arbitro

I honestly didn't think a lack of effort contributed to our defeat last night. I thought Forest were far, far better in almost every aspect and our own unenforced errors aided them.

Last night was disappointing, it always is when we lose but my misery wasn't anywhere near it was after the demolition derbies when my anger was palpable for a considerable for some time after. I'm over last night already and looking towards Sunderland now. That, in my opinion is far more important than last night.

I mentioned last night that the pitch was looking a bit patchy. And they are training on it again on Christmas Day evening under the lights before they leave for Sunderland.

Stupid shirt 😙😉😉😂😂😂

Were you at West Ham?

I didn't have an issue with the starting line up primarily because the majority of them got us through three rounds and beat a Premier League club away in the last round. Forest were simply better than us and for me the scoreline reflects that dominance. Looking at the bigger picture it's clear to me that the likes of Scott Wharton, Travis and Hedges are in a bad run of form. Tonight was an opportunity for them and in my view all of them struggled and such a drop in form can take time to get back up to speed. Our two starting loanees should be sent back if possible and either replaced by another loan player or one of the kids. That said Markanday showed up well particularly in the first half and should be on the bench at Sunderland. Hopefully January will bring in some fresh faces that actually improve us and we don't make the mistake of previous years of resting on our laurels.

I have checked the Forest website and twitter and the advert about the Legends Lounge being open doesn't seem to appear on any. So how will the Forest fans know about it?

What a gross overreaction there has been to a handful (maybe two) posters asking for Tomasson to be sacked. Lots of angst was shown after the Dingle demolition and Nobbers hammering and rightly so. Them two defeats were certainly not helped by his tactics and team selection, in fact against Nobbers he said the fans were right to jeer and feel disgruntled. But at no time has there been anything like any open dissent towards Tomasson at any game. Compare that to Norwich who would have gone third on Saturday had they won. After twenty minutes the rumblings started with 'Dean Smith, your football is shite' and 'we want Deano out' chants from many of their supporters. This is a yoyo club who just have hugely benefited from Sky money and parachute payments. My point is football fans are generally the same wherever you go and we are no different.

It was said in commentary last night that the two highest (in number not field position) pressing teams in the Championship are your lot and Sheffield United.

Forest fans can access the Legends Lounge in the Darwen End for £10. That includes a drink or either beer, cider of a soft drink. I'll wager they are falling over themselves to take advantage of such a bargain.🤑🤑

I noticed that several fans who bought them wore them on Saturday. I wore mine for the first time albeit under a jumper so being superstitious it has been washed, will be ironed and ready for Wednesday. If we beat Forest rinse and repeat for Boxing Day. Hopefully it will be worn out by the time the next batch are available 😂😂.

BBC 5 Live were reporting that the absence of Tella yesterday was 'unexplained' and reading between the lines they are expecting Southampton to recall him. Have you heard anything?

The significance of not playing Travis yesterday was apparent to me. I like Travis. He seems a decent person, loves the club, relates well with the fans and lots of other things but his limitations really stifle us. Our midfielders yesterday could both take the ball on the half turn, press higher up the pitch and pass the ball quicker whilst under pressure. Travis struggles in all of them aspects, aspects I believe make us better and stronger as a team. If Tomasson wants to play him regularly then he has to have a different way of playing. I'm not scapegoating Travis by the way, I'm simply pointing out the evidence of my own eyes.

I wholly agree Ian. That particular law change has had a seismic effect on how many managers try to play as a poor and limited imitation of the top teams. With the correct players it's not as much of a risk but as we saw with Norwich (and ourselves recently) some players simply aren't good enough to do it. Significantly the Norwich fans by us were booing after twenty minutes yesterday and as the game went on they were mocking their manager and several players.

Well, well, well. I honestly don't think anybody saw that coming. Tomasson has rightly been hammered by the vast majority of Rovers fans over the last few weeks but to give him his due credit he got it pretty much spot on today. His team selection and tactics were what won us the game today. The pace, aggression and intensity so obviously missing recently was there tonight in abundance. Tomasson went back to his front four tonight and rotated them to share the workload particularly when pressing the Norwich defenders. And it worked a treat. After twenty minutes the home crowd were agitated about how their team were trying to play out when the players aren't really good enough to. We all know how that feels 😂. I didn't think there was a real stand out performance tonight but Buckley and Dolan deserve real credit in my opinion. Hopefully Tomasson has seen the error of his ways and continues to mix up the long and short passing. Two incidents aside the risk taking was minimal and the reward from longer passing resulted in a goal and several other chances.

In our last eight games against the Canaries we have lost six and drawn two. I don't normally do predictions but I can't see anything else but a loss by a least a two goal margin.

Is it two shots on target in the last two games? I want to see quick, accurate passing through the thirds, intensity, pace and commitment. In reality I expect slow, predictable play strewn with self inflicted errors and consequentially a big defeat. I am going to the game and sometimes question my own sanity. It's the hope that kills you.

https://www.rovers.co.uk/club/job-vacancies/ I couldn't find an appropriate thread for this but it's for current vacancies at Rovers. Amongst them is one for a first team physiotherapist and the closing date is December 28th. Andy Procter was doing this role - does anybody know who has left to create this role? Unless it a new appointment just to look after Callum Brittle 😂😂.

So the sycophants to whom the club can do no wrong are wrong. And the blame lies with the club who won't but them because the don't think they will sell them. And just before Christmas too.

In a nutshell.

Hopefully Tomasson stays true to his word and keeps the nucleus of the side that have got us this far. I still of the opinion that the two most enjoyable performances of the season were at Bradford and West Ham

I don't know if this has a bearing on the number of tickets showing as sold but when I got ours on the last day you had to claim your own seat I was offered two options. The first was a standard paper ticket and the second was to update your season card to allow admission using that.

Southgate is an extremely intelligent man who will do what is best for him and his family as the majority of us would do. I shuddered when I saw Brendan Rogers being linked with the job today though. Not because he isn't English but because I just don't rate him.

In truth Andy I haven't seen too much quality from Brittain at all. Defensively he has been found wanting and as you rightly point out his self inflicted injury was entirely down to him not fancying a 50/50 ball. Is he an upgrade on Nyambe? The jury is still out for me.

We are 22 games in Gav and to many it's apparent that some of our players simply aren't capable of carrying out his way of playing. There hasn't been any indication that they can neither. So how long does he persist with it? It's already cost us several goals and given up numerous chances to the opposition. There is some suggestion that he will bring players in that can play this way and that will be at the expense of those who just aren't good enough. What is frustrating is that he keeps trying it and it's patently not working. It's hurting us and will continue to do so I believe.