Through the seasons before us..

Depressingly this is now a 2nd vs 3rd clash as a mere draw with Tranmere leaves us looking up at Scunthorpe atop the league.  Oldham tonked Gillingham 3-0 yesterday to keep the pressure on with their third consecutive win - and since they are only three points behind us, and with four more on their goal difference, a win for the Latics will see them topple us further to 3rd place, as they take an automatic promotion spot.

So it quite literally is all to play for in this critical fixture.  Our recent form has been rather wayward - a loss, a win and a draw in our last three games whereas Oldham have a 100% record in their last three - given the home advantage, recent form and a continuation of weather conditions that hamper our play, it’s tricky to see a way for Forest to get anything out of this game, and that’s before we get onto the injuries.

Kris Commons limped out of the action against Tranmere clutching his hamstring; and whilst the extent of the injury is as yet unconfirmed, he definitely won’t be making the trip North.  It seems likely that Junior Agogo will take his place in a front three - and given the general predictability of our team selections lately I suspect that will be the only change from the lacklustre side that faced Rovers yesterday.

Oldham have no major injury concerns, and have lined up unchanged in their last two victorious fixtures - so will undoubtedly be looking to do so again.  A Gillingham fan I speak to occasionally described Oldham’s 3-0 demolition of them as the best performance he’s seen this season - so they’re certainly on good form.  Oh dear!  Of course, John Sheridan I’m sure will be keen to stick the boot in on Forest after we signed him in the late 80’s only to play him once and palm him off to Sheffield Wednesday.

We have, of course, met Oldham already this season at the City Ground in September - and that was our first defeat of the season thank to two goals from Chris Porter to which we had no reply.  They were Oldham’s first away points of the season, and they have since gone from strength to strength - particularly Porter, who now has 17 goals to his name this season - an impressive haul in anyone’s money, and Oldham’s most obvious goal threat.

I’m making the trip up to Boundary Park tomorrow, and as such it makes me feel even more pessimistic than I was already feeling reading through the assorted stats, form and general confidence levels!  Given the disappointment of only drawing against Rovers, this game becomes a must win in many ways, or perhaps it’s more of a ‘really-rather-win’ and ‘must-not-lose’ - lose and we’re into the playoff zone, and whilst I respect Smoulders, I can’t agree with him that our league placing is insignificant!

Or, for the optimists, Port Vale will beat Scunthorpe at home, and we’ll win a scrappy game with Oldham and find ourselves back on top of the league, meaning we vacated the spot for only 48 hours :)  Pah, I can’t see it!