Lee Clarke’s Nottingham Forest blog: Someone was due for a hammering

I have said it for some time now that if Stuart Pearce’s men continue to dominate games then it would only be a matter of time before we gave someone a royal thumping.

Step forward Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Despite their manager Kenny Jackett being an old team-mate of Pearce during their youthful Sunday League days he was in no mood to offer any niceties out on Saturday afternoon to his pal.

Forest were, to be frank, rampant in running out 3-0 winners and it has been a long time coming.

Despite going on a run in which the club failed to register a win in the best part of two months I often thought that given the magnitude of our squad one win was all we needed to get us back on track.

The stoppage time winner from Michail Antonio against Norwich a fortnight ago could prove to be a really priceless goal that gets us back on a positive streak.

Matty Fryatt deserves immense credit for his performance on Saturday. He links up the play between Britt Assombalonga and Antonio superbly and we really noticed his absence during his spell on the sidelines a few weeks back. The fact he keeps chipping in with goals is obviously an added bonus.

What is also pleasing is that in Michael Mancienne and Jaamal Lascelles we now appear to have two central defenders who have worked up a partnership and an understanding of how to play alongside each other. Saturday’s clean sheet was thoroughly deserved.

This Saturday we travel to Birmingham City who recently appointed former Burton Albion boss as their new manager and they have picked up some real eye-catching results.

The weekend’s win over Rotherham United was their second under the new manager and the Blues will no doubt pose Forest a much sterner test than they may have done a month or so ago.

If we can go to St. Andrews and use the ball as we did against Wolves I think City’s defence may well be in for a torrid time.

In the AA (that’s Assombalonga and Antonio –if you were unsure!), Matty Fryatt and the return to form of Henri Lansbury, we now have players capable of turning a game on its head in the blink of an eye and I think now we seem to have a more settled side the performances can only get stronger.

Credit must also go to our wonderful fans, who have stuck by the club through a sticky couple of months and it was great to see the travelling contingent rewarded on Saturday.

I have said it before that no good comes from sitting in a stand and being negative towards the players on the pitch.

Against Norwich the fans rallied and we scored twice in the last five minutes to turn a game full circle and collect a vital three points – if that isn’t enough evidence that we need to get behind the team for the full 90 then I don’t know what is!

Hopefully our fortunes have now turned and that as we sit at the commencement of the crucial Christmas period we can pick up more wins and start to climb towards the promotion shake-up.