Nottingham Forest have been on an incredible run under Steve Cooper but it would be a step too far to finish second in the Championship.
That was the verdict on this week's Garibaldi Red podcast reviewing Saturday's 4-1 win at Blackpool. The result took Forest to within a point of the play-offs with games in hand on all the teams above them placed from third to sixth.
Forest are 11 points behind second placed Bournemouth with nine games to go. The Cherries have tough run of games coming up as they go to West Brom, Sheffield United and Coventry in their next five games. Their home matches in that period are against Middlesbrough and Fulham. Given those fixtures and Forest's form, some fans have begun to dream of automatic promotion behind leaders Fulham, but BBC Radio Nottingham football presenter David Jackson says the focus should be on getting in the play-offs.
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"(Radio Nottingham summariser) Steve Hodge was talking about second a few months ago but I think Bournemouth were having a stumble at that point," he said. "It's gone now I think. Forest don't have games in hand on Bournemouth. I almost don't think you should be aiming for that because as soon as you do, play-offs starts to feel like a secondary thing, but play-offs would be an unbelievable achievement from where Forest were.
"To even have a chance of the play-offs is unbelievable. The problem Forest might have are some of their fixtures. They have Fulham and Bournemouth away.
"I know people have said they might be promoted by then, but a nicely relaxed Fulham on a Tuesday night, that can go wrong. You also don't want to be going to Hull on the last game of the season needing something, even if they would expect to win.
"The points Forest need, they sort of need to get quickly as the last few weeks look tricky. I don't want to see Forest needing seven or eight points from the last three or four games."
Fellow guest, Reds fan Mikey Clarke, echoed that, saying promotion is the goal, no matter how it comes about.
"You can always dream, but realistically, if you had been offered a play-off place after seven games then you would have laughed and then bit the person's hand off," he said.
"I don't think you can get greedy. I remember a Billy Davies team finishing third and feeling a bit down. You don't want any negative feeling. Forest are the form team and on a roll.
"It they finish in the middle of the play-offs then bring that on. There are fans that still think we could finish second. We might be back here in a month three points off with three games to play thinking we could do it.
"If we can, brilliant, but let's be a little realistic. If we get in the play-offs we let's go in there to win them. There's no point otherwise."
You can listen to the full episode here, or watch it here.
