Field Notes

• Billy Davies is understandably delighted to have signed David Vaughan on loan from Sunderland, but is still trying to sign a striker. Vaughan will hopefully add some experience and composure to the midfield, slotting into the position left vacant by Adlène Guedioura. Our last loan signing, Nathaniel Chalobah, clearly has potential but equally clearly needs time to develop as a footballer and get his discipline in order, so it’s great to see the manager reacting to deficiencies within his squad in the transfer market.
• The Reds taken on Vaughan’s old club Blackpool tomorrow, hoping to get their season back on track after dropping points against Bournemouth and being made to look like mugs at Yeovil. It will be a tough game, with Blackpool two places above us in the league, but they are missing six players through injuries and suspensions. Manager Paul Ince will also be missing – he is serving a five-match stadium ban following foul-mouthed tirade at an official last month. Paul Ince, mardy? Who would have thought it possible!?
• Forest are not the only club waging a cold war against local media it seems, with Newcastle United and Port Vale both banning journalists from their respective local rags. Newcastle, of course, are still owned by Mike Ashley and recently appointed Joe Kinnear as their director of football. Forest fans will remember (or perhaps have tried to forget) Kinnear’s fraught relationship with both press and supporters while he was in charge at the City Ground, so Newcastle’s belligerence over press conference questions may not be surprising, but it is somewhat unsettling that our current political situation echoes that in the North East where general disharmony has dogged the club for several years.