Nottingham Forest striker Sam Surridge has described the Reds' rise from bottom of the Championship to play-off final winners as "mental".
Forest were bottom of the league when Steve Cooper took over in September 2021. Fast forward eight months and they are now celebrating a return to the Premier League for the first time in 23 years after beating Huddersfield Town 1-0 at Wembley Stadium.
It was a game of few chances and a couple of questionable refereeing decisions going in Forest's favour, but it is Levi Colwill's own-goal after deflecting a wicked James Garner delivery that proved to be the match-winner as the Reds won promotion.
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The 23-year-old striker, who has worked with Cooper before on-loan at Swansea City in 2019, has scored eight goals and contributed two assists since his signed back in January. At that point, the Reds were just outside the top six.
"It's been crazy," Surridge said after he game. "I can't really believe what's happened. I think we'll take it in overnight and see where it takes us next season. At the moment we're over the moon. It's been a long season.
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"The way Steve sold it to me he mentioned how there were so many good young players. I think when I joined we were still in touch with the play-offs, but I think for some of the lads they were just happy to stay up.
"To get promotion now is an incredible achievement. Hats off to everyone because we deserve all the plaudits we can get."
More than 36,000 Forest fans packed into Wembley Stadium.
It was an electric atmosphere from start to finish with a sea of red bouncing with support throughout the 90 minutes. And when the full-time whistle was blown to confirm their promotion to the Premier League, there was an explosion of noise.
"I was saying to people on the bench that every seat in the Forest end had someone in," Surridge said about the fans.
"Every home game we play it's the same. The fanbase is absolutely incredible.
"I can't imagine what promotion will mean to these fans because I've only been here a few months, but it's been an incredible achievement. It's mental what we've done. The achievement. I haven't seen anything like it. To be a part of that is crazy."
