ALEX McLeish may be used to fighting fires, but he can't have imagined that he would be dousing the first early sparks of a crisis this early on in his Nottingham Forest tenure.
The flames have perhaps not yet burst fully into life just three games into his new job. This could still prove to be a minor hiccup, rather than a full blown disaster.
But it is safe to say the skills he acquired during his fights for survival at both Birmingham and Aston Villa will come in useful this week.
When the Scotsman arrived at the City Ground, all the talk was of promotion, of success and of dreams of Premier League football.
Now his priority is merely to get Forest back on track, following a damaging defeat against managerless Blackburn and a morale-sapping reversal at the hands of League One Oldham in the FA Cup.
And McLeish is experienced enough to know his two priorities will be to restore the self- belief of his players – and find a way to halt the tide of goals Forest are conceding, which is now 12 in their last five games and eight in McLeish's first three games in charge.
"What a difference a week makes. We were excellent against Crystal Palace, who are a team chasing at the top. We put up a really good performance against them," said McLeish.
"But, a week later, we looked like we were down in the dumps and I have to pick the lads up again now. I will make sure their chests are out and their heads are up.
"But we need better performances, we know that. Because we were sloppy.
"We had the game won in the first half, but then let things slide. I don't think there are massive problems, there are just things that need to be tweaked.
"We have to find a balance, a settled team and a settled way of doing things."
When he talks about a settled way of doing things, McLeish is largely referring to the formation Forest adopt, with three different approaches having produced three different performances under him.
Sticking with their regular 4-1-3-2 against Palace, Forest played well, a 4-4-2 against Blackburn was less effective and, to be blunt, Oldham picked apart Forest's 3-5-2 too easily in the second half on Saturday.
"We made changes because we felt – and in the first half you saw it – that the players we have were capable of playing three at the back," said McLeish.
"I have had a couple of teams in the past, at Motherwell and Hibernian, who did that very well. They were cracking 3-5-2 teams. There are many teams who are playing that way now.
"I went over to Napoli last year to look at their system. They play a 3-4-3. Wigan play that, Steve Bruce plays it (at Hull), Darren Ferguson plays it (at Peterborough).
"I thought we would handle that ourselves and it did work in the first half. But it didn't in the second. What we saw was unacceptable, when it came to the goals we conceded. We have to put that right."
One possible answer to Forest's problems could be the addition of new players. But McLeish knows that may not be entirely straight forward during a January window when clubs place higher valuations on their players.
"We will add some players during the January window. We will enhance the quality here, whether that is at the back or in the forward positions. We will see," he said.
"I don't know when players will be coming in. I have been in this position on many occasions before and this is an awkward window.
"People like to draw things out to the end of the window to get the best deal they can get. Sometimes you end up paying more than you would in the summer. But that is the window we are in."
