It looks like Nottingham Forest’s play-off hopes finally evaporated at the weekend following a 2-1 defeat to relegation threatened Rotherham United.

It is a result that left them languishing in ninth place with just six matches of the season left to play and five points behind the top six.

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The match was just ten minutes old when Michael Smith put Paul Warne’s side in front, finishing convincingly after Forest failed to deal with a long throw-in.

But Lewis Grabban clawed Martin O’Neill’s side level just before the half-hour mark, cooly rounding Marek Rodak before slotting home.

However, they could not build on that goal in the second half, and it was Rotherham who stole all three points, when Micahel Ihiekwe headed home from close range in the 89th minute.

So, what did we learn about Forest in this match?

Here are THREE things…

Sloppy

It is safe to say that the Reds did not have their shooting boots on in Yorkshire.

From 13 shots, only four found the target, pointing to a real lack of quality in the final third which has often dragged the club through difficult matches before.

Set-pieces

During O’Neill’s reign, Forest have been very effective from set-pieces, both attacking and defending, but that went out the window today.

For both of the Millers’ goals they failed to deal with balls into the box and if they lose that nack for the rest of the campaign they will only fall further down the table.

Season over

Although it is still mathematically possible to make the top-six, if Forest are losing matches against weak opponents and at such a crucial stage of the season they will surely not make the top six.

Even if they do, it is very hard to see them dealing with the pressures of the play-offs particularly well, either.