3:10pm Thursday 1st February 2007
By Sports Desk
It's the sort of statistic that City fans dread.
Nottingham Forest have not scored an away goal for five-and-a-half games. It is 495 minutes since Nathan Tyson hit the net at Crewe - over eight hours of firing blanks on the road.
That incredible barren run has got to end some time. The pessimists among us will say it is bound to happen on Saturday at Valley Parade.
There was no sign of the impending drought when Tyson completed a first-half hat-trick at Gresty Road on December 9. Forest were 4-1 up at the interval and cruising to another emphatic victory.
But since then the wheels have come off - whenever they leave Nottingham anyway.
Wednesday night's 1-0 loss at Carlisle was the latest shut-out on a record that reads Doncaster 0-1, Oldham 0-5, Swansea 0-0 and Chelsea 0-3.
Given that this will be Forest's fourth away game on the bounce, they cannot wait to get back home.
The promotion favourites have lost top spot in the process and another empty-handed haul from Cumbria ensured they could not draw level with current leaders Scunthorpe.
No wonder the top two, Scunny and Oldham, were smiling in midweek.
"It was a great night for both of them," admitted Forest boss Colin Calderwood.
"Some of these away defeats are going to mean that things are going to be very tight."
At least Calderwood can boost Forest's fortunes by pitching in David Prutton for the first game of his second coming.
The influential midfielder, a product of the famed City Ground academy, returned to the club this week - almost four years to the day of his £2.5million switch to Southampton.
Prutton, who played more than 150 games for Forest in his first spell, turned down offers from Leeds and home-town club Hull to go back to the Trent.
He made nearly 100 appearances for the Saints but has been out of the side since undergoing an ankle operation at the start of the season.
New centre half Luke Chambers, who played in Northampton's promotion-winning side under Calderwood, could also come into the reckoning.
With two coming in this week, Forest let three players go - midfielder Nicky Southall back to Gillingham and defenders John Thompson and Danny Cullip to Tranmere and QPR respectively.
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