It’s that time of the season when fingernails are being bitten, permutations are being calculated and predictions are being made.
It promises to be an exciting, and nervy, end to the campaign. And Nottingham Forest are right in the thick of the promotion race.
A nine-point week after returning from the international break saw the Reds close the gap on second-placed Bournemouth. And that has got fans pondering the chances of gatecrashing the automatic spots.
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A number of teams are still in the fight to finish in the play-off mix, though, in what remains a pretty tight table with just a few weeks to go. We take a look at what Forest’s rivals have been saying about the battle at the top end of the Championship.
Fulham
Manager Marco Silva after defeat to Coventry City: “I don’t see reasons to have more pressure today. I don’t feel it. I hope our players don’t feel it either.
“It is our job, pressure is normal. We have to enjoy it a little bit, embrace the challenge and show the mentality every time, the right mentality at certain moments.”
Bournemouth
Boss Scott Parker on the promotion race: "It's wide open, it's this division, wide open. You are always one bad result away.
“You win one game and it's done and dusted, the next week we lose a game you're not going to do it. That's just the dynamics of this division."
Striker Dominic Solanke: "The quality in our squad is probably one of the best in the league. Automatic promotion and trying to fight for top spot has definitely been the goal from day one. It is always going to be difficult towards the business end of the season.”
Huddersfield Town
Winger Sorba Thomas on the promotion picture after beating Luton Town: "It's definitely not done yet. For us it's about going game by game, getting three points - or points on the board - and solidifying our place in the play-offs.
"It's getting towards the end of the season and three points (against the Hatters) is massive. For us to get it against a team that's around us is amazing and puts a gap between us and them."
Manager Carlos Corberan: “I think we’re in a position in the table after the international break that makes us feel that we need to be very (focused) every time we are on the football pitch. We know the more times we add three points, it improves the position we are going to finish, and our target is to finish in the highest position we can.
“We are not going to have limits in this type of situation, because if we did we wouldn’t be ambitious. Part of our job is to be ambitious and give our fans the most level of happiness that we can give – and give ourselves the most level of happiness that we can give.
“That’s why we need to make the highest level of sacrifice and hard work to always receive the reward. Every time we are on the football pitch we are going to try to go for the three points. Sometimes we achieve it, sometimes unfortunately not. Our mentality is the same that we’ve had all year, when we’re on the football pitch, be the most competitive team we can be.”
Luton Town
Boss Nathan Jones: “It’s when we’ve had to chase, we’ve gathered momentum, bang, bang, bang. And it could have come at a good time, as if we go bang, bang, bang now, then it’s a wonderful time to do that.
“We’ve been hit on the nose, we usually bounce back, but I think at the minute the group might not be ready to establish itself as a top two, top three, top four side. And let's be honest, that was a long shot to be able to do that in this division, but we’ll see, five absolutely glorious games to go.
“Everything’s to gain, we want to achieve something, we believe we can. We’re bang on track, if we go and get a certain amount of points, which we believe we can, then there’s real opportunity.”
Sheffield United
Manager Paul Heckingbottom after 0-0 stalemate with Bournemouth: "In terms of going up, it's going to be interesting, and if we keep up that level of performance we'll be in the shake-up."
Blackburn Rovers
Manager Tony Mowbray after 1-1 draw at home to Blackpool: “Every game in this league is difficult, we have to go to Peterborough on Friday and win and then come here against Stoke and win. If you get six points from the next two games then you’ll probably be in the top six going into the last three with everything to play for.
“Let’s not get too down about a draw at home when you would have hoped to have won, there’s everything still to play for. There will be doom-mongers who will say it’s the end, but as you can see, everyone in the league is finding it difficult. We’ll keep going.”
Middlesbrough
Boss Chris Wilder on a points total for the play-offs: "I think you're looking at 74, 75 points and you'd be extremely disappointed if you didn’t get in on that number. Teams have got to go on a good run, that’s the top and bottom of it."
Millwall
Manager Gary Rowett: "We're going to have to put a run together, quite simply. There's no other way of looking at it. We're probably going to have to win two more games than a lot of other sides.
"I think we've been in this position probably every season. It's not easy to take the next step but I think what's important is the players give everything they've got to try."
