Davies wants five-man strike force at Forest

BILLY Davies wants to put together a five-man strikeforce to fire Nottingham Forest away from the wrong end of the Championship table.

The Reds boss is hoping to add two strikers to his City Ground squad to bolster his attacking options.

And he believes the club's current injury situation shows just why he needs the extra firepower.

Robert Earnshaw (hamstring) and Nathan Tyson (calf) both picked up injuries in the 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday.

And Joe Garner collected his fifth booking of the season, meaning he will be banned when Forest face Derby in their FA Cup replay next week.

Tyson does have a decent chance of being involved against Cardiff this weekend, although he may have to play through his injury – as Ian Breckin (groin) and Wes Morgan (hernia) have done in recent weeks.

But Earnshaw looks to be facing at least a couple of weeks on the sidelines, if the club do not want to make his injury worse.

It is a big blow for Davies as Earnshaw and Tyson have scored eight goals between them in Forest's last six matches.

And the manager wants to make sure the Reds have cover in place when this situation arises again.

He said: "They have been key players, but if this club is going to be a force, we need a five-man strikeforce of real quality.

"We need a five man front-line that we can rotate so that they can handle playing three games in the space of a week.

"At the moment we cannot do that. I look at the bench and I don't know whose nappy to take off first.

"We are working on new signings and hopefully something will happen before the weekend."

The situation may at least provide an opportunity for Garner to earn a return to the starting line-up, with the £1.14m striker having to cope with the frustration of a place on the bench in recent weeks.

Davies may initially bring in only one striker, with a left-back also a priority – although he said he was impressed by the performance of youngster Joe Heath on Tuesday.

And the boss said he had faith in his young players to keep producing the goods in the meantime.

"They are a joy to work with, they have given us all they have got," he said.

"There is naivety in their play and they show their lack of experience at times, but they deserve huge credit for what they have given us."