Boss Roy Keane says Nottingham Forest’s progress from relegation strugglers last year to Championship promotion hopefuls this time around gives hope to other clubs such as Town having less than successful seasons. Forest finished 19th in 2008/09 but currently sit in third position, having been the only serious challengers to Newcastle and West Brom for the automatic promotion places.

Keane is expecting a difficult match against his former club at the City Ground on Saturday: “It’s going to be a tough game, Forest are having a very good season when you consider where they were last year and that gives us all a bit of hope that you can turn things around pretty quickly.

“We’re looking forward to it, Forest is a brilliant club but I think our players should go up there and look forward to it.

“We’ve managed to get away from the bottom of the table, but there are a few teams ahead of us and we want to try and get past them.”

The Blues boss was pleased with the two victories over Easter: “They were two tough games for us. The big plus was going to Derby on the Monday. I didn’t make too many changes to the team and the players rolled their sleeves up and got a good result, 3-1.

“We should have been about four up at half-time, but as you’d expect Derby came back into it, but it was pleasing.

“Young Connor did well, Carlos got a goal, young Shane had another run out, Tommy Smith had another run out, so all pluses really.”

Keane confirmed that his side suffered no new injuries and that Jaime Peters will be back in training this morning despite receiving a blow to the head at Derby on Monday and will be in contention for a place in the side against Forest.

Photo: Action Images

Happy2bBlue added 10:53 - Apr 8 Big Test Saturday. 3 wins in a week would be a big milestone. I've a good feeling about next season. COYB
0

usm added 10:56 - Apr 8 Weve not won three games on the bounce all season. Could that all change on saturday ? It could, we should be confident and Forest have little to play for now. It'll be tight - probably 1-1 or 2-1 either way.
0

newburyblue added 11:35 - Apr 8 Shame this good form has coincided in having nothing to play for...
0

devontractorboy added 11:38 - Apr 8 Billy Davies is a great manager with an excellent record at several clubs, Roy Keane has yet to prove himself, this season was heralded as one full of promise and ends in disappointment, so time will tell if we will emulate Notts Forest next season?? In reality I think we've still a long way to go to have a challenging team, I'm still unsure over RK I think and have always said his 'man management' is questionable. Only time will reveal if he can cut it as a top manager and put us back where we belong, I just hope he does it by encouraging good open attacking football, there's been no sign of that this season. Lets hope we can see the season out in style by beating Forest and Newcastle!!

0

Marshalls_Mullet added 11:38 - Apr 8 USM - Who is that pic of??
0

Blueknight85 added 11:44 - Apr 8 Devontractorboy... you know nothing of his man management unless you are stalking him on the training ground, in the changing rooms, in his office and on his phone every single day. And if you are then you are obviously insane and you opinion is void lol
0

naa added 11:44 - Apr 8 devon: exactly right I think. RK has done enough this season to be given more time, but he's also done enough this season to raise some worries. Specifically, man-management, transfers and style of play. I was horrified to read about how he wants us to niggle and time-waste to avoid conceding late goals. Errr no! He should encourage us not to drop so deep and to play possession football to see games out. If that's his attitude then I'm not sure I want to see our team develop into his preferred style. I really, really hope I'm wrong on that one and that he's been misquoted or mis-interpreted (again!). Getting to the point. Any kind of result on Saturday would be a good acheivement. Personally I'm not expecting many more points this season with our remaining games, so any return is good in my eyes.

0

derbytractoryboy added 12:15 - Apr 8 Forest finished 19th last year with Billy Davies doing a good job to keep them up. I think when all is considered, a mid table finish for town is what was more realistic at the start of the season when you think both Magilton and Royle's first years in charge finished in the same manner. Davies then, with little pressure on his head, have turned Forest into a struggling relegation threatened team to one that is pushing for that promotion. If Keano got us promoted this year, relegation would be hard to avoid next year when in the Premier league if you look at the likes of Burnley. So this way, Keano builds a strong team that WILL challenge next year and have a better chance of staying up in the Premier League the year after, with Keano at the helm! COYB!!!

0

dobbie73 added 12:25 - Apr 8 Derbytractorboy - can't argue with that. Let's sign Murphy permanently, Colback (on loan for another season if not permanently), maybe another striker (depends on Pablo and Stead in the summer), and hit the ground running in August. COYB!!!!
0

DrJeckyll added 12:31 - Apr 8 all those shots on goal this year, imagine what would happen if we started playing attacking football lol :-)
0

DrJeckyll added 12:32 - Apr 8 Dobbie, luv the photo :-)
0

blue_jim added 12:38 - Apr 8 Top ten finish still very possible, and a realistic push for promotion next season, as long as RK still in chage.
0

ITFC1985 added 12:49 - Apr 8 Im fairly certain we finished 7th in the season Joe Royle took over at the club i wouldnt say that was mid table
0

naa added 12:51 - Apr 8 Jeckyll: thing is though, we don't really play attacking football. Having a shot is not the same as creating a chance. In fact it can often signal that a chance wasn't created (a hopeful shot at goal). Our style of play hasn't been overly defensive, true, but I'd hardly call it attacking football. And definitely not flowing. I just hope RK is trying to move towards that. Only time will tell.

0

newburyblue added 12:56 - Apr 8 We had an absolutely shocking start to the season, there is no denying that and i also know you can manipulate stats however you want. But in our last 30 league games we have acquired 51 points. If you average that out over 46 games we would have 78 points (good enough for 4th), Forests average over the season would be 79 (3rd), Cardiffs 76 (5th) - their averages based on the 42 games they have played so far. Basically what i'm saying is over the last 30 league games we are a top 6 side in terms of picking up points which does point towards the argument that we should have a decent season next year...

0

Mark added 13:18 - Apr 8 There are a few indicators of Keane's man management style though, such as public critisism of players (some will never play again etc.) and the fact that nearly all players have been left out of the squad entirely at some point. I do not agree that mid-table was a realistic target for this season, as we were 9th last year and spent millions of pounds in the summer. We often seem to forget the money spent when comparing ourselves to other clubs and previous managers (Royle and Magilton at the beginning had peanuts to spend). I don't remember the likes of Forest and Swansea spending anywhere near as much as us this season. I take the point about the run being fairly good since the first win on 31st October, but to do a fair comparison with other teams we would need to take out other sides' bad patches too.

0

Fatboy added 13:20 - Apr 8 newburyblue Good point, but we've actually acquired 48 points over our last 30 games. That's still 6th best in the league though (Forest are 3rd best on 53 points). If you take results over the last 28 games we move up to 4th but, as you mentioned, you can manipulate stats however you want. BTW I noticed that Forest only managed a draw in their last home game after a run of 12 consecutive homes wins, so they're definitely there for the taking!

0

MoscowBluesSon added 13:51 - Apr 8 If the season started last Saturday, we would be 2nd. KEANO!
0

MVBlue added 14:39 - Apr 8 I'm going Saturday........... well it would be rude not to its about 1 mile from my house. Whenever we play Forest they normally muscle us off the park and we are weak willed at the City ground. Can't see us winning it but it wouldbe nice to see some grit out there Saturday. Forest are a good unit with a good manager. But Conor should give them a lot to be worried about.

0

newburyblue added 14:57 - Apr 8 Fell free or feel free... make sure the teacher goes through spelling with you when you go back to school after the Easter holidays!
0

devontractorboy added 14:58 - Apr 8 Blueknight85 have you ever seen that moving bush at the training ground...yes it's me and yes I'm insane, I must be to support this bloody team for well over 40 years LOL :-D
0

Bluroo added 15:20 - Apr 8 If the season started after we won our first league game of the season, we'd be 5th. The point is not that is where we should be, but what we are capable of. In January I predicted we'd finish on 59 points, based on our form since we'd won our first game back then. Clearly we're going to be close, that is our proven level of performance for 4 months now. I predict play-offs next year.

0

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls