Nottingham Forest 1-0 Ipswich Town: Terry Hunt on the Blues

But that’s all ifs, buts and maybes. The harsh reality is that we’re second from bottom and facing three huge games over the next two weeks.

As I feared after the displays against Spurs and Manchester United, our standards slipped slightly at Forest, as they did against West Ham, another humdrum Premier League team.

As we all know, you just can’t afford to be anything less than 100% “on it” and expect to get anything from games at this level. Even mighty Man City have discovered that this season!

The game was pretty even until the penalty, but after that we didn’t lay a glove on Forest. It was all a bit too straightforward for them.

Ref Tony Harrington points to the spot at the City Ground (Image: PA) The reality is that we simply don’t score enough goals. A paltry one per game on average so far. That is always going to leave us vulnerable to a mistake, a dodgy refereeing decision, or a piece of rank bad luck. And we’ve had our fair share of all three.

We don’t establish a comfort blanket in games. Only once have we had a two-goal lead, against Brentford, and I won’t give you nightmares by reminding you what happened that dreadful afternoon.

Why do we not score more goals? Well, the overwhelming reason is that we don’t create enough opportunities. Against Forest, we looked threatening from set plays early on but, other than that, our only clear-cut chance came when Liam Delap took the ball from Conor Chaplin, who would have had a tap-in.

And that brings me to the other reason we’re not scoring enough - we’re not clinical when chances come along. Perhaps because we’re so anxious to score, we’re not composed in front of goal.

Think Liam Delap against Man Utd. Make no mistake, he’s been absolutely sensational this season. I was glad to see Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy agreeing with my view that he’s the natural successor to Harry Kane!

Liam Delap has been brilliant - but Town need to score more goals (Image: Ross Halls) But he really should have buried that first-half chance against Man Utd. A cooler, calmer finish would have put us in the driving seat. The fact is, until we find a way to score more goals, we are always going to be under pressure in games.

Talking of pressure, there will be a bit of that around at Portman Road tomorrow evening. The stage is set for a really nerve-racking relegation six-pointer under the lights.

I honestly believe we have nothing to fear against Palace. They have been consistently poor. Of course, they do have the benefit of Premier League experience, which could be important on an occasion like this.

The crowd will play a huge part. It’s so important that we turn Portman Road into a cauldron, and stay patient if things don’t go our way early on.

The next three games are huge, and we can pick up points. After Palace, Bournemouth visit next Sunday and then it’s a trip to fellow strugglers Wolves.

I’m hoping the league table will look rather healthier after those three matches. It seems like the bottom six are becoming detached from the rest, which obviously gives us a 50-50 chance of staying up. I reckon that’s the reality.

Kieran McKenna talks to his players at Forest. Town have got a huge game against Crystal Palace in Suffolk tomorrow night! (Image: PA Sport) Having said that, I do have to mention the First Law of English Football, which says that Everton Shall Never Be Relegated. So many times that Merseysiders have looked doomed, only to stage a miraculous escape. So, three from five to go down, then.

Good to see Nathan Broadhead getting his first minutes of the season on Saturday. I know he’s injury-prone, and a bit mercurial, but he has huge talent and the ability to unlock defences. He could be important for us.

On the other hand, worrying to see Axel Tuanzebe go off with an injury. As I said last week, when fit he’s been immense for us. The defence looks so much more solid when his name is on the team sheet.

A win against Palace would be massive, and what a time to get our first home victory. We can play our part.