An embarrassment of a post tops off a truly terrible week

The bad news is that you all wasted your time watching Forest between 12 August and 21 April. To see the entirety of Nottingham Forest’s 2023-24 season in excelsis, simply watch the 17 minutes against Everton that led to another away defeat.

Firstly, the defending. You can point out that Everton didn’t create many chances and scored twice from outside the box, but defending is a team exercise and it involves central midfielders closing down space on the edge of the penalty area. Premier League players are pretty good. Give them time and they will pick a spot if you let them.

Forest are routinely incapable of making pressure pay. Chris Wood has missed presentable opportunities in each of the last two matches, but it’s those around him who squander halfchances that add up. That is how Forest accumulate xG without making opponents pay.

Yes, I’m burying the lede here. Forest were incredibly unfortunate not to get at least one penalty and had a legitimate case on all three incidents. Gio Reyna has his leg kicked, Ashley Young’s arm is outstretched and Callum Hudson-Odoi got the wrong side of his man before being bundled over. This is not the first time that Forest feel aggrieved and their anger is entirely understandable.

But the post-match tweet from the official X account is embarrassing. At worst it accuses an official of cheating and at best it insinuates exactly the same thing. Clubs have a responsibility to let anger settle and to make complaints through the right channels. This is fan mentality from those who have to know and do better.

Who knows what happens now – this is basically unprecedented in English football. But a serious charge will now be forthcoming towards Forest, perhaps a points deduction that only makes everybody’s job harder.

This season is becoming a bin fire and this – when you add in the season ticket farce – has been a terrible week.