COLIN Calderwood today said he was "alarmed" at Nottingham Forest's rather lacklustre performance against Sheffield United and admitted: "We had too many players who were below par."

Confidence had been high following an impressive display at Coventry, but the Reds simply failed to come close to producing the same standard as the Blades edged to a comfortable 1-0 victory.

Calderwood warned there must be a vast improvement by the time Blackpool visit the City Ground on Saturday for a critical clash in their battle against relegation.

"It was a hugely disappointing evening for us," he said. "We played well below par as individuals and we will suffer the consequences of that.

"The difference in performance between this and Saturday was alarming. It was a different type of game and we failed to do the necessary things.

"I didn't like the way we looked in the first half. We did not look as if we had 11 people out there with the idea that this game could be played as a team."

He went on: "We were second best too often and they were dominant in everything they did. They were on the front foot and accepted it when they had to hit the ball long and have a bit of a chase.

"When we hit it long and we chased, they were working as a unit and we were working as individuals.

"It was a different game to Saturday but you still turn up and enjoy the different battles you face. It never looked as though we enjoyed this match and that is alarming."

The second half saw Forest's frustrated fans voice their disappointment, as they saw United comfortably hold on to the lead given to them by a 31st minute Brian Howard strike.

But Calderwood said: "I don't think playing at home is an issue because we won the last game here.

"Our only consolation is that the other results went quite well for us – and we have another home game coming up. We have to win that.

"If we can get ten wins at home against the teams in the bottom half of the table, it will be better for us than ten wins against the teams in the top half."

Calderwood did reserve some praise for Joe Garner, who was one Forest players who could claim to have played well.

"Joe was a fantastic example, he carried the fight to United and he had a good night," he said.

"But the overall thing for me was that, as a group, we did not seem unified in what we needed to do.

"I am not going to say that having Lewis McGugan pull out with injury before the game had an effect on us, because it would be easy for us to use that as an excuse. It would also be easy to say that we are young – but the fact is that we just had a lot of people who were off par."

Forest hope to have McGugan back in action for the game against Blackpool, after deciding at the last minute not to risk him.

"Lewis has a thigh injury. It is not the same injury that put him out for three months before but it is the same muscle," he said.

"He had a feeling that it wasn't right, so it was a precaution really. It was just a risk to put him in.

"It is okay saying he had a big influence for us on Saturday. He did – but so did plenty of others.

"He had a good game, but he was not the only one. And we did not have many of the 11 out there tonight performing to the same level.

"It was the first bad performance we have had for a while. But when you don't play consistently to a good level you are going to be punished and that is what happened."