One step forward, two steps back

As ever with Nottingham Forest, nothing is straight forward. Just when you think they've found their backbone, it seems to slip away like sand between your fingers.

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Having conceded away at Villa Park, Oliver Glasner's side showed their strength and belief to go and win 2-1. On Saturday at home, they fluffed their lines and came away empty handed, losing 1-0 to Coventry City.

Evidently, the issues from last season remain and Glasner is not going to fix everything at once. Home form has been bad — dismal? — for most of 2026 and form, belief, atmosphere and often sheer determination are the things that have to come together to make the City Ground what we all know it can be.

Glasner's inherited problems, and possibly created a few of his own, but his track record shows that he will inevitably move things on. As he said on Saturday, this problem is an immediate one he has to address: “Second half, we made one big mistake where we got punished. And then I could see the players getting nervous, the entire City Ground getting nervous."

The atmosphere on match days during those first few seasons back in the Premier League — particularly in the 2024/25 season — was incomparable to the long period dwindling in the Championship. The noise, the anticipation, the belief, the deafening roar... when it was good, it was so good.

Last season we lost that. Turmoil off the pitch and performances on the pitch dictated the supporters' reaction. Generating the enthusiasm and joy required for the City Ground to become a fortress and cauldron of noise met its match in Ange Postecoglou's insipid efforts.

The thrills of our European adventure, both home and away, maintained some of that atmosphere — as did the occasional result. But the frustrations of recording 35 shots against Wolves and still only a managing a 0-0 draw are remain relatively recent. Saturday saw 24 shots on Coventry's goal and yet the Reds have only won once in 14 league games at home.

The pressure then is the pressure that Forest always create for themselves. How often have we won games that nobody expected us to win? How often have we struggled in games everybody expected us to win.

The mentality has changed from a few seasons ago — we're no longer the plucky underdogs. But the pressure remains. Unlocking that and setting the players free is Glasner's next test. And in his own words "This is for me now — and I'm still in the process of understanding the players and understanding Forest — maybe the biggest part that we have to get under control, not to feel this pressure."