Nottingham Forest 0 v Charlton Athletic 0

I managed to follow the game on BBC London this evening in what was a frustrating evening for listening Addicks fans. It sounded like another open game for the most part but Charlton had three good chances in the first-half to have taken the lead and Simon Makienok missed them all. Two were particularly open headers but with all the goal to aim at, both went over the bar.

After the break Forest picked-up the pace, especially after a couple of substitutions and with Lansbury pulling the strings and Vaughan and both Burkes heavily involved, they had us back-pedalling for decent spells. In spite of that, they failed to test Pope seriously and Charlton could still have scored as Reza Goochannejhad and Makienok both went close. Karlan Aherne-Grant and Zag Berdych both got on before the end and Ahearne-Grant might have won it at the death. Bauer was again prominent in defence and he had a thumping second-half header tipped over by De Vries.

Tony Watt had a quiet game and is probably showing his tiredness after four matches in eleven days (he wasn't fully fit at the start) and was the obvious choice to make way for Reza. Gudmundson skimmed the bar with a first-half free-kick but didn't appear to do too much other than that. On the other flank, Ceballos was a contender as our man-of-the-match creating most of the first-half danger.

Most Addicks would have settled for this start although it does feel more like two points dropped than one gained this evening. I hope I am wrong but goal-scoring does look like it may be a problem as I feared. Simon Makienok will undoubtedly get goals but he is already overdue and I can't help thinking a fully fit Igor Vetokele would have notched a couple of the chances that have fallen his way so far. Igor remains injured and a longer term worry. Watt can't do it all on his own as he showed this evening. I think we are expecting too much from Ahearne-Grant and Reza Gooochannejhad isn't good enough to carry the burden week in, week out.

We go again on Saturday in another testing Valley fixture. Our opponents, Hull City, play Wolves tomorrow night, so we should be a day better rested. Chris Solly took a clattering tackle from Vaughan this evening and I hope he suffers no serious reaction to that. Eight points from the opening four tough games and unbeaten in the process would justify the exuberant optimism of many fans pre-kick-off. 

I would like to think that Roly is reading the runes and can see from the mistakes of last year that he has an opportunity before the window closes to bring in a proven goal-scorer to strengthen our attack. If Tony Watt had been brought in a few months earlier he could have changed our season. I wonder if Roly is big enough to admit his mistake of selling Yann Kermorgant? The talismanic Frenchman looks unlikely to feature much for the Cherries this season and is being touted for a loan back to the Championship.