[themaclad]

A quick turnaround and it's off to Nottingham on Tuesday night to play Forest, one of my favourite trips good ground to watch football on although saying that have note won there on three visits. Forest lost 1-0 at Deepdale earlier in the season, with that defeat there was pressure on Dougie Freedman with results not going well and a lot of unrest within the home support, fair play to him he turned the results around and went on a lengthy unbeaten run which propelled them onto the edge of the play off zone, but the run ended and they have now lost their last couple of games and like most of Sky's favourite teams are now below us in the table. Assambalonga has been out all season a massive loss as he has the ability to score on a regular basis which is the only thing that we lack. They lost to the Tractor boys yesterday although they were unlucky having run up against a goal keeper in exceptional form. Goal scoring does seem to be a problem they have netted one less than us, Oliveira main striker, with the speedy Mendes providing the support.
With the hint of the play offs still in the air suspect there will not be many changes for North End although hopefully Lindegaard is over his virus as Kirkland seemed to be struggling with his back yesterday and does not overly inspire me with confidence, possibly a little harsh as he has only played twice all season. Expect a close game with not many goals in it.
Last time I went to the City ground was the FA Cup game two years ago, it poured down and we crawled at a snails pace on the A435 Derby to Nottingham road, they hadn't finished the roadworks when I went to Notts County last April, it will be interesting to see if they have finished the roadworks on Tuesday night because it really is a ball ache travelling at 1mph..