Nottingham Forest blog: Can Forest make the play-offs this season?

Giuseppe Bellusci goes past the challenge of Forest players Gary Gardner and Chris Burke.

With just one defeat since taking over from Stuart Pearce, Dougie Freedman’s side still remain eight points off the play off zone. What gives people hope though is the identity of our remaining opponents.

We have to play no fewer than five of the clubs currently above us in the table. An optimist will quickly tell you that if we were victorious in those “six pointer” games, we would indeed make the cut.

However, it’s a huge ask and in reality it would take a minor miracle to achieve. I wonder what odds you’d get on a Forest v Derby play-off final?

Alex Mowatt takes on Forest player Gary Gardner.

To be honest, there is no pressure on Forest compared to the likes of Derby, Ipswich and Brentford.

I sincerely hope that Brentford never win a single point when they part company with Mark Warburton. They have disgraced themselves with their off the field actions and this goes to prove how lucky we are to have Mr Al-Hasawi as our chairman.

As for Derby, they are starting to feel the heat having been so focussed on automatic promotion. Pressure does funny things to a football club and when you play without fear, anything can happen.

We are in a very similar position to that of Blackpool, in their promotion season. Had we actually beaten Leeds then we’d be just two wins off the play offs.

The match itself was a chess game on grass, in a nut shell, both teams just cancelled each other out and that is as good as it got to be honest.

I’m not a betting man really but I would be tempted to take a punt on Forest going up, I successfully did a similar thing when I backed Chelsea to win the Champions League.

Of course the odds are massively stacked against us given the poor results under Pearce, the transfer embargo and the never ending injury list.

Speaking of transfers, we welcomed Mo Barrow on loan from Swansea this week. The Gambian is a speedy winger, which tells me that this could be the end for Jamie Paterson. Personally I would pick Paterson over Burke any day, and yes Burke has played well under Freedman but he cannot beat a full back for love nor money.

We have Rotherham and Norwich to play in quick succession so who knows, this time next week we could be even closer still. I’m going for the positive vibe, given the fact that there are 27 points to play for and that we are capable of beating anybody in this division. Stranger things have happened!!!