike (the sort of finish we need to see more from the captain) to restore parity and we really should have pushed on from there. But, once again, we showed a distinct lack of ability to turn the screw, leaving an opportunity for the depleted hosts who had been spurred on by the dismissal.

It was some grim irony that the winner came during the injury time that had been added on due to the lengthy fuss caused after the card - those minutes should have been an opportunity for us to gobble up, not one for Lee Carsley to end his short stint in charge with a success.

The spurned opportunity to defeat 10 men only mirrored a game of spurned opportunities, let alone a season that has broadly followed a similar pattern.

A combination of decent pressing from Forest and wasteful possession from the hosts led to the likes of Ryan Mendes, Jamie Ward and Nelson Oliveira regularly getting the ball in dangerous areas inside their opponents' half. The sad fact is that on too many of those we either failed to create a chance or resorted to a tame effort from the sort of distance that will rarely trouble a Championship goalkeeper.

But, how many more times can this happen? We can't keep looking lively, playing alright, firing in lots of efforts on goal but continuing a run of form that now reads P10 W1 D3 L6 F6 A12.

Managers that ultimately get the chop make the wrong decisions at moments like this. Stuart Pearce, for example, started leaving Britt Assombalonga on the bench in favour of pushing Michail Antonio out of position. Gary Megson packed his midfield with defenders to 'win the battle' and Paul Hart tried to revert to a formation that had worked with Riccy Scimeca despite the fact he had left.

Dougie seems to be lining up a change of tactics, telling the Post:

"The shape will have to tighten up again, we will go back to basics and make us tight again. It is as simple as that."

That appears to mean the return of Michael Mancienne in a deep-lying midfield role and, perhaps, a more physical striker up front than Nelson Oliveira. If it goes right and we tough out a couple of wins then Freedman will be able to get some welcome distance from the relegation zone which is now just two points below us in the table. If it goes wrong, however, and we don't pick up points while playing a more dour, defensive, basic game then it could prove fatal - we won't even have the 'well, we played alright' line to fall back on.

My instinct is that we shouldn't do anything that would cause the chances and shots to dry up - it doesn't feel like that will help add to the goals column. I'd like to see whether the likes of the Burkes might be due a run to see if they can add more end product when presented with the ball in the positions our attacking trio found themselves in on Saturday. I might be wrong - it wouldn't be the first time - and not conceding would, at least, be a start if we're to start getting results.

You also felt that swapping Jonny Williams for Liam Trotter - the one change from the Derby game - made us a poorer side at Brentford. Trotter might have the physical attributes to give us a 'presence' in the opponents' half but he looked lost and contributed little. If the issue with Williams is fitness then you'd have to question the worth of loaning in a man who can't manage two games in two weeks.

It's stick or twist time for Dougie. What he does next will determine whether Fawaz sticks with him or twists the metaphorical knife to call time on his tenure. Reading awaits for Freedman - he passed his last test at the City Ground with flying colours, let's hope he follows suit on Saturday and builds on that, rather than the Brentford, blueprint.