Points in August count just as much as points in May, no matter what position or league you are in. So far this season, Nottingham Forest has been grabbing all the points they can.
Forest has collected 13 points from five games this season in the Championship and is one of only two undefeated teams left in the league. Some of their more impressive results have been an away win of 2-1 at Bournemouth, and an impressive 4-0 home victory against Reading. These results have placed the Reds as an early contender for promotion this season as they sit at the top of the league.
This start to the season is a complete turnaround to what happened to Forest between 8th February and the end of the season last season. Forest played 19 games and only managed to win three games, draw six, and they lost the other 10 meaning they only achieved 15 points out of a possible 57, finishing 11th in the Championship.
Forest has nearly achieved in five games what they couldn’t achieve in 19. Manager Stuart Pearce believes his side can win promotion as in a recent interview, he said: “I think that – with the ability we have in the squad and, on top of that, if we have the hard-nosed professionalism needed to put into place everything that we ask of them – we do have a chance.”
Pearce has to take some credit for Forest’s great start to the season thanks to his activity during the transfer window, probably the best business out of all the Championship sides this summer. Some of Forest’s signings which have had an immediate impact to the squad include Michail Antonio and Britt Assombalonga.
The majority of teams who get promoted from the Championship to the Premier League have a striker who scores on a consistent basis. Last season, Forest did not have a consistent goal scorer and that is one of the reasons why they couldn’t achieve promotion. Forest’s top goal scorer in the league was Andy Reid with just nine goals.
This appears to be a different story so far this season, with Assombalonga finding the net four times in five games and Antonio scoring three. There is now a lot of threat up front for opposition defences to be wary of.
Assombalonga has a proven track record of goal scoring, scored 23 goals in 43 appearances for Peterborough United last season in League One during their unsuccessful promotion push. So far this campaign, it looks like he is going to replicate this goal scoring tally at Forest.
Pearce and Forest know how unforgiving the Championship can be as the team clearly discovered this last season when they only managed to achieve three wins in 19 games. He said: “We have to keep getting better. It is such a long season and it is such an unforgiving league. Myself and the coaching staff are under no illusions, when it comes to what we have to do, to get out of this league.”
“You know well that it will be a tough league and you cannot take your foot off the gas for one moment. But the exciting thing for me is that I believe I have got a squad that will evolve and get better. We can still get stronger.”
There will be times like there was last season where the road to promotion will get a bit bumpy, but I believe this a great squad that can help Nottingham Forest achieve promotion back to the Premier League.
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