Forest (4-3-3): Smith: Chambers, Breckin (Captain), Wilson, Lockwood (Holt 86): Cohen, Clingan, McGugan: Davies, Tyson, Commons (Agogo 72). Subs not used: Roberts, Morgan, Perch.

Walsall again; why are we bloomin' surprised? At this rate we could play them til Doomsday and never win at their place.

A game we should have won - probably comfortably - at the Bescot Stadium ended in frustrating defeat, but this time there were no ludicrous penalties or laughable sendings off; we only have ourselves to blame for missing too many easy chances and giving a soft goal away.

On a night of intermittent driving rain and a very strong wind Forest dominated the first half, working hard (even Kris Commons tracking back into his own box!), showing excellent movement and crisp passing in midfield and generally looking the better side by a distance.

We made a number of half chances, including a Matt Lockwood drive from the edge of the box, following a corner, that was only a few inches wide, a McGugan shot over the bar in similar circumstances (though in truth he was never really in control of it) and a driven cross from Lockwood which evaded all the defenders but also both Tyson and Davies in promising positions.

But we also made two gilt-edged chances, both of which should have been buried. Firstly some neat work down the left between Cohen and Lockwood, with Commons running to the by-line to pull the defender away, ended with an inch-perfect cross from Cohen onto Tyson's head less than 10 yards out. Never mind scoring, Nathan didn't even hit the target and buried his head in his hands. Secondly, this time down the right, another perfect cross - this time from Luke Chambers straight onto the head of Kris Commons on the 6-yard line. He too missed the target. As so often when you miss easy chances, we paid for it with the match.

[On Forest World you'll also see what looks like an excellent save by Clayton Ince from Tyson close in, following a low Davies cross - but that one would have been disallowed for offside even had it gone in; the flag was up.]

In return, Walsall produced not a lot in the first half - a mistake by Ian Breckin when he let a ball bounce over his head was redeemed by an excellent recovery tackle from Chambers, and a fine through ball from Tommy Mooney into the path of Edrissa Sonko, leaving him one-on-one with Smudge 25 yards out? only to find Kelvin Wilson glide past Sonko to take the ball off his toes with a perfectly timed challenge in the box. Cue a standing ovation from the massed Forest fans; all I can say is that if Preston really have a bunch of defenders so good that they could afford to let Wilson go, then why are they wallowing in the bottom 3 of the Championship? The man is my player of the season so far by a country mile; the best defender we've had since Michael Dawson.

So at half time we were all pretty happy; Forest were dominating the game and playing pretty well - the only frustration being that they hadn't scored from one of those chances. I texted a couple of mates that, provided we kept it up, we ought to win comfortably.

But for that to happen we had to keep playing that way, and we didn't. Worse, we promptly changed the whole complexion of the game by giving Walsall a goal on a plate after only 2 minutes of the restart. It was hard to see exactly what happened from our end, but what is certain is that Sammy Clingan attempted a back-header which went woefully wrong, leaving Michael Ricketts beyond Wilson with the ball at his feet and only Smith to beat. For a split second from the other end of the ground I thought Smudge had dug us out of that particular hole by saving it, but that was just an optical illusion. No blame to Smith; 100% Sammy's goal, as I am sure he'll be the first to admit.

The game promptly changed completely. I suspect that Richard Money (the excellently nicknamed Dicky Dosh) had already blistered the paintwork in the home dressing room at half time, because even before the goal Walsall were much livelier - far quicker to close down our midfield and deny anyone the time to pick a pass - but with the luxury of a goal they didn't even have to push forward very much any more. They could simply continue to work their socks off, get in our faces, deny us space and force Smith to kick into the teeth of the wind by marking the full backs (in the first half we'd started several moves by rolling the ball from keeper to a free Lockwood or Chambers). This they did, and it worked to perfection. From carving regular holes in their defence in the first half, suddenly our midfield were being pressured either to play hurried - and thus too often uncontrolled - passes in the general direction of a colleague or to go backwards and sideways through lack of options. From working across the line and scaring the Walsall defence with his pace as the midfield played down the channels, Tyse now found himself receiving mis-hit balls at chest height, which we all know is not his game.

Even so we pushed forward, but we never had as much threat as in the first 45; though we forced plenty of corners, I don't recall Ince having to make a serious save. On the highlights it looks as though Chris Cohen missed another sitter, but this one was not the free header that it appears from the camera angle - the ball ricocheted onto Cohen's head after 2 defenders got in each other's way. When things are going well those ones ping into the net; this one, of course, went wide.

The rest of the time consisted of Walsall (marshalled by the excellent Anthony Gerrard - for once I completely agreed with the archetypal away stadium announcer's "? and the Yam-Yam Dodgy Motors Man of the Match is?" when they gave it to Gerrard) putting in a lot of hard work, blocking shots on the edge of the box and kicking for the corners in a Jonny Wilkinson stylee. There was a handball in the box amongst all this, but the defender was about 6 inches from Arron Davies when he struck the ball so it was never going to be given. (The ref, incidentally, was as inept as almost all of them seem to be in this division - not that it had any bearing on the result; he was not biased, but just routinely, fussily, Traffic Wardenly hopeless. The best that can be said about him is that he was equally hopeless for both sides).

With 20 minutes to go we changed to a 4-4-2. Many people on the internet spend their time berating CC for not playing this formation all the time, claiming that the other formation is much too negative (despite the fact that when we get it right it effectively gives us 3 forwards rather than 2) and that other games have miraculously been transformed the moment 4-4-2 arrived (oh, if only the manager would listen, eh lads?). This time it made not the slightest bit of difference; we simply failed to get the ball to 2 forwards rather than to 1. We even finished the game with 3 at the back and Holt on as well as Tyson, Agogo & Davies, but that didn't change much either - instead, as Forest pushed forward with increasing desperation, producing little other than more corners, Walsall could easily have scored more. Ricketts had what looked a perfectly good goal disallowed for an alleged foul on the keeper and also went mighty close from a free kick.

Frankly, we only have ourselves to blame - had we scored in the first half when we should have done, we'd have won comfortably; they'd have been forced to press for an equaliser and we'd have had space to score again on the counter. See Yeovil away for details (we played better than that 3-0 win tonight - in the first half at least - but lost, and the main difference was that the other lot scored first). Instead we failed to take our chances, gave them a goal and then found ourselves essentially out-worked in midfield. No, the conditions didn't help (especially Smith's kicking in the second half); "so play the conditions", as the manager said in a spot-on interview afterwards.

There's no need to panic; we're still doing OK, and have still only conceded 10 league goals in 17 matches. But Friday is another away game at a venue where we seem to have done badly for years, and we could certainly do without losing that one as well. Personally I think it's time for Lennon to come back in and stiffen the spine of the team. This is not a criticism of McGugan (who'd be the one I would move to the bench), because he's done well, but when the manager says that we played "too much Academy football in the second half" I completely agree with him; it is hard to see a midfield anchored by Lennon being outfought in the same way. There are a lot of things to be pleased with - not least the fact that all of the new players look better than the ones they replaced; we are a considerably better side than this time last season.

Walsall are no mugs, as their league position testifies - and fair play to them; there is no disgrace in out-working and out-fighting the opposition (by which, incidentally, I do not mean to suggest that they're a dirty side; this was a very clean game). But for 45 minutes last night they looked like the away team. We should have beaten them, but you don't win games if you miss sitters, so for not doing so we only have ourselves to blame. Let's chalk it up to experience and make sure that there aren't any repeats.