FRANK Clark pinned the blame fairly and squarely on Nottingham Forest's defensive play - or rather the lack of it - for his team's 5-1 humiliation at the City Ground.

"Some of our defending was totally abysmal," he said.

"We started off very well, I was quite happy with the way things were going and we had a couple of chances.

"But it was poor defending that cost us the game.

"The first goal was a comedy. I don't know what we were trying to do, playing offside on the halfway line."

Clark referred back to his team's 7-0 hammering at Ewood when he had pointed out that Mark Crossley had scarcely had a save to make.

"When the score got to five, at that stage, Blackburn had had 13 shots on target in the two games and scored 12 goals. Amazing!" And, asked if the second goal from Billy McKinlay had been deflected, he added: "I certainly hope so. I was amazed when it ended up in the net.

"But, again, it's poor defending - a lack of pressure on the man in possession.

"We just didn't deal with them well enough when we had to defend.

"I thought we had a chance at 3-1. If we could have got the next goal when the game restarted, I thought we could have gone on to win because we were playing quite well.

"But, virtually the first time they got in our box in the second half it was 4-1. Then it was 5-1.

"We haven't played as fluently or as well as we would have liked all season.

"Last Monday was probably the best we have done and we started off again like that.

"But, really, I would expect us to defend better.

"We had only lost one game and conceded 11 goals all season at home before today."

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