Nottingham Forest 0-2 Burnley: The wretched run continues

Seven home games without a goal… Here’s hoping the end of the transfer window and a few loans might change things. James Bolton reports from the City Ground.

The big news as kick off approached was that youngster Jamaal Lascelles would start in the centre of defence in the absence of Luke Chambers through suspension. There was also a debut for Wolves loanee Adlene Guedioura and a return to action for Brendan Moloney, who was to play at left-back with Greg Cunningham out injured.

Forest formation

The game got off to the worst possible start for Forest after just three minutes when they found themselves 1-0 down. Right-back Kieran Trippier crossed towards the far post and after some hesitation from Lee Camp and some questionable marking from Lascelles, Jay Rodriguez was on hand to head in off the bar.

Forest tried to fight back and when Ishmael Miller was played through by Lewis McGugan, the former was forced wide onto his weaker right foot and his effort was deflected wide. Adlene Guedioura then collected the ball on the edge of the box after the corner was header away, but his dipping volley was straight at Burnley goalkeeper Lee Grant.

Keith Treacy then cut inside Chris Gunter and fired towards goal, but his effort that awkwardly skipped over Lascelles and moved in the air was collected by Camp.

Guedioura then showed a touch of class at the other end to work arguably Forest’s best opportunity of the game. The midfielder skipped past two Burnley defenders but his curling effort was straight into the arms of Grant from the edge of the box.

A pretty woeful first half came to an end and it was yet again an abject performance. The passing was poor and we were unable to hang onto the ball, Miller found himself increasingly isolated up front and the left side in particular looked very weak.

Things looked like they were going to go from bad to worse when Garath McCleary’s clumsy grab on Burnley defender Ben Mee inside the box lead to a penalty for the Clarets. Rodriguez stepped up and the spot kick was certainly a bizarre one. The forward slipped and the ball spun away towards the corner flag.

Dexter Blackstock and Marcus Tudgay were introduced, replacing Miller and the once again lethargic McGugan. Rather than following Miller to take his seat on the bench, McGugan headed straight down the tunnel with no sign of an injury problem, we can only assume he was having a tantrum; the ideal attitude needed for a team fighting for their Championship lives.

After his calamitous penalty miss, Rodriguez was gifted the chance to double his tally and seal the game. Despite being surrounded by both Moloney and Anderson, Trippier was able to collect the ball from a Burnley throw-in virtually unchallenged. He whipped in another cross to the far post for Rodriguez to head home.

It was a carbon copy of the first goal and a repeat of the tactic that proved so effective at Turf Moor in the reverse fixture earlier this season, when Burnley pummelled Forest 5-1, with the majority of goals coming from crosses and headers. Rodriguez bagged a brace that evening too.

Apart from Blackstock failing to get clean connections on a couple of loose balls inside the Burnley box and two decent long range efforts from Anderson and substitute Andy Reid flying just wide, the game came to a moral-sapping end.

Burnley had three shots on target and scored two of them, and it was simply too easy. Forest showed little of the urgency, fight, creativity and spirit that are needed to get out of a mess; such as the one we’re in.

On the plus side, apart from the slight mishap early on, Lascelles made a sound debut, although, I’m not sure he’ll be getting many more starts any time soon with Chambers back from suspension and defenders Scott Wootton (Manchester United) and Danny Higginbotham (Stoke City) arriving on loan until the end of the season.

Also, Guedioura did show flashes of class and seemed keen to get on the ball, get things going and stick his foot in. Although, he does seem to be prone to odd wild shot from 30-odd yards. That’s something that we’ll probably have to get used to.

So up next is Derby County at Pride Park, in front of the television cameras and thousands of Rams fans who think we’re there for the taking. If that game doesn’t put some fire in the player’s bellies then nothing will.

James runs the View From The Mainstand blog and NFFC Stats on Twitter.