Will Nottingham Forest be a Premiership side next season?
Currently sitting 6th in the Npower Championship, former Premier League side Nottingham Forest will be fancying their chances at once again reaching the summit of the English leagues.
While only being seven points adrift of the automatic promotion places held at present by top of the table QPR and Norwich, Nottingham do however have a battle on their hands at retaining their play off place as both Reading and Burnley are hot on their trails with just three points behind and a game in hand. This would therefore suggest it is going to be a fascinating pinnacle to this season. However, the main question for Nottingham is, will they be able to hold on to the play off’s, and then win? Or even potentially storm up the league table to claim 2nd spot?
Despite being in an impressive 6th place, Nottingham Forest have had far from a smooth run throughout the season. After having a poor start to the campaign back in August with no wins from six, they did however start to pick up form once again during the winter months of December and January, with seven wins from a possible nine. There decent run of wins did continue into February, but did however worsen again midway through, and are now on a non winning streak of seven games. I’m not trying to imply that this arguably poor run of form is going to continue and cost them a place in the Premier League, but if they, as a club, really want to succeed then they are going to have to find the wins that will reinforce their chances.
Unfortunately for Forest fans however, their team face Leeds, Reading, Burnley and Norwich in the next four weeks; four teams who are in high contentions with them for play off, or even automatic, promotion places. My opinion, considering their upcoming fixtures, would be that if Nottingham wants any hope of maintaining play off status, they need to win at least three out of those four games, and to also create a bit of leeway between themselves and their opponents. Their last four games on the other hand are all against opponents in the lower half of the table, which could prove dividends for Nottingham should they win games against their top of the table rivals also.
Nottingham Forest are more than capable of reaching the Premier League and have several talents within the squad, and have often proven that when they are on the top of their form they can mix it with the best of them. However, to retain hope they’ll need to collectively put in the performances that ensure wins. Goals have also been a bit scarce for the East Midlands side recently with one or occasionally two goals being their maximum per game. This said, the squad will need to find a way of scoring more rather than relying so heavily on goal scoring midfielder Lewis McGugan, and looking more to strikers like Robert Earnshaw, while also conceding less.
With the Premier League potentially on the horizon, the team will have to give it their all for those valuable points at the summit of the league.
