Forest are left bare at the back

SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP:Reading 0 Nottm Forest 0

THE SENSE of grievance did not just belong to Luke Chambers after his red card tarnished Nottingham Forest’s start to the season. The defender’s alleged elbow on Shane Long, which offence was strenuously denied and could be the subject of an appeal, could not have been more badly timed with his manager, Billy Davies, feeling aggrieved about the board’s inability to strengthen his team’s defence.

A frustrated Davies chose his words carefully, mindful that the club have spent in excess of €8 million on nine players, but he also made it clear he is distinctly unimpressed, to say the least, about the way club owner Nigel Doughty and chief executive Mark Arthur allowed the three defenders he targeted this summer to slip through their fingers.

Forest are so stretched in defence they finished this match with Garath McCleary, an attacker by trade, playing in the back four.

Chris Gunter, a right-back, had to fill in at left-back as Reading went for a late winner, but the signing from Tottenham Hotspur is needed by Wales in Montenegro on Wednesday, leaving Davies with only two defenders, Wes Morgan and Joel Lynch, for their English League Cup tie against Bradford City on Wednesday.

“We are looking down the barrel of a shotgun,” Davies said after this evenly contested draw.

“We’re putting square pegs in round holes . . . we shouldn’t be in this position. We have lost out on Daniel Fox (to Celtic), Shaun Barker (to Derby) and Matt Mills (to Reading). I will keep giving (the board) advice, but we have really put ourselves in a difficult position.”

The problem, he says, goes back to the January transfer window when, between them, Arthur and Doughty failed to bring in any players to help a relegation-threatened team. “Don’t forget there was absolute zero activity in January,” Davies explained. “We were left with the youngest squad in the Championship. I have since loaned out five or six young guys who should never have been near the team.

“That left us with 12 players and we have done brilliantly in terms of strengthening the middle and front of the team, but we still have a squad of only 21 players and there are other clubs in this division with 30 or 31 players.

“So I do laugh when I hear about ‘big-spending’ Nottingham Forest this summer. The fact is we have only spent because of our complete inactivity in January.”

GuardianService

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