Clumsy touches, speculative long balls and miscued passes told the story of the first half, with occasional defensive calamities giving rise to the game’s best chances.

Kelvin Wilson passed the ball straight to a Brighton attacker in the fourth minute, but no Brighton forward could convert in the resulting goalmouth scramble.

A moment of brilliance from Kris Commons gave Forest their first chance as he danced past three Brighton defenders and saw his effort saved by Michel Kuipers.

Matt Thornhill came closest as his effort from Tyson’s diving header found the post from a tight angle.

And Smith saved well from close range to keep the scores level at half time.

The second half was even more of an anti-climax than the first; scrappy and disjointed throughout, the 0-0 stalemate seemed little short of inevitable to a subdued City Ground crowd.

Under-fire boss Calderwood faced the wrath of supporters as he hesitated over substitutions, and the eventual move to throw on two additional attackers prompted more confusion than clinical finishing.

Brighton shut up shop for the final ten minutes, and Colin Calderwood’s instruction for Kelvin Wilson not to join the attack for a late corner was a fitting epitome of a disappointing afternoon, and a disappointing season.

The Reds find themselves eleven points off second place with only eight games to play.

Comment

At the business end of the season it is results and not performances that pay. This afternoon Forest delivered neither, and increasingly our form since early December should be enough for Doughty to swing his axe.

The first half was deceptively positive. In reality Brighton had as much right to be in front as we did.

The second half, put simply, was not worth watching.

It was obvious for long periods that the game was petering out into a 0-0; not once in the entire game could we be described as in the ascendancy, or dominating.

Yet Calderwood waited, and waited, and waited.

Impatience 

Only in the 74^th minute did he spring into action, after leaving Lewis McGugan standing impatiently on the sideline for five minutes.

“You don’t know what you’re doing” was the cry from sections of the Trent End, and Calderwood heard it loud and clear.

The chant would have been better fitting of the players themselves as Calderwood resorted to a familiar ‘everybody play everywhere’ approach.

Our midfield ran around in circles without purpose or bearing, the defence was disorganised and scrappy, and our only creative direction came via exceptionally rare sparks from Commons and long balls for Tyson.

We are clueless. After the hype and adulation of Friday night, we just had to deliver a result like this to drag everybody crashing down to earth.

We are now relying on Carlisle and Doncaster losing four of their final eight games, and us cashing in every single time. Don’t make me laugh.

The overwhelming majority of supporters want Colin removed from his post.

For me, the only way we will successfully negotiate the play-offs is under new management. Calderwood’s sides have a history of ‘nearly but not quite’ performances on the big occasion and it is a mystery to me how any “Forest fan” chairman could allow him to keep his job at this crucial time.

Respected 

It’s just one disappointment after another with Calderwood.

A below par lower league manager who is outwitted regularly in League One and wouldn’t last thirty seconds in the Championship. I wonder if he is still “one of the most respected young managers in the game”…?

What’s most annoying is that the club are waiting for the inevitable to happen, and then we will get the speech: “we feel that failing to achieve promotion after two attempts falls short of what we expect for the club. We thank Colin for his efforts and wish him every success in the future”.

Why wait?

Smith - 7

Chambers - 6

Morgan - 6.5

Wilson - 6

Bennett - 6

Clingan - 5

Thornhill - 5

Cohen - 6

Commons - 7

Ormerod - 7.5

Tyson - 7.5

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