15/11/2008 - Calderwood: Forest run must be sustained at Bristol
Colin Calderwood has not allowed himself to bask long in the warm glow of satisfaction brought about by a three-match unbeaten run.Instead, the Nottingham Forest manager has spent this week stoking up a fire in his side, warning that, despite their revival in form, they have achieved precisely nothing - yet.
As they prepare for another tough game, at Bristol City, following their win at Crystal Palace and draws with Derby and Birmingham, Calderwood has told his side they must retain their level of performance and extend their unbeaten run before they can start to congratulate themselves.
"We can't stutter, we have to keep this going. We need to put together a run and three games is not a run. We need points to move us up the table," he said.
"We have got to try to remain undefeated, but also to win matches, rather than draw them.
"Last weekend was not a time to congratulate ourselves. We are still chasing and we have to produce that performance week after week.
"We have to continue, the hard work must be there. But we want to reward the fans with a period where we pick up plenty of points and do so as quickly as we can.
"We have another big game coming up against Norwich next weekend and that will only look better if we can get something at Ashton Gate."
The performance against Birmingham may not have yielded three points, but Forest's domination against one of the promotion favourites has provided a welcome boost in self belief.
"Confidence is something that can grow once we increase the length of our run," said Calderwood. "But people talk about confidence and I don't think we have been playing without it in any game in particular.
"The time to get nervous is if we are hanging onto a lead away from home at Bristol City - then we will need to play with composure.
"Confidence has helped as it has built, it has been encouraging to get a reward for some of our performances."
Forest face a Bristol side who set the blueprint for teams promoted from League One last season when they challenged for promotion to the Premiership immediately following their return to the second tier.
"They had a fantastic season last season. They found their feet really quickly and got good results, particularly at home," he said. "They are a team who are very dangerous right to the end of the game, because they are a team that score lots of goals in the last ten minutes.
"We have always been quite close rivals with them, since I have been here. We would be very encouraged to take a victory there.
"But they are a good yardstick for us. They are a team that has come up from a lower division and done very well.
"That gives us hope. We have not started as well as they did last season, but we have got to get closer to their level.
"They have good team spirit and good energy, but they are filled with good players as well. Some of them have even played in the Conference with Gary (Johnson) so he obviously has great faith in them."
In particular, Calderwood believes the Robins have proved it is possible to flourish in the Championship with a squad of players who have lower-league backgrounds.
"That backs up a lot of what we are about," he said. "We know we have players who can do it at this level.
"They have brought one or two in; some very shrewd signings. But they have not really been massive signings.
"The biggest they have made have probably been Dele Adebola and Stern John, two players with experience at this level. Everyone else has more or less made their careers at a lower level."
Despite the fact that Robert Earnshaw is unlikely to recover from a calf injury, Calderwood will have some tough decisions to make as full-back Joel Lynch returns from illness and midfielder Carl Fletcher recovers from a back injury.
"We hope Carl will be closer to the starting line-up. He should be in contention," said Calderwood. "Earnshaw is a bigger doubt. Joel Lynch was ill again this week, so he is still a question mark and Lewis has to serve his second match of his three-match ban."
If Forest can dent Bristol's home record, perhaps even Calderwood will allow himself some satisfaction, if only until a potentially even bigger match, at Norwich, starts to loom on the horizon.