THERE was an eerie sense of déjà vu on show at the City Ground and Wanderers had better hope it does not become another habit.

Not since Dougie Freedman’s team skulked off the pitch at Fulham in early October, sitting second bottom of the Championship and smarting from a four-goal defeat, have we seen a performance quite so gutless. That was the death knell for Freedman and the start of a fresh new chapter for the club under Neil Lennon.

And everything was going swimmingly, until...

Somewhere between those two titanic cup games against Liverpool, Wanderers seem to have lost the plot again.

An influx of new signings, the loss of Chung-Yong Lee and a flurry of injuries and suspensions have chipped away at the excellent work Lennon achieved in his honeymoon period, leaving him not quite back at square one, but certainly heading in that direction.

That Freedman was sitting in the opposite dugout, enjoying a honeymoon period of his own at Forest, was rather incidental in the end.

The Scot had done his best to stay out of the headlines, giving his time at Bolton merely a cursory mention in the build-up, even in his programme notes.

But even he must have recognised some of the tells in the team he left behind – the individual mistakes, the bad body language, the refusal to take responsibility of the ball.

And as the Northern Irishman tried to get his head round another terrible defensive display, he could not help churning up Freedman’s unhappy final months at the Macron Stadium.

“Some of the players have gone back to the way they were when we came in and we need to correct that quickly,” he said.

“What do I do? Work on the training ground; well, fine. But will that cut out the individual mistakes? No. I think it’s a mentality thing.

“I don’t know what’s going on or where their heads are before games because that was night and day compared to the way we have been since I came in.”

Lennon’s early impact at Wanderers was achieved with minimal options at his disposal. His team became hard to beat.

Since then several signings have been added, with mixed results, and experiments with formations have been less successful still.

So it proved against Forest as the decision to put Tim Ream on the right side of defence to cover the pacy Michail Antonio and name the untested Filip Twardzik at left back proved a bad one.

Typically, Lennon held his hands up afterwards, but tellingly he said he would “not be held responsible for the performance,” which in the case of virtually every one of his players, was way below par.

Wanderers have become lightweight without the muscle of Darren Pratley in midfield or the bulk of Emile Heskey or Craig Davies to hold the ball up front.

More worryingly, and aside from the tireless Liam Feeney, the levels of desire shown earlier in Lennon’s reign just aren’t there.

The manager is getting some dreadful luck – and what can he do when two key players, Tim Ream and Andy Lonergan, are stretchered off the field inside one game?

But he is canny enough to know some of his previously reliable types are not pulling their weight – Matt Mills, Dorian Dervite, Neil Danns – to name but a few.

Mills’ main aberration at Forest was to pick up a silly second yellow card just two minutes after the restart, just as it looked like Wanderers could get themselves back into the game.

The defender had been booked for a foul on the brilliant Michail Antonio in the first half and had been warned by Lennon to be careful at the interval.

One needless trip later and Mills knew exactly what was in store as he stomped down the tunnel, throwing his captain’s armband at the fourth official on his way past.

At that point the game was 2-1 but realistically Forest should have been out of sight. Chris Burke had pounced on a slip by hapless Czech youngster Twardzik to fire home at the second attempt after only eight minutes before Antonio doubled the lead with a surging burst from halfway past five would-be challengers.

But for Le Fondre’s penalty on the stroke of half time, earned by Zach Clough, it was a one way procession.

Forest’s football was high tempo and penetrating, a far cry from the over-laborious stuff Wanderers fans had grown so impatient with under Freedman through much of his two-year tenure.

After Mills was sent off, chaos ensued. Wanderers had already changed shape twice to accommodate Antonio’s influence and then Ream’s worrying departure after a collision with the post.

Heskey arrived at the break but found himself playing centre-back. Clough picked up the armband discarded by Mills and for 20-odd minutes became the youngest Bolton skipper in living memory.

Dean Moxey had replaced Ream on the left but his shocking headed back-pass to Lonergan presented Forest with their third – the keeper rushing off his line to clatter into Dexter Blackstock and concede a penalty.

To make matters worse the striker crashed into Lonergan’s head and chest, leaving Lennon with no option but to introduce Ben Amos for his debut from the bench, the on-loan Manchester United stopper’s first competitive game since New Year’s Day 2014. His first act was to pick Henri Lansbury’s penalty out of the net.

Burke added a fourth after Heskey and Dervite failed to clear a bouncing ball on the edge of the box and had Forest really been ruthless, they could have driven the knife a lot deeper.

In the end, 107 minutes of football was played and Le Fondre’s penalty was the only shot Wanderers managed on target.

Six points is all that separates the Whites from the bottom three and make no mistake about it, that gap will be whittled down further unless things improve.