TAKE FIVE

FIVE THINGS WE’VE LEARNED

Barry Cooper looks a five talking points after Forest beat Reading 1-0

1Patience is a virtue: Three games in a week clearly took its toll on the team and you could tell at times in the game, certainly before the goal, that they looked a little weary and lacked a little freshness until the manager made two key changes. There will be games throughout the season where you’re not at your best, where you don’t play as well as you’d like to and the opposition give you problems.

2Danny Fox has won the fans over: It just goes show you that you should never lose hope. When the chips are down, and your future looks to be elsewhere, Danny Fox is proof that there’s always hope despite how dark the situation may appear. The defender, frozen out by Dougie Freedman and seemingly on his way out of the football club, has shown his true character by forcing his way back into the first team.

3Importance of a clean sheet: On too many occasions last season, Forest were first to concede and when they did it saw them regularly lose games. We’ve only seen them fall behind once in the opening three outings. Something else they failed to do very often was keep clean sheets, just 13 in the league from their 46 outings. It’s vital that Karanka builds a solid foundation throughout the team, but especially across the back five because it gives you a platform at which to perform and take points.

4Strength in depth: When you look at the Forest squad, for the first in a long time this is one that not only has quality in the starting XI, it has quality running right through it. There was no Joe Worrall or Ben Brereton, while new signings Sam Byram and Michael Hefele were sat in the Peter Taylor Stand watching on following their moves.

5The City Ground’s a vibrant place: We can’t ignore the fact that in the build-up to Saturday’s game, the club confirmed they’d sold 21,000 season cards. Never before has that happened and I can’t recall the last time (if ever) the Reds started their season with two home gates of nigh on 28,000. The atmosphere feels very different around the place and there’s a big buzz.