'We can start looking up the table'

Defeating this season's Liverpool is not quite the same as defeating the 2024-25 all-conquering Liverpool. Although this season's Nottingham Forest are not quite last campaign's swashbuckling Nottingham Forest.

But still, back-to-back wins at Anfield for the first time since 1963. Our biggest ever win at Anfield. Our first clean sheet since April.

None of these things are to be sniffed at.

Sean Dyche was brought in to fix a broken club and the remit was clear: organise the defence, stop conceding from set pieces, start scoring from set pieces, win games, keep clean sheets, score goals… a pretty basic target, but Forest were failing at all of them.

Obviously it is still early days, but the confidence Saturday's historic win brings will make a big difference. The willingness to defend with all their might, to not even concede a yellow card, to stick to the gameplan and to comfortably attack at will is precisely where we need to be - the rest will follow.

There are clearly issues to resolve - which will start on Thursday in the Europa League reunion with Malmo - but balancing the squad in league and cup, getting the new players' form and understanding up to speed, and developing the tactics are things that will come with time.

For now, we can believe that Dyche will deliver results and we can start looking up the table, rather than over our shoulder. The bottom three might only be just behind us but, as I said last week, a few wins and other results going our way will dramatically affect the table.

It is just that nobody foresaw Liverpool sliding down while we picked up momentum.

The City Ground can be a fortress once again.

Find more from Pat Riddell at The Famous Club