Hughes walking tightrope

Man City 0 Notts Forest 3:THERE ARE Nottingham Forest supporters of certain generations who might take issue with this victory being described as a "giant-killing" but, when you consider their recent history has incorporated grubbing around for points in the old Third Division and embarrassing themselves against the likes of Woking and Yeovil, it is easy to understand the sense of jubilation at this once-mighty club.

The classic David and Goliath story? Not quite. But the modern-day Forest, fourth from bottom of the Championship, did expose how City are lugging around the richest-club-in-the-world tag like a man carrying a sack of bricks.

City being City, it is not the first time their supporters have ended up watching through the lattice of their fingers, but it was still shocking to see the way they were taken apart. Forest dismantled them in every department and it is unfortunate so much of the post-match fallout has inevitably fixed itself on the losers and, specifically, where it all leaves Mark Hughes.

This was Forest's finest result of an otherwise bleak decade and if young players such as Chris Cohen, Matt Thornhill and Wes Morgan can maintain this level of performance then their new manager, Billy Davies, should be confident of fighting off relegation. Davies takes charge today while the man who oversaw this victory returns to the shadows. "The next game for me is Lincoln reserves away," smiled John Pemberton, a reserve-team manager who seems destined for greater things.

Yet the focus on Hughes is legitimate as he rapidly loses the backing of a significant proportion of City's fans. There is also evidence he is having difficulty motivating the players. When he complained of Forest "showing more desire" he was inadvertently damning himself as well.

Is he safe? The only people who can answer that are saying nothing and Hughes cannot be certain of anything. He tried to convince everyone it was not an issue but he was also brutally candid. "At the moment we are frail. We lack presence. I have to be honest with you."

There were so many low points it is difficult to know where to start but there was probably nothing more ignominious than the way Dietmar Hamann, of all people, set up Forest's third goal with a throw-in into his own penalty area.

Hughes was angrier than at any other time since joining the club. Consider the moment, for instance, when City won a corner and everyone dumbly trotted forward before realising no one had gone to take the kick. Soon afterwards we were treated to Michael Ball taking a throw-in that went straight back out of play. These were the kind of things you would not see in a decent pub team.

But nothing should be taken away from Forest. By Championship standards, they have spent a few quid this season but anyone who has been to the City Ground recently and seen the faded paintwork and - no kidding - the cobwebs beneath some of the seats will understand the current imbalance between these clubs.

And yet, as Nathan Tyson remarked: "City are a tough team and have some good players but we were the ones who were there for the battle." Tyson described the diagonal left-foot volley that opened the scoring as "probably the best goal of my career".

The ball dropped to him from "a perfect header", but the assist was provided by the City defender Micah Richards. Four minutes later it was Pablo Zabaleta's turn to wave an apologetic hand as Cohen eluded him and crossed for Thornhill to set up Rob Earnshaw.

City still had time to save themselves but there was a bad vibe, epitomised by the glowering Elano. Hamann's humiliation came with a quarter of an hour to go and Joe Garner's low shot was emphatic.

Robinho was missing after Hughes made him do extra sprints at the end of Friday's training session and the Brazilian suffered ankle and thigh injuries. Shaun Wright-Phillips could be out for five weeks with hamstring problems and Hughes spoke of needing a "minimum" of five new players. It would be naive, however, to think that over in Abu Dhabi the possibility of a new manager is not being discussed as well.