A managerial change and hot and cold form mean that Nottingham Forest have reached the halfway point of the Championship season in the middle of a relegation battle.

A sluggish start followed by some improved results culminated in one of the worst runs in living memory for the Midlands club.

Sports Mole inspects a painful season for the Forest faithful that enjoyed playoff football last season.

August

Forest began the season under new boss Steve McLaren following Billy Davies's summer departure and recorded a goalless draw on the opening day against Barnsley. This was followed by a penalty victory over city rivals Notts County in the Carling Cup.

Elsewhere in the opening month, Forest picked up one league win at Doncaster, fell to Millwall and West Ham, drew with local east midlanders Leicester and advanced in the league cup with a 4-1 triumph at Wycombe.

September

Next up for Forest after an international break was a trip to lofty Southampton, who maintained 100% home record with a 3-2 victory.

Derby next visited the City Ground and left with all three points before Forest's run in the Carling Cup was ended by Newcastle United, who required extra time to dispatch of the team below them in the Football League.

McLaren's men ended the tenth month by notching their second league win of the season by again winning by a solitary goal away from home, this time at Watford before going down 5-1 at Burnley.

October

A late 3-1 defeat at home to Birmingham saw the end of McLaren's brief stint at the City Ground, with the Englishman resigning his post.

Steve Cotterill left Portsmouth to take up the Forest job and won his first two in charge against Middlesbrough and Blackpool as things began to look brighter in Nottingham.

November

Cotterill recorded two more wins in November over Reading and Ipswich alongside an unhappy return to Portsmouth who eased to a 3-0 win.

Following the last-gasp win over Ipswich, Forest went on an awful barren spell in front of goal. November ended with a 1-0 and 4-0 defeats to Cardiff and Leeds respectively.

December

Brighton scored in the 92nd minute to snatch all three points before Crystal Palace, Peterborough and Cardiff all left the City Ground with single-goal victories.

The only point they did pick up in the final month of 2011 was in a 0-0 draw at Bristol City.

After the defeat to Cardiff, Forest have now gone 630 minutes without scoring, a horrible statistic that Cotterill will be looking to eradicate when they visit Ipswich Town on Monday.

Unlike last season, the focus will be purely on survival for last term's defeated playoff semi-finalists.