Charlton 0 Nottingham Forest 2

My first game for over a month: a two nil defeat making relegation ever more certain, a freezing afternoon at the Valley. Did it have any redeeming features?

Well the first 15 minutes or so was encouraging. Parkinson seems to have worked out how to use Jonjo Shelvey to good effect, lying just behind the 'striker' in a 4-5-1 formation using his impressive speed to make dangerous runs. Very good support for Forest - probably the biggest away crowd this season. Their goalkeeper, Smith, was probably the man of the match with at least 3 superb saves (and a few others that might have been fortuitous.)

And that's it. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Charlton's defence gave two really soft goals away, the second of which was utterly hopeless. At about 30 minutes into the first half the game had degenerated. No-one had any ideas. Charlton were passing the ball around between keeper and centre backs, but one pass was way too short, setting up Robbie Earnshaw to unhinderdly chip the ball over Rob Elliott and effectively finish the game. Deon Burton, who once (ie on one occasion) looked a promising holding striker, was completely invisible.

The next good thing was getting home. Oh the pleasure of coming into a warm house on a cold day!