Nottingham Forest news: Blame game will help nobody at the City Ground

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Keep calm and carry on – that is the message coming out of Nottingham Forest after back-to-back defeats against Wigan and Hull City.

And so it should be.

Two wins do not make a season, so neither do a couple of reversals.

Do they represent a bump in the road? Of course.

Are they cause for serious concern? Not really.

To be sat on 22 points from 13 games is above and beyond what many could have predicted.

Given the changes which have been made, we should be happy with our lot.

Especially with a testing early schedule added to the pot.

Taking no points from meetings with the Latics and Tigers is obviously not par for the course, but a few have already been saved this season with the odd birdie thrown in along the way.

Nerve

Which leaves us out of the rough and well placed on the Championship fairway.

There are still 33 holes to be taken in – 99 points up for grabs.

Now is a time to hold the nerve, not recklessly abandon it.

Ben Watson told the Nottingham Post on the back of a midweek reversal against Hull: “We know we can do better and we have to get back to the standards we set before the international break.

“We can’t panic or start blaming each other, we have still had a fantastic start to the season and if we win again on Saturday then it is all forgotten about.”

Precisely.

While defeat can feel like the end of the world, victory is the perfect antidote.

See off Reading at the weekend and collective frowns will be turned upside down.

Perspective

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That sense of perspective must be maintained.

Forest were not among the pre-season favourites for promotion.

To be outside the top six on goal difference and only four points adrift of the leaders is not to be sniffed at.

An English coaching rookie has also added a Manager of the Month award to the mantelpiece.

Life is not as bad as it felt when the final whistle blew on Wednesday night.

There are issues to address, of course there are.

The same, though, can be said of the Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelonas of this world.

Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Pointing fingers and apportioning blame will not help, clapping hands and building belief is more the order of the day.