Four-some Forest finally crack the top six

How proud do you feel seeing Forest's name in fourth place in the Championship?! Okay, so for a club of our stature and an honours list practically as long as your arm, taken at face value, it's not surprising at all, but in the context of our most recent history, it's an absolutely brilliant achievement.

Eleven months ago we looked cast-iron certainties for relegation back to League One after Doncaster embarrassingly demolished us on our own pitch on Boxing Day. But fast-forward nearly a year later, in Billy Davies' words, we are a completely different animal. The fact that the scoreline was eerily close to being a complete reversal of the scoreline that Doncaster inflicted on us last year (2-4 as if you need reminding) was a kind of poetic justice which underlined just how far Forest have come since that dreadful day.

Five of the players who played in the 4-2 defeat started the game this time around. Kelvin Wilson and Wes Morgan were still in central defence, but the key difference was the fact that we had decent full backs with Chris Gunter at right back and our on-loan signing Nicky Shorey, not so long ago an England international, making his debut at left back. Our midfield and attack were also a lot better, even taking into account the lack of Chris Cohen, Guy Moussi and Nathan Tyson.

We weren't that great in the first half, but just about deserved the lead thanks to a Paul Anderson shot that went in off a Doncaster defender. Officially it was recorded as an own goal, but Anderson really should take most of the credit as he did really well to get the shot in after his initial attempt was cleared off the line.

As so often seems to be the case this season, Forest had a really strong second half. When Wes Morgan made it 2-0 with a header from a corner on the stroke of the hour, we looked really comfortable. While Doncaster were quite good on the counter attack, our defense dealt with them really easily, and Lee Camp had hardly anything to do. Rob Earnshaw, back in the side following his free-kick heroics at Middlesbrough a week ago, put the game beyond reasonable doubt when he latched on to a Radoslaw Majewski ball to send the ball flying into the net from inside the penalty area. But it was substitute Lewis McGugan who stole the show when he made the grandest of entrances after coming on for Majewski. Somehow, from a really tight angle, he dispatched a shot (or was it a cross?) that crashed straight into the net to everybody's disbelief. It was certainly one of the best goals I've ever witnessed at the City Ground in almost a decade of going to matches. If it had been scored in the Premiership, they would no doubt be saying it was world-class! As it is, I bet it hardly gets mentioned, but who cares, it was a special moment for us.

After weeks of knocking on the door of the top six, we have finally been awarded for our excellent first four months of the campaign and are now fourth, just behind Leicester, who we just so happen to be playing next Saturday. If we beat them we will go third, and who knows, maybe even close the gap on Newcastle and West Brom, who at the moment seem to be running away with it a little bit. As we've almost reached the half-way stage in the season, I think people are going to have to take us very seriously regarding promotion. I'm even beginning to like the idea of being in the Premiership! We don't have a very good record there, having been relegated from it three times, but if teams like Stoke, Wigan and Bolton can do well in it, why the hell not us? So, yes, let's go for it. If it all goes wrong, then it does, but if we do come straight back down, at least we know that the Championship is a really good League to be in, so really we have nothing to lose.