Let’s start with the week just gone (especially as I wasn’t able to write anything before or after the Middlesbrough match):

• Forest’s senior management had a meeting to discuss Nigel Doughty’s will, and the implications of it for the club. They promptly released a statement saying “sorry, we aren’t able to report anything yet” and took dog’s abuse on the social networks. Sometimes you cannot win…
• The Reds went to Middlesbrough and conceded two more shoddy goals either side of half-time, which led to the fans’ patience with Cotterill growing ever thinner. Whether or not you like him, he isn’t going to get the sack, so I don’t see how barracking him is going to help the team
• Cotterill took loads of stick for a comment in his post-match interview, which I didn’t take much notice of at the time…I’ll let the excellent Pissing Red take up the reins on this one

Anyway, to the six-pointer against Cov, who got all three points on Tuesday to jump above us on goal difference (and if Donny win their game in hand then Forest could be facing a spell on the bottom rung).

Ishmael Miller has once again proven that he has all the resilience of cheap cling film, but given his weak header straight at the keeper in the first half, that needn’t be much of a loss. Assuming that he has recovered enough from illness, Marcus Tudgay will start up front, and supersubs Andy Reid and Joel Lynch should really be getting a chance – put simply, Forest look better when they play (or at least, less abject).

If I were Cotterill, I would drop Wootton in order to play Gunts at right-back (despite his creditable efforts on the wing), drop Chambers for Lynch (even with two left feet, Lynch and Higginbotham are surely our best centre halves), and give Dexter a chance to regain match sharpness upfront alongside Tudders. Dex wouldn’t last ninety minutes, but the only way he will get back to his old self is by playing.

I would also put Paul Smith in goal; Campo has been in a mard for the entire season, and has conceded some ridiculously soft goals, including loads at his near post. His greatest asset when he joined was his command of the box (which was in stark contrast to an uncertain Smudger), but that seems to have dissolved.

Smudge ain’t the best keeper in the world but actually has a good record for us – very few goals conceded in League One, and after Lee Camp and Iain Turner’s (remember him?) loan spells in the first season in the Championship, had a very creditable spell in the last few matches of that season. He is hesitant when coming for crosses, but then so is Campo at the moment, and I would argue that Smudge is the better shot-stopper (his height certainly being an asset in this regard). What’s the point in having two players for any position if one doesn’t get a look in, even when the first-choice is in poor form?