Nottingham Forest have been backed to brush off the "massive disappointment" of missing out on automatic promotion by clinching a place in the Premier League through the play-offs.
Steve Cooper's side saw their hopes of a top-two finish ended in dramatic style as they were beaten 1-0 by rivals Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Tuesday night. The result clinched promotion for the Cherries, while leaving Forest to settle for a third or fourth place finish in the table.
The Reds round off their regular league campaign away to Hull City this weekend, though are already assured of a play-off place, so can start preparing for that. Huddersfield Town have also sealed a top-six spot, with Sheffield United, Luton Town, Middlesbrough and Millwall battling it out for the final two positions.
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While Tuesday's events on the south coast will have left a bitter taste for Forest players, they must now dust themselves down for another chance at securing a long-awaited return to the top flight. Former Reds defender Michael Dawson believes they can do it.
"It's a massive disappointment (losing to Bournemouth)," Dawson told Sky Sports. "Steve made it clear that they were going for the top two and they had it in their sights.
"I go back to September, when he walked through that door, they had no right to be looking for promotion. Play-offs? No chance. So they've got to take an awful lot of credit.
"They'll be disappointed. They've got to prepare for Hull at the weekend, and then focus on the play-offs.
"The city is excited, the city is together, and the fans are together. We saw that at the weekend against Swansea, and nobody will be wanting to go there in the second leg.
"They're still my favourites (to win the play-offs). They've got to dust themselves down, get back and believe in what they are doing, because he (Cooper) has done an incredible job."
Dawson added: "Going into the play-offs and two semi-finals, it's who can perform, who turns up on the night, can you get to the final? Then it's a on-off.
"It's an incredible day if you can come out on top and there's no better way of getting promotion - but there's a long way to go yet."
Another ex-Red, Glenn Murray, was asked if Forest were still "the form team" going into the play-offs despite the Bournemouth setback. "Massively so," said Murray. "This was always a possibility. The momentum has been with them and it's about getting that momentum again. We saw at Easter, they skipped a beat, they lost at Luton and after that they continued that momentum and kept winning games.
"So it's about doing that again, resetting and going again. It's a young squad and I don't think they will be down for too long.
"They are going to have amazing games in the play-offs, and they are going to be looking forward to those. At home at the City Ground in the second leg, that will be some atmosphere."
