Promise

The feeling at full time was as bad as anything I've experienced all season; longer in fact. I didn't feel so gutted after Derby, Burnley or Leeds even though they were much, much worse. After witnessing one of our better performances this season it was plain awful when the ball hit the net in the final minutes. It was not what we deserved. A point would have been a travesty but losing was simply ridiculous. Still, we paid for a continuing inability to score a goal. Our shots on target figure of two, despite our dominance, tells the story.

It was the first ever visit to the Amex for us. It deserves credit for straying from the standard template but, as some of the Forest fans sang 'They've only got one stand'. That one stand sure is a humdinger though. Perhaps its biggest positive is that it hasn't been built miles away from anywhere. Falmer station already existed and sits a mere number of metres from the ground while the main road into Brighton isn't far away. The town centre is miles away but you can't win them all!

Pre-match began with a pint at the Black Lion Harvester which also doubled as our accommodation for the coming night. Five of us (PL, Trigs, Dan and his mate, Chris plus yours truly) had travelled down from Nottingham with Cags meeting us from London. From there we made our way to the stadium and into Dicks Bar within the ground.

Come the end, many were trying to put a positive spin on the game. A common conversation revolved around our ability to get ourselves clear of danger with similar performances in the future but it's a position we've been in before. There is no doubt that in my mind that we possess the ability to be able to do so but we are bottom three for a reason. And that reason is that we deserve to be. It's truly horrific that we are in this situation after our highs of the last two years but we can only hope that is isn't another terminal slide. The parallels are certainly there though...

Some solace could be found in the immediate future with a night on the town to look forward to. After something of a feast at the hotel we headed out at 8pm. Our first call was Mesmeris which was influenced by bumping into Gerb's accomplices who were heading in there. I couldn't spot a single one of them who didn't look like he was away with the fairies. There were Forest everywhere you looked all roaming around 'The Lanes' which are narrow streets full of bars and restaurants. We never had the time to see it all but we tried our best to take in as much as possible.

After getting the need for something a little more happening we found our way into Madame Geisha; a small but busy club which included the one and only Rob Brown. Our numbers had further swelled with Family Bethell in attendance although we would soon be going our separate ways. We left still as a six but having left Trig but acquired Rob. He was in a state and a half and was talking to anyone in range. We were heading down onto the beach when he inexplicably tried to jam his foot in the back wheel of a passing bicycle. The cyclist shot Rob a nasty look before riding on. This upset Rob who shouted at the top of his voice: 'Who does he think he is? Johnny Metgod?' Bizarre but hilarious.

Inevitably, he wasn't allowed in our chosen club due to being too heavily intoxicated. Instead I ended up walking into town with him where I put him in a taxi before heading back to join the fun. The club was Digital and it cost a small fortune to gain admission but it proved to be money well spent. Previous stays in Brighton have ended in a degree of disappointment but that was not to be the case on this occasion.

There was the added bonus of an array of on stage entertainment on offer such as a singer, saxophonist, fire eater and a trapeze artist who looked like she was always seconds from plunging into a horrible mess on the floor. The thing that often bores me with clubs is that all the tunes are very similar with no words to anything. So we added our own... This was so successful that we had people joining in with us!!! All that she wants, is another baby...

We left at 3am and scampered onto the beach like children, beginning a lengthy game of sea chicken where we got as close as we possibly could to the water before running away as the waves hit. One particular large one took me by surprise and left me with water above my ankles leaving a clear water mark around my jeans. After further play which included picking PL up and pretending we were gonna throw him in the sea and frolicking around in a boat, we made for the taxi rank. The heartbreak of the previous day lost in a haze of alcohol and sleep deprivation.

Week by week the reality of relegation seems a bit more likely. I still think we'll get out of it but things need to start happening soon. Glimpses of promise are regularly drowned in swathes of ineptness and this is the fear for our next game. If they team can reproduce the performance levels as 2,500 of us saw at Brighton then we won't have a problem. But will we? If the crap returns against Palace then I think I may start to become worried. At the moment i'm living in a land of ignorance where May is a long, long way away but that world isn't too far away from being unmasked. More of the same, please. And scoring a goal every so often might help a little.