Well, it’s been a hectic couple of weeks in the domestic football calendar and whilst we at Nottingham Sport have had our feet up over Christmas and New Year, our local teams have been playing hard at it and now we’re back in business for the start of January, we’ll tell you all about what you may or might not have missed.

Let’s start with Nottingham Forest who returned to Premier League action on Boxing Day with the first of two tough games against sides considered within the nations ‘big six’.

The Reds were well beaten by Manchester United at Old Trafford, losing 3-0 to Erik Ten Haag’s in form team but Steve Cooper’s men bounced back on New Years Day to take a respectable point off Chelsea in a game that the home crowd faithful at the City Ground might have felt unlucky not to win.

Raheem Sterling opening the scoring for the away side with a slice of luck, before Serge Aurier levelled midway through the second half.

In League Two it’s been mixed fortunes for Mansfield Town who sit seventh and in the playoff zone.

The Stags drew 1-1 at home with Northampton on Boxing Day before beating Hartlepool United 2-1 three days later. On New Year’s Day however, Nigel Clough’s men were beaten 2-1 by Walsall to start the year with defeat.

Frustration too for Notts County who couldn’t back up a thumping 4-1 home win over Oldham on Boxing Day to beat the Latics in the National League reverse fixture on New Year’s Day.

The Magpies conceding a late penalty to draw 2-2 at Boundary Park but Luke Williams men do still head the table above Wrexham by two points, the Welsh side do have a game in hand on the league leaders.

Lower down the non-league ladder Basford United were beaten 2-0 by Coalville Town at Greenwich Avenue on Monday as the Ambers slip to eleventh in the Southern Central Division table (which is two divisions below the National League).

A division below that, Worksop Town are flying high in the Northern Premier League East Division with a nineteenth successive league victory over Grantham Town.

The Tigers winning 2-0 at the Windsor Floodserve Stadium on Monday to stretch a league record which they smashed in December, previously standing for 29 years when Guiseley won a mere fifteen on the bounce.

Worksop head the table by fourteen points and look a shoe in to have a happy and successful 2023. Carlton Town, also in the NPL East are struggling in seventeenth but thanked a last minute Michael Emery penalty in their Bank Holiday game at Long Eaton United to ensure they took a point in their first match of the calendar year.

Tonight, Nottingham Forest travel to Southampton knowing a win will take them out of the bottom three of the Premier League before Saturday’s FA Cup third round trip to Blackpool.

Mansfield are next in League Two action at the weekend as they take on Barrow at Field Mill whilst Notts County travel to Aldershot.

*Main image @mansfieldtownfc Hiram Boateng in action against Walsall on New Years Day.