Nottingham Forest’s winless run away from home extended to nine games as they were beaten 2-0 by Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium.
The Reds haven’t picked up three points away from home since 24 November. That came in the form of a 2-0 win over Hull City at the KCOM Stadium.
The statistics since then make for pretty grim reading.
In over three months of football, from the 27 points up for grabs, Forest have taken just five. This isn’t good enough for a side chasing the play-offs.
It seemed like this would be the season that the Reds ended their long-term travel sickness.
Aitor Karanka led his side to wins away at Middlesbrough, Bolton and Hull in the first half of the season. In addition to this, the Reds also secured credible points away at Bristol City, Swansea, Leeds, Aston Villa, Derby and Norwich.
In most of those games, the Reds were extremely unfortunate not to come away with all three points.
For this reason, it’s surprising that away games have become such an issue over the last few months.
Mindset
Having gone such a significant amount of time without an away win, it’s understandably raised questions about whether it is a mental issue for the players.
O’Neill’s three wins in charge so far have all come at the City Ground. However, the Reds were unfortunate not to pick up back-to-back away wins at both West Brom and Preston recently.
It’s fair to say the Reds failed to reach the same level of performance against Stoke. O’Neill told the Nottingham Post in his post-match interview that he hopes it isn’t a mental issue.
He said: “I hope it has not become a mental issue for the players, not winning away from home. I would like to think it has not.
“Maybe I should stop mentioning about how they have not won back-to-back games since September.
“But the fact is there. You cannot erase the record books and pretend it is not. We have to try to address these.”
False dawns
The most frustrating aspect about the Reds’ away form is that it’s preventing them from making a big push for the play-offs. It’s never going to be easy to win back-to-back games if you always struggle to win away.
It’s not all bad news though. The Reds still remain just four points off the play-offs after all of their rivals also dropped points over the weekend.
With two home games against Hull and Aston Villa on the horizon, there’s no doubt that maximum points are required. It’s a good chance for the Reds to win back-to-back games, without having to find an elusive away win.
However, if they are to overturn the four point gap between themselves and the top six, then it’s something that will have to be addressed.
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