It just goes to show that you can't trust anything these days.

You can't trust the trains to run on time, food to be safe to eat, or pension schemes to pay out when you need them.

And now you can't even trust Rovers to win at Nottingham Forest.

One thing in my football watching experience never seems to fail.

It's when you turn to a mate at half-time and bemoan the fact that your team has failed to turn total domination into a commanding lead.

You just know that the opposition is going to have received a managerial rocket in the interval and play like Brazil in the second half.

Well, it happened to Derby on Wednesday night. Gloriously so. Add that chapter to the book of 'great Rovers away wins of our time', even if ITV in their wisdom chose to ignore it.

Less gloriously, it also happened at the City Ground on Saturday, though any comparison between Forest and Brazil is, I admit, a highly tenuous one.

The point is, even after the long unbeaten run we've just enjoyed, that one defeat was enough to rekindle all the uncertainty and insecurity among followers of the Blue and Whites.

Losing to Derby would have been annoying, but much less damaging to our fragile confidence.

Now, after all those successful trips to the banks of the Trent, we return empty-handed like some inept highwayman. What on earth can we rely on now?

With a further three straight away fixtures looming, we can be fairly certain that our defence is less than trustworthy.

Leaking two goals against both Derby and Forest, who must rank among the least fearsome strike forces in the land, doesn't bode well.

And still there are rumblings that it's a bit like fighting with one hand tied behind our back if Mr Souness is only going to unleash our most potent weapon, Mr Jansen, in half-hour bursts. It does seem strange.

I reckon there is an ascending order of importance to the next three games. If we were to lose on Saturday at the Reebok, draw at Watford, then win the League game against Bolton, I'd be happy enough. Three wins and, along with many others, I'd be 'over the moon'.

Watching the 'old infirm' of Messrs. Hendry, Marshall and Hughes in action next weekend will not be pretty, but the passion of another important local derby is going to generate some serious heat!

You can rely on that, at least.