Project Freedman needs a plan B next

I was worried about that Huddersfield game. Not just because of the memory of 'that match' under Pl*** either. With the clarity of a pre-match pint, I'd been involved in a discussion that later looked prescient. The question was 'what happens if we concede first?'. Sadly, the answer came with Huddersfield's 2-0 victory.

Dougie's fantastic unbeaten run - since October 3 at home and November 21 home or away - has been built on solidity and organisation. We've had a sound shape and a defensive resolve that has made us tough to beat.

It has been a sensible way to address a slide in results that took us to within two points of the drop zone and it's a reasonable 'plan A'. It's harsh to be too critical following the first defeat in a long while but you do think that the next stage in this side's development must be to have an effective 'plan B' too.

Forest huffed and puffed on Saturday but could never string together a decent spell of pressure. Not one player had a good game and, to be fair to Dougie, no matter what formation you choose you're not going to get far if you suffer from such a collection of below-par displays.

Credit must go to Huddersfield though. They ensured we never had the time or space to settle with an energetic and disciplined display. They 'out Dougied Dougie' to some respects - with the shape, nous and performance to see the game out once in front. I've often been impressed by the Terriers (they must just underperform when I'm not looking) and David Wagner's XI was littered with enough talent to suggest they could surprise a few next year if they learn some lessons from this campaign.

Joe Lolley looks a real talent and Philip Billing's thunderous winner was far from his only bit of impressive play.



Dougie does now have a free weekend to work with the players and he may well shuffle the pack for the daunting trip to Burnley. It's easy to forget that, through injury and transfers, Vaughan, Gardner and Tesche are all players without much experience of long run of games in recent times. Jamie Ward seems much less effective when he's not playing centrally and able to be as much of a pest as possible.

Irrespective of personnel changes though, finding that plan B is pretty important going forward. Turf Moor is the sort of ground where we could well come under a lot of early pressure and have to be able to bounce back if the defence is breached.

This isn't anything new to Dougie. Here's what he said to the BBC after the Hull City defeat in October:

"We were disappointed with the goal, it was a bad goal to give away, with Maloney taking a quick corner to catch us out, the first goal was so, so crucial. That has never been as important in football as it is now. It changed the whole course of the game."

We've conceded the first goal in almost half of our games this season. Of those 15 games we've come back to win 3 - Rotherham at home, QPR away and Reading at home - and drew against Ipswich at home, Wolves away and Birmingham at home. We've lost the other nine.

Conversely - and whisper this quietly for fear of jinxing it - we've never lost in the 13 games in which we've scored first. It's pretty stark proof of the importance of that first goal.

Since we can't always guarantee getting on the scoresheet first, getting victories from behind will be vital in the long term if we want to challenge at the top. That might need better options from the bench but it might also mean the ability to be flexible enough to deploy the players on the pitch in another permutation. On Saturday you feel that sacrificing the ineffectual Tesche for Burke and shifting Ward inside behind Oliveira would've added a great deal of threat with a fairly subtle attacking shift in the shape.

The building process is going well and only a fool would say otherwise after one setback. Saturday was just the second time in 11 games we'd conceded first so we had become accustomed to only needing a plan A. If Dougie can find an effective plan B, he'll be on to a real winner going forward.