Nottingham Forest have not delivered too much festive cheer to a loyal fan base, with their delivery proving to be part of the problem.
The men in red and white have been far from Santa-esque over recent weeks, with too many packages getting lost in the mail.
Unfortunately, that is not an issue which has been restricted to the Christmas period.
Across the entire 2018/19 campaign, Forest have found getting to the final destination a problem.
Those failings were highlighted again during a home date with QPR, with a lack of productivity leading to a collective abandoning of goodwill.
Another blank
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A third game has come and gone with no goals to celebrate and no victory to raise the spirits.
An inability to get the ball into the right areas, or for anybody to be in said positions, is offering cause for concern.
The Reds fired in another 22 shots in their most recent outing, but drew another blank.
They also swung over 33 crosses, with nobody able to make a telling contribution on the end of any of them.
Only seven found their intended target – or got lucky by finding an unintended one!
That return sums up Forest this term, with their accuracy from crosses/corners coming in at a rather paltry 19.7 per cent.
To put that figure into perspective, only Brentford (18.8) have fared worse.
In total, 396 deliveries from wide areas have been attempted and only 78 have been successful –again only one side (Hull City on 75) sits below the Reds in that particular table.
Part of the problem appears to stem from set-pieces.
Dead-balls have not been a strength for some time – from an attacking or defensive standpoint – with an alarming number of goals conceded from such situations.
Wasteful
They are not being countered as Forest are failing to offer enough in a vital part of the game.
No side in the Championship has created fewer opportunities from set plays (20) this season – with that tally ticking Forest over at less than one presentable opening per game.
Only three sides have put fewer corners into the box than the Reds (96 so far) and just one (QPR) has proved more wasteful from those deliveries – with a mere 27 picking out a red/white/gold shirt.
Statistics can, of course, be used to paint just about any picture you want, and not always a fair one.
In this instance, though, the numbers do not lie and Aitor Karanka needs to investigate why his side continue to be the deliverers of bad news.