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.