Former Nottingham Forest midfielder David Prutton has reflected on the “unbelievable” atmosphere at Wembley on Sunday.
The West End of the national stadium was packed as more than 36,400 Reds fans watched Steve Cooper’s side beat Huddersfield Town to clinch promotion to the Premier League. And they didn’t stop singing all afternoon, while the full-time whistle was greeted with wild celebrations.
Boss Cooper has regularly spoken about the backing he and his team have received during the season, with sell-outs a regular occurrence at the City Ground. That support was at its finest again at the weekend, as Forest ended a 23-year absence from the top-flight.
Read more: How Nottingham Forest season card prices compare to rest of Premier League
Read more: How Steve Cooper transformed 'misfit' Forest team into promotion winners
“It was unbelievable,” Prutton, who was at Wembley working for Sky Sports, told the EFL Podcast. “Having had the privilege of working on these games, seeing the crowds and feeling the atmosphere - and without any hint, hopefully, of Forest bias or anything like that - to stand there and watch them celebrate as the players were on the pitch, tearing around and then up in the stand getting the trophy, until they got told they had to leave Wembley, from my eyes, there wasn’t a single free Forest seat.
“Normally there’s that wonderful euphoria, then you get people moving off in dribs and drabs. The logistics come into it.
“But wonderfully, logistics had gone completely out of the window. That’s what 23 years away from the Premier League will do to you.
“You are there inhaling, mopping up every single sense of what that day was about. That was the general gist I got from the Forest fans who were in the stadium.
“We had 10,000 at each game last season, which seemed like a lot because of what we were starved of during the course of football behind closed doors. To see 80,000-odd was just phenomenal.”
