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...