Four days on...and I'm still on Cloud 9

Have you come back down to Earth yet? Because I haven't!
I still can't really take it all in. I know we haven't won the Premiership or the European Cup, but the manner in which we snatched promotion on the very last day of the season after being eleven points adrift just over a month ago is something you usually only dream about.

I'm finding it really hard to concentrate on much else at the moment. All I want to do is think about Forest and just relive those magical scenes at the City Ground over and over again. I keep watching the celebrations on Forest World and I'm still not sick of them. It leaves a lump in my throat every time I watch it. Everything about that day was so romantic and just so well...god damn perfect. And I haven't even mentioned Derby and Leicester being relegated yet!

The past seven days have been the most nerve-wracking and exhilarating in my life. I had so much to worry about that I thought I was going to go insane. First of all I had to go to London on Wednesday to go on a trip on the Millennium Wheel for my belated birthday trip. I was worried that terrorists would strike London that day and I wouldn't live to see what happened to Forest on Saturday.

Fortunately nothing happened and I enjoyed the day, but Thursday was absolute torture for me as I had to wait all day for the Leeds verdict to come in. It was sheer and utter agony as the clock ticked down to 5pm. If Leeds got their 15 points back, or even some of them it would be Game Over for Forest's promotion chances, so imagine my relief when the Sky Sports News presenter casually announced that Leeds would be getting NO points back! I could have cried. It was then that I began to get a gut feeling that Forest were going to do it. We had not come this far for it to go wrong at the last hurdle. I had not gone through all this worrying for nothing, surely?

When the day of reckoning finally came, although rain was forecast for much of the country, when I arrived in Nottingham it was sunny and beautiful, which augured well for Forest. I would usually go to Waterstones before a home game to kill time, but today was such a special occasion that I knew I had to do something different, so I went along to the Market Square and watched a football event that was taking place there. Radio Nottingham were there and interviewed a couple of fans who had made the trip over from Northern Ireland. I sat and read the paper with the chimes of the big clock ringing in the background as kick-off time got closer and closer.

I then made my way down to the City Ground and just hung about for about an hour feeling as nervous as hell, and at 2pm walked through the turnstiles thinking 'when I come out of here we could be in the Championship.'

I've no idea how my nerves survived the next three hours. It certainly helped when we went into a 2-0 lead and Cheltenham scored, but later on when Yeovil pulled it back to 3-2 and Doncaster's equaliser was announced on the radio, you could almost hear the thudding sound of thousands of Forest fans' hearts sinking. Forest were at that point looking quite jaded, and I had an awful feeling that Yeovil were going to score a last-minute equaliser or something, because, well, that's what happens to Forest.

But about ten minutes later one almighty loud cheer reverberated around the City Ground when news broke that Cheltenham had gone back into the lead, and it was then that I knew we'd done it.

I'm still feeling excited even now as I write this four days after the event. We can enjoy this for the next two months until the preparations for the new season get underway in July. I don't think I'm going to be bored this summer as Forest will be signing loads of new players and the message boards will be red hot with rumours of comings and goings.

I just can't believe how well this season has gone for Forest. Not only are we promoted back to the Championship, but our two East Midlands rivals have been relegated! Derby are back in the same league as us, and Leicester have traded places with us in League One! How amazing is that? Not only that, but Forest won their reserves League and the Forest ladies were promoted to the Premier League. To think how depressed we have been at times this season. If only we knew what was around the corner. It's just unbelievable.

You weren't dreaming! The Reds are going UP!!!

WOW! WOW! WOW! I can't believe we've done it! The fairytale I was talking about a couple of weeks ago has come true. We are back in the Championship, and we don't have to worry about those nasty play-offs any more. They are somebody else's problem!

It really was an absolutely magical day at the City Ground yesterday. The atmosphere was just amazing. I couldn't hear the radio commentary it was so loud, so my plan to follow the Cheltenham game through BBC Radio Nottingham rather went out of the window, but the cheers of the crowd told me everything I needed to know, although there was always the risk that some false information would get passed round, as was the case earlier on when we thought Cheltenham had scored.

Kris Commons had earlier in the week told the press that he believed that if Forest took an early lead it could really give them an advantage, and that's exactly what happened when newly crowned Player of the Year Julian Bennett rifled home a superb 25-yard shot 12 minutes into the match. And then five minutes later Commons himself made it 2-0 and now it seemed that the only game we had to worry about was the one taking place at Cheltenham.

However, our comfortable two-goal cushion lasted only a couple of minutes as Yeovil responded immediately as the Forest defence was caught napping. But that setback was tempered with the happy news that Cheltenham had taken the lead against Doncaster, who would now need to get two goals if they were to stay in second place, and things just got better and better for Forest as Lewis McGugan in typical fashion restored Forest's two-goal advantage with a well-executed free kick that came at the end of a remarkable opening half-hour of football.

At half time things were looking extremely good for Forest, but that didn't stop me feeling sick and feeling as if I was going to pass out at any moment. 45 minutes plus injury time stood between ourselves and the Championship, and anything could happen in the second half. I remembered feeling exactly the same during the interval at the play-off semi-final second leg last season. I remember breaking down at half time because Forest had this slender 2-1 lead, but even though the balance was tipped more in our favour this time, I still felt awful, thinking that Forest were going to throw it all away again.

And for a short while it looked like everything was going to go wrong in the second half when we started to fall apart a little bit. We lost both James Perch and Luke Chambers to injury, so we had no recognised right back on the pitch. Kelvin Wilson had to go there, which meant Ian Breckin had to come on and play in central defence, and no sooner had he come on the pitch when Yeovil pulled a goal back, and Forest fans' hearts sank as news came in that Doncaster had equalised with just under 15 minutes left. At that point I thought it was all over.

But it wasn't! The City Ground erupted once more when news filtered through that Cheltenham had scored again with just five minutes left, and as Carlisle were being held by Bournemouth, even a draw at this stage would take Forest up. It was absolutely unbearable as we willed the last few minutes away plus the three minutes of injury time. Fortunately we were attacking the Yeovil end in the last minute of stoppage time, and if my memory is correct, it was Junior Agogo who had the ball when the whistle sounded and confirmed that we were going up to the Championship. No sooner had the referee blown for full time when thousands of deliriously happy people spilled on to the City Ground pitch, and several of the Forest players were mobbed as they made their way to the changing rooms.

Once the pitch had finally been cleared, the players came back out to do their end of season lap of honour, and unlike previous seasons, this was a genuine lap of celebration. Even the Yeovil fans stayed behind to join in with the applause, which was such a lovely touch. I suppose they owed us one after we had done the same for them last year. The Forest fans joined in with the chorus of Mull of Kintyre which boomed out over the tannoy as the jubilant players walked around the ground with beaming smiles on their faces.

Then the crowd invaded the pitch again, but the players seemed to be loving it. I couldn't resist going on there myself. There was no way I could stay in the stands with all this going on, and I didn't think there was any threat of arrest as how could anybody arrest a football fan for being so happy that their team was promoted. So I went on and walked all over the pitch just lapping up the awesome atmosphere. I've no idea if all the players were still there, but I did catch sight of Paul Smith having his photograph taken with some fans.

I found it so hard to leave the ground, but I had a train to catch within half an hour. I was planning to stay in Nottingham for a bit longer, but in the end I decided to go home after all as I was eager to see it all on Sky Sports News and talk about it on the internet, so I caught my usual train home with just a few minutes to spare before it left. There were quite a few Forest fans on there as well as some Yeovil supporters, and everyone was in really good spirits.

When I got home, my mum told me how she had sat on the edge of her seat watching the results come in on Sky Sports. She can't stand football normally, but she knows how much Forest mean to me, and she said she had a tear in her eye when she found out we had gone up. I thought I was going to cry at the City Ground, but I didn't actually. I have shed a few tears since I got home, though. I just can't get over the sheer miracle of it, I really can't.

We were ELEVEN points adrift of Carlisle only five weeks ago. When we lost that home game to them, we looked dead in the water and even our play-off place was in doubt. And yet still Colin Calderwood wouldn't concede that we had shot our chance of going up automatically. We all thought he was mad, and everybody hated him and wanted him sacked. As Forest teetered on the brink of going out of the play-off places altogether, talk of his sacking was rife. When Forest visited his old club Northampton on 21st March, they had not won in their last four games, and defeat against an in-form Cobblers side would have made Calderwood's job virtually untenable. But Calderwood managed to survive as Forest won at the Sixfields, which gave them renewed belief that they could win games away from home against in-form sides.

But a week later we were beaten at Doncaster on the back of yet another torrid performance away from home. We looked a million miles from being automatic promotion candidates, and with a daunting looking trip to Carlisle coming just a few days later, things looked bleak and everybody was dreading more humiliation in the play-offs.

Little did we know, though, what was just around the corner. Despite being pitted against the remarkable statistic of Carlisle winning their previous fourteen home matches, Forest went to Brunton Park and pulled off a shock 2-0 victory, which really boosted their confidence, while at the same time giving Carlisle a wobble. They only managed to win one of their last six games and suffered three successive defeats, while Forest simultaneously won six of their last seven, which enabled them to draw level with Carlisle and go above them on goal difference. Doncaster, however, continued to edge ahead, but when Forest reduced the gap to a mere point with just one game to go, Doncaster knew that they would probably have to beat Cheltenham to go up automatically as Forest had a very good chance of beating Yeovil, who had nothing to play for, in front of their own supporters.

Last season on the final day we had the chance of going up if we beat Crewe providing that Bristol City failed to beat an already-relegated Rotherham side at Ashton Gate, but that was never very likely. But this year it was different as Cheltenham were fighting for their lives, and Doncaster were away, not at home, and they had not won for two months on their travels. There was every chance that Forest would find themselves in second place by the end of the afternoon, and although we all daydreamed about it happening, nobody actually could believe it when it all came true.

Now's your chance, Forest, to make amends for last season

We all laughed at Colin Calderwood when he wouldn't shut up about automatic promotion even when we were eleven points away from second place. But in recent weeks Forest have gone on a very good run of form, and have capitalised on Carlisle's imploding by clawing back the deficit to just ONE point thanks to Lewis McGugan's 84th minute strike at Hartlepool. Now all we have to do is beat Yeovil on Saturday and hope that Doncaster fail to win at relegation-fighting Cheltenham, and then we are up!

Of course, there is the not very small matter of Leeds possibly winning their appeal to get their 15 points reinstated, which would hand them automatic promotion, and that would render Forest's, Doncaster's and Carlisle's bid to go up futile. But faced with the threat of being sued by whoever misses out on second place as a result, will the Football Association really give in? Let's pray that they don't, as everybody is so excited about Saturday, and if Leeds do win on Thursday, it will be very depressing and will leave a bitter taste in everybody's mouths.

The only good thing to come out of it would be that if Forest's destiny is indeed the play-offs, they would avoid having to play Leeds, who are the only team I fear would be too much for us. I dread us going to Elland Road in front of over 30,000 people for such a crucial game. We nearly got a victory there earlier this year, but Leeds were then going through a bit of a bad spell, and now they're in very good form again. They also won at the City Ground back in August, albeit in the last minute and undeservedly, so Forest won't be confident of beating them. As things stand if we finish third and Leeds in sixth place we will play them, which is quite ironic really as it's supposed to work out that the third placed team get to play the weakest team.

Assuming that Leeds lose their appeal, Saturday's home game with Yeovil will be a huge occasion. Every Forest fan worth their salt will be there, so the City Ground will be a sell-out with close to 30,000 people and the atmosphere should be awesome as the crowd roars the Reds on to victory while simultaneously listening nervously on the radio for news from elsewhere. From a neutral point of view, you really couldn't ask for a better way to end the season, but for those of a Forest persuasion, it's going to be extremely tense and nerve wracking to say the least. Not only are we desperate for a Forest victory, but we are all Cheltenham fans for the day as well. I'm not sure my nerves can take it!

I have to keep reminding myself that we are lucky to be in this position in the first place, having been so far away a few weeks ago, but now that we are here I'm getting greedy and, yes, I will be hugely disappointed if we don't win promotion on Saturday. I have this really sneaky feeling we're going to do it. Cheltenham are scrapping for their lives and I think are more than capable of picking up at least a point, particularly as their home form is pretty good and Doncaster have not won since March on their travels. And as long as we win our game, it doesn't matter what Carlisle do at home to Bournemouth. Of the three teams involved, dare I say it, but Forest may even be favourites! And what a fitting way to win promotion it would be to go up automatically against the very team who ended our play-off dream almost a year ago. And with Arron Davies scoring the winning goal.

Hang on a minute. We can still go up automatically!

Say it very, very quietly, but with just two games to go, Forest are back in the automatic promotion race. After beating relegated Luton, we're just an agonising three points from second place thanks to Southend's late winner at Carlisle and Doncaster only managing to draw at Leyton Orient.

If we win at Hartlepool next Saturday it will go to the last game of the season – against Yeovil in front of a near capacity crowd. If we go second next Saturday, a win against Yeovil would take us up! How amazing would that be? It would be so wonderful, and because it's against Yeovil, it would be the best way to banish those dreadful memories of the play-off semi-final defeat of almost a year ago. It would be like something out of a fairy tale.

However, as nice as it is to dream, we've got to be realistic. While the gap is only three points, Doncaster and Carlisle have a couple of very easy looking home fixtures in their last couple of games against Luton and Bournemouth respectively. Luton have a dreadful away record with just one win all season, and being relegated, have nothing to play for at all, but pride, of which they don't seem to have much at all. Bournemouth, however, are in very good form lately, and they might still be able to avoid relegation on the last day of the season. With both Carlisle and Bournemouth needing victory for very different reasons, perhaps they'll cancel each other out and it will be a draw. All we need is for Carlisle to lose at Millwall, which isn't out of the question as Millwall need the points to stave off the threat of relegation.

There is also a possibility that Leeds United could win their appeal to get their 15 points back. The result of the appeal will be revealed before May 1st – a few days before the Yeovil game. Imagine Forest are in second place by then, and then Leeds get their points back. That would make it impossible for Forest to go up by beating Yeovil. I pity whoever misses out on automatic promotion if they do win their appeal. I would be absolutely livid if it was Forest. I can't see how they can get their points back when they signed an agreement which waived their rights for appeal. No wonder they're called 'Dirty Leeds'. They'll be 'Filthy despicable Leeds' if they steal promotion from under somebody's noses.

Play-off place almost guaranteed, so now we can relax...for a bit

Our play-off place is all but mathematically assured, so it's nice to be able to relax a little before it all gets horribly tense and exciting again in mid-May. Now that all talk of automatic promotion has finally been silenced, Forest have rather annoyingly started to pick up some good results away from home, which might have been a lot more significant had they come a month earlier.

We didn't really deserve our lead courtesy of Nathan Tyson's goal, at half time at Tranmere. They had been all over us, and we had scored with just about our only chance of the first half, but we did improve after the break and man of the match Wes Morgan's header, his first goal of the campaign, gave us a comfortable two-goal cushion, from which Tranmere rarely looked capable of coming back.

We're now ten points clear of seventh place with only Walsall being able to catch us – providing they win all of their remaining four games, and Forest do very badly in their remaining three. It's not very likely, especially as we have two easy-looking home games against Luton and Yeovil and a trip to Hartlepool. I know it's a very foolish thing to take anything for granted with Forest these days, but I'm pretty sure not even they are capable of blowing their play-off place, even if they wanted to!

To be quite honest, I feel a little bit apathetic about our last three remaining matches now. Next Saturday's home game with Luton is a bit meaningless with the Hatters already being relegated. I'm still going to go, but I just don't think the Forest players will be up for it at all. They will not want to exert themselves too much in case they get injured and miss the play-offs. I wouldn't be surprised if a number of key players are rested for the remaining matches so they are a lot fresher when the semi-finals get underway.

If things stay as they are in the table our semi-final opponents would be Southend, a team we have taken four points off this season. We thrashed them 4-1 back in November at the City Ground and we got a decent point at Roots Hall a few weeks ago, so we are very capable of beating them, but we said the same thing about Yeovil last year, and look what happened. If Forest are at their best they are capable of being a match for any side in the Division, but Forest's good performances this season have been few and far between, and when they're under any kind of pressure, they tend to freeze, so I don't think there's any point in saying who I'd rather be drawn against in the play-offs. I just want them over and done with one way or another. Que sera sera, whatever will be will be...

We're **** and we're sick of it

I'm beginning to come round to the idea that those fans who preferred to stay at home in the warm and watch the Liverpool-Arsenal game were right all along.

I am not sure why I asked my dad to take me to the game now. With our play-off place almost secured and automatic promotion disappearing fast over the horizon, our home game against Bristol Rovers could be described as a 'nothing game' really, and apart from another trademark sublime free kick from Lewis McGugan, there was very little to get excited about at all. The players looked like they couldn't be bothered, and our usually solid defence was a real mess, especially our full backs Matt Lockwood and Luke Chambers, who were both dreadful.

Chambers has the excuse of being played out of position all season, but Lockwood is a left back, but last night looked like he'd never played there before in his life. Either he is just not capable, or he just couldn't be bothered to put the effort in, I am not sure. I just don't want to see his name on the team sheet again. Hopefully Julian Bennett's hamstring injury is not too serious and he will be back in the team very soon. He is rightly many people's choice for Player of the Season, which is quite a relevation considering how poorly he began the campaign.

It really was a bad performance by Forest, but how many times have we said that this season? I've got used to it now. Until Deadwood gets lost, we have no hope of going anywhere. We'll probably qualify for the play-offs, but how on earth are we going to win them, playing as we did last night? I just don't see it at all. I think it's probably best if we lose them anyway as I can't face another season of Deadwood, even if it is in the Championship. I would rather us have a good season in League One under a decent manager, and then win promotion knowing we fully deserved it. Some of our performances this season have not even been of non-league standard, they've been so bad. While that may be a slight exaggeration, I don't think it's too far from being accurate. At least non-league players play with a bit of passion, something which has all too often been distinctly lacking from our players this season.

Forest find their form as play-offs approach

Now that we are seven points clear of seventh place with just five games remaining, I am very confident that we will qualify for the play-offs. With three victories from our last four matches, it appears that Forest have hit a bit of form at just the right time. It's just a pity it has come too late for automatic promotion.

I thought that, one or two defensive mishaps aside, we played quite well against Cheltenham. We didn't really have to be at our best to beat them as they were so poor, but we did do well to come back from that setback we suffered when out of nowhere Cheltenham suddenly were able to break free and score from their first chance of the game. Fortunately, though, their lead didn't last long as Junior Agogo, now wearing red boots instead of those unlucky orange ones, restored parity six minutes later.

I was worried when Julian Bennett was forced to go off injured, because I thought we would lose our shape, as Matt Lockwood, the obvious replacement for Bennett, was not on the bench, so Chris Cohen was asked to play at left back, a position which he has played in West Ham's reserves. Fortunately, though, my fears were allayed somewhat when 'goal machine' Luke Chambers added to his impressive tally with his second goal in as many games to give us the lead just before half time, and just a few minutes into the second half, Agogo put the game out of Cheltenham's reach with a 25-yard screamer.

It's just as well that Agogo has started scoring again, as it seems that we can't rely on Nathan Tyson to stay fit for more than one match at a time as his troublesome hamstring injury refuses to go away. Agogo has been accused by a lot of people of being a bit big-headed since his return from the Africa Nations Cup, and he has at times looked uninterested, but he had a good game yesterday, and we really need him to be on top form in the play-offs, don't we? We have to put it in the back of our minds that he wants to leave Forest in the summer, and just get behind all the players because we all need to be on the same side as it will not help our play-off chances if we don't get behind the team 100%.

The orange boots may have been unlucky for Agogo, but they seemed to work for Garath McCleary. He was handed his full debut, playing on the right of a three-man strikeforce, and he showed a lot of promise with some very good touches. I think he is an exciting prospect, and Arron Davies could find it a struggle to get into the team now when he returns from injury.

If there was one negative about the performance, it was Kelvin Wilson's poor defending. He had until very recently been very solid in the heart of defence, but things have not being going right for him lately, and against Cheltenham he looked really nervous at the back, and gave the ball away a couple of times in a dangerous position. It is quite worrying that he is out of form at such a crucial stage of the season. We need him to be at his very best in the play-offs. Perhaps he could do with being rested for a couple of matches once our play-off place is secure as I think he has only missed one or two matches all season.

We can go some way to making sure of our place in the top six if we beat Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night. Some silly people are still talking about automatic promotion and will have half an eye on Carlisle's game against Swansea, but I'm just thinking ahead to the play-offs now. Well, to be quite honest, I'd rather not think about them as they make me feel sick, but they're happening, whether we like it or not, and we had better get used to it.