A fourth away win of the season at Luton Town on Saturday felt like a big moment in Nottingham Forest’s season.
For the first time under Sabri Lamouchi, questions were asked after successive losses and it was also interesting to see how they responded to those reversals, and having an extra week because of the postponement.
It was a good win and one I felt we needed on the back of two straight defeats, and performances which fell below the standards Lamouchi’s men had set before.
Kenilworth Road is never an easy place to go, it reminds me a bit of Derby County’s old Baseball Ground.
The fans are right on top of you, it’s compact and not a pretty place to play even if the pitch is the same size as everywhere else, visiting teams do seem to struggle there.
We dealt with it well and the result was timely, even if the defence will be furious with losing their clean sheet late on.
Those defeats to Wigan and Hull do still leave a bit of a sour taste because they were so disappointing, and while you have to move on to the next game, they should still serve as a reminder each and every week that if you let your standards drop in this league, you’ll find yourselves royally punished.
If you’re not at it, you’ll come unstuck – hopefully in the long run, it’ll be a good learning curve for them all.
What was pleasing about Saturday, was the way in which Forest bounced back after those games and having the Reading game called off.
We may still only be early into the season, but there was a little bit of pressure building.
The last thing Lamouchi and his players would have wanted was to go into the Derby game on the back of three straight defeats, so it was a hugely important result in that sense.
It also showed the mental strength of the Forest players, responding like that at a difficult venue.
There were some excellent performances, too.
Once again Joe Worrall was excellent and continues to impress with the way he plays, even without Michael Dawson alongside him.
Ryan Yates was another, coming in for his first game of the season.
His energy is really quite something, so to his combative nature which works brilliantly away from home.
While in some ways he’s been unfortunate this season with his injury, he’s also been a tad fortunate to have come back to fitness when Forest are struggling in the middle of the park.
Samba Sow has been a revelation but is injured, as is Alfa Semedo while John Bostock hasn’t been seen since playing at Wigan, so his return is timely alongside the impressive Ben Watson.
I’d keep him in the team for Derby this weekend even if Lamouchi has players fit again, such was the impact he had.
If you’ve played well, you should keep the shirt – that's my motto.
Another player which really impressed me was Tiago Silva – I've raved about him before and there’s no doubt that he’s much more suited to playing behind Lewis Grabban, compared with a much deeper role.
He has a greater impact on the game and not only is he much more consistent than Joao Carvalho, he’s also got a tackle in him, unlike his compatriot.
If you didn’t know that one of the Portuguese lads cost £13m and the other didn’t, you’d think it was Silva – he's a different class.
Carvalho is often an enigma and I think some supporters think he’s better than what he actually is, Lamouchi certainly seems to favour Silva right now and that for me, is the right decision.
Kenny Burns was this week in conversation with Barry Cooper
