Nottingham Forest blog: Spurs cup tie gives Forest the chance to show what they could do in the Premier League

As we edge closer to the month of October, Nottingham Forest remain unbeaten and more importantly League leaders.
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This came courtesy of a thrilling goal fest in midweek and a tactical stalemate on Saturday.

We came close to a first defeat against Fulham, but for the brilliance of Brit Assombalonga and Michail Antonio, who once again turned on the style.

Forest raced into an early 2-0 lead but somehow found themselves 2-3 down midway through the second half.

To be fair, Fulham’s third goal took a massive deflection off Mancienne, but in stark contrast our third is an early candidate for goal of the season! Mancienne pumped a 50 yard ball to Michail Antonio, on the edge of the area, he produced a sublime piece of control and skill to take the ball down and swivel in the one movement before swerving home a sensational shot for the equaliser.

Assombalonga completed his first Forest hat-trick before Paterson hit the 5th after coming on as a sub.

I am being made to eat my words regarding Antonio’s performances, remembering how I laid into him in my very first blog.“You’ll never win anything with kids” springs to mind!

Fulham’s forward line of McCormack and Rodellega were awesome on the night and asked many a question of our back four.

This was followed by a decent point away at Milwall on Saturday, the New Den is never an easy place to play and point was enough to preserve top spot and our unbeaten record.

More encouraging was the introduction of David Vaughan and Kelvin Wilson.

The home side had the edge, but just like the game at Sheffield Wednesday last week, they showed enough resolve to grind out a result and more importantly a clean sheet.

Next up is the League cup game, away at Spurs. A mouth watering tie against the much fancied premiership outfit.

It will be extremely interesting to see how both sides approach it given that Perarce has vowed to play strong cup sides and that Tottenham’s next game is the north London derby, against Arsenal!

Given the healthy squad numbers and the sold out ticket allocation, it should be a very good indication of how good we are right now. S

purs may well field an inexperienced eleven but even so, it is the perfect opportunity to show the nation that we’re ready to rub shoulders with clubs like these once again, in the top flight.

It has been a long time since Forest were unbeaten in tandem with the appearance of the Goose Fair statue and longer still that our striker has hit eight goals before October.

Assombalonga needs just one more to equal Andy Reid’s total for last season but you can bet your mortgage that he’s aiming to be the first tricky tree to hit 20 gaols in a season since David Johnson, a decade ago!