Defeats on our travels have been a regular occurrence for as long as I can remember but it was the manner of the loss that causes concerns for the season ahead. Against a well-organised and resolute Millwall side, we barely managed a meaningful attempt on goal and found ourselves thoroughly beaten. We generally start seasons slowly but there’s still no excuse for this type of performance.

It’s frustrating having been a regular top six side and now regressed to having no real efforts on goal in two league games whilst the new manager works out his best team. McGoldrick starts the season as number one striker up front on his own and then doesn’t even make the bench for the next two games.

In their opening league home game, Millwall started very well and caused us a number of problems. It was no surprise when they took the lead from a neat near-post flick from a corner and then generally looked in control under they caught us on the break in the closing stages to wrap up the three points. In between, Forest had decent spells of possession but failed to present any real problems. The closest we came to scoring was a good overlap from Cohen and his pullback was met by Findley but his effort hit the post and bounced to safety.

In contrast to some of the more memorable performances in the past couple of years, our problems lie in the midfield. Previously we’ve been at our most dangerous winning possession on the half-way line and then charging forward in numbers on the counter attack. In contrast, on Saturday, we were so slow to build an attack, Millwall had plenty of time to get players behind the ball and prevent us from causing any real problems. Apart from the full backs, we looked static and played at walking pace with the home side happy for us to have the ball in midfield and simply crowd out our forwards.

There just isn’t enough movement from the likes of Reid, Greening, Boateng and McGugan. We lack the drive that the likes of Cohen and Moussi have provided in recent years, someone to either make runs past the front two or make quick incisive passing to feet whilst running off the ball. Instead we had Boateng and Greening playing a stream of safe sideways passes at walking pace and McGugan wandering about without any recognisable position and failing to get into the game in any shape.

To his credit, Reid did at least try to get us moving forwards, always made himself available and looked to make things happen whenever possible. On too many occasions there were no options for him and an impossible pass failed to reach it’s target or he was crowded out. Overall, it just looks like the wrong mixture of players for us to be effective. We could have changed things around, bringing Lynch on for Boateng and moving Cohen to left back but instead we stuck to a formula that clearly wasn’t working.

We did change things around for a while in the second half and we did improve slightly with Greening providing more width down the right hand side. However, the old failings of a static midfield and reliance on the full backs to provide width were still evident.

In contrast, Millwall’s players knew exactly what their roles were and didn’t mess around unnecessarily with the ball – every pass was played with a purpose. They broke forward effectively with movement and pace and caused us problems throughout.

With so little service, it’s not surprising that the likes of Garner, Findley and then Tudgay are left to fight for hopeful balls instead of thriving on genuine service. Despite the additions of Derbyshire and hopefully Miller, the doubts over quality service will remain a concern.

Things wouldn’t be so bad if the defence looked solid, however, we gave the ball away badly in dangerous areas and were looking to escape a number of nervy moments, generally of our own making. Camp seemed to play within himself and lacked any of the usual passion and leadership that have been a trademark since he arrived at the club. There didn’t even seem to be an acknowledgement of the fans which seemed weird for one of the “fans favourites”. Cohen looked reasonable going forward, showing plenty of energy but doubts remain over his defensive qualities. MOTM Gunter was probably the best of a bad bunch on the basis of making fewer errors than anyone else.

Tags: Games Lost, MOTM Chris Gunter