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.