Nottingham Forest 1 - 2 Burnley

OK, brace yourselves, there's a big rant in this one!

[And before you say anything, most previous rants featured in these reports have been directed at the Forest manager or the players, or both. This time it's anything but.]

Despite the assurances I'd made in my last report that I would confine any pop at the Premiership to the start of the season, events over the last three weeks concerning the international scene and the only area of English football the punditry are interested in make it impossible not to comment. The latest game (especially for number-crunchers at Manchester clubs, it seems) is to show off the size of your wad in order to land a couple of the sulkiest players around. Berbatov has behaved like a spoilt git ever since announcing he wanted to move to Old Trafford, whilst Robinho looked about as pleased to be at Eastlands as we all were by 11pm on May 18th last year. Well, the fans of their new clubs are welcome to them. I'd have no wish to sign any player with a face like one of this summer's endless wet weekends, no matter how good they might be. We need look no further than our own experiences from nine years ago to be able to comment on the untold damage anyone doing an impression of The Incredible Sulk can do to a club.

Meanwhile, an excellent article in last Saturday's Daily Mail caught my eye as it highlighted the plight of the modern club manager in the wake of the debacles at West Ham and Newcastle (farcical just doesn't come close) and how the Great Mr Clough would never have allowed himself to kow tow to spoilt PPP's or the power of the man with the cheque book, just like he never did in his day. Contrast that article with the one a few days earlier which really made my blood boil, where Jamie Redknapp made it quite clear where he stood in the great Club v Country debate. With England's 'interesting' line-up against Andorra (pundit-speak for wholesale changes to a full-strength team) it seems quite obvious that convenient 'back strains' are the order of the day to justify sitting international fixtures out, leaving the rest to turn in mediocre performances. I trust Mr Redknapp (whom I always rated as a footballer, but a total joke as a pundit) will find his words come back to bite him in the arse when England fail to qualify for the next World Cup. Contrast that with Jimmy Bullard's delight at being selected to play for his country, the realisation of an honest footballer's dream, as if it were the same for any professional player - proof there's still something to be said for the Old School, just like the Great Mr Clough. Granted, a superb result was achieved in Zagreb on Wednesday, but one swallow does not make a summer - not even a wet one like the one we're enduring.

End of rant? Afraid not. Instead of achieving the win we needed to banish the memory of the painful defeat at Molineux (our dubious distinction of having the worst record of any visiting club in the football league there lives to fight another season), we were subjected to a stark reminder of one of the pitfalls associated with life back in The Championship. The scenery may have changed during our three year absence, but it seems that abject refereeing in certain quarters is alive and kicking. Personally, I thought last season we had a pretty decent run with referees, considering we were playing at a lower level, but if we were expecting an improvement this time round then we've already been savagely disappointed, first at Swansea and now today, and the season is barely a month old.

As if abject refereeing was bad enough, injury problems didn't help today either. With Bennett and McGugan both sidelined, this paved the way for a welcome return for Kelvin Wilson and a debut for Joe Heath who both slotted in well to the line-up for the first time, although it was not long before we missed the options norbally afforded by Jules. Despite this, we started brightly and some good passing in midfield courtesy of Moussi and with Martin doing the switching from left to right and actually making the passes count in the way Kris Commons couldn't. Cohen was also impressive and never stopped running all afternoon, and for a while Burnley's defending looked suspect to say the least, for a while looking as though they were defending with mannequins from the training ground allowing Moussi and Martin carve a passage down the right with considerable ease.

All good stuff then. Chances were not exactly forthcoming though, and the first clear cut one fell to Tyson courtesy of one of Cohen's brilliant runs. Unfortunately it was another case of Tyson missing spectacularly by blazing the ball over the bar when with only Jensen to beat it looked easier to bury it.

It still looked only a matter of time before a goal was going to happen though. Unfortunately the spectre of some inept refereeing had already made its prescence felt, with some poor decisions by failing to punish some crude tackles, notably by Steve Caldwell although he was far from being the only culprit. And it was another early example of his one-eyed refereeing which led to an innocuous tackle by Moussi being penalised by awarding a dubious free kick just outside the box. The ball was slid sideways to Graham Alexander who unleashed a thunderbolt past the despairing dive of Smudge to open the score with what has to be regarded as an extremely fortuitous goal, despite Forest having most of the possession in the period leading up to that point.

This setback also caused Forest to lose shape for a considerable period afterwards, and didn't play nearly as well as during the opening twenty minutes although some good football between Tyson and Earnshaw just before the break drew a good save from Jensen. There was moderate applause as the players trooped off at half time, with the only booing directed towards the ref.

Fortunately Forest kept up the momentum straight after the restart and managed to press forward, despite Burnley continuing to defend in numbers, and Caldwell continuing to aggravate proceedings with some blatantly dirty tackling which continued to go unpunished by the inept Mr Penton. The fans grew increasingly hostile and the award of a free kick on the far right following the latest dirty challenge on Tyson failed to halt howls for Caldwell to walk (he wasn't even booked), however this time Burnley were at last punished in the best way possible. Martin sent in a superb free kick which took a defender to head away from the bar. It already looked in at this point, but fortunately Earnshaw was quick to pounce by tapping the ball home from a couple of yards out.

At this point you sensed justice might at last be done, and Forest once more reverted to some good creative football like we enjoyed at the start of the game, with Cohen especially exploiting the channels down the right. It wasn't all one way traffic though, and when Smudge managed a top drawer save to deny McCann, this did set the tide to turn in the opposite direction. The introduction of Robbie Blake (loved by Forest fans following that great loan spell here eight years ago) and later Ade Akinbyi (hated by Forest fans who remember the head-butting incident at Molineux in 2000 which resulted in that ridiculous red card for Tony Vaughan) started to cause problems at the back for us, especially as we were being caught on the break.

Then came the moment. Perch was taken out in brutal Burnley fashion (Akinbyi?) and when Akinbyi eventually broke clear we looked badly exposed. Big Wes slid in for the challenge and was unable to avoid being hit on the arm by the ball as it sailed past him. The Burnley fans only a few yards away launched into their favourite appeal whenever the ball goes anywhere above waist height whether it hits the player or not, and Mr Penton immediately pointed to the spot, amid howls of disgust from the home support. Anyone who was at that game at Turf Moor that day in 2000 when Prutts was dubiously penalised when his head appeared to resemble a giant hand will have that depressing feeling of deja-vu, and although there was a delay to proceedings whilst Perchy received treatment, Alexander still ended up sending Smudge the wrong way, despite Smudge trying the eyeballing routine before the kick.

Complete robbery. What made it worse was that The Clarets should have been down to nine men by this stage with their pub football crude tackles which Penton gave absolutely no incentive to stop. The two yellow cards he eventually administered late in the game were seen as no more than token gestures which had about as much chance of placating the home fans as Mike Ashley has of restoring his credibility at St James Park. Burnley, heartened by their undeserved advantage continued to press forward, and Calderwood's late introduction of Cole and McCleary failed to turn the tide back the other way, apart from McCleary almost setting up a late chance.

The booing was predictable at the final whistle but there was plenty of applause for Forest as you sensed the effort was certainly there, and we look to the day when the injury problems which have interrupted proceedings since the opening day will finally clear, and I remain confident that with a full-strength side we are still more than capable of holding our own in this league.

It's no consolation however when some inept refereeing ruins the day to make this the first game for just over a year in which I have travelled to see Forest lose (and for Derby to record their first win in the same period) - nonetheless not a bad record. It's not going to happen very often at home, I'm confident enough of that. Our away record once again is cause for concern, and the trip to Preston on Tuesday (it's actually a home game for me being just down the road) is a daunting enough prospect, especially with their good start to the season and that we have failed to win there for many years. Still, if Burnley can interrupt their away record at City Ground like they did today there's hope for us yet. Today's anorak spot wishes to point out that in the space of four days we face the two teams who have stayed in The Championship longer than any other club currently there (a record we previously held with The Blades before exit at opposite ends three years ago).

Calderwood and the players were typically diplomatic during the post-match interviews, their frustration and anger towards Mr Penton no doubt constrained by the protocol of press interviews by clubs. Fans however are not bound by this, even allowing for the fact that what you read here is a fan's view only, and not necessarily representative of Nottingham Forest Football Club.

So, Mr Penton, hear this: Yer Rubbish!

Ref Watch: Clive Penton - What is there to say that hasn't already been said? This guy was a complete imbecile, and a total disgrace with arguably the most one-eyed performance since the Hessenthaler incident at Gillingham four years ago. Was definitely wearing a Burnley shirt today.

Entertainment Value: Some good football certainly made this very watchable. 7/10

Atmosphere: Overall very good, especially among the home support. Inevitable it had to turn hostile thanks to the man in black.

Highlights: Good passing football in the opening stages and just before the equaliser.

Lowlights: Need to make good on the possession and make those chances count. Burnley scored with the only two clear-cut chances they had, however undeserved they were.

Stinker: The ref, who else?

Stormer: Chris Cohen