Advantage Blackpool, but home form makes us favourites for Wembley

I had a feeling that if Forest could get away with a one-goal deficit in the first leg at Blackpool then they would have a great chance of emerging the winners on aggregate back at the City Ground.

I don't want to tempt fate too much (God knows we were all guilty of that three years ago against Yeovil), but I am very confident that we will do enough on Tuesday night to win and at least take the game into extra time if need be. We may have lost to Blackpool three times this season already, but let's not forget that their victory over us at home was right at the start of the season when we hadn't hit form yet. And besides, our team that day was a lot different to how it is now. Rob Earnshaw won't be up front all on his own for one thing, and Paul Anderson, who was left on the subs bench that day, should be occupying one of the wings. He terrorised Blackpool yesterday with his pace, so hopefully will be a key player for us in the second leg. There will be no point in man-marking him, because we have many other sources of danger in our team, so we will be very hard to stop. Blackpool could put ten men behind the ball, but they will still have a difficult job, so I think they are going to go all out on the attack and try and get a second goal. This should help us as they will leave themselves open at the back. Whatever happens, it's going to be a very exciting and nervy evening, but it won't be anywhere near as devastating as that terrible night in 2007 against Yeovil. We simply had to get out of League One that season, but I don't think many fans would be too upset once the dust has settled on another play-off defeat that we are still in the Championship, considering how far we've come in a year.

It was a tremendous boost to hear that Paul McKenna was back in the starting line-up after seemingly being ruled out for the rest of the season. There had been some murmurs that he would have an outside chance of making it. To be honest, I think he was probably available for the last couple of weeks, but Billy Davies sensibly decided to give him extra time to recover, and perhaps fool Forest's potential play-off opponents into thinking he wouldn't be playing. It was a huge lift for the Club at the end of a pretty good week that saw us clinch the permanent £1.5 million signing of Radoslaw Majewski, and Chris Cohen's quick recovery from a bout of Mumps, which had threatened to rule him out of the play-offs altogether, was also a shot in the arm.

Cohen must have been very worried that he would miss out on all the excitement when he fell ill, so it's no wonder he looked so delighted when he gave Forest an early lead with a long-range pile driver from the edge of the penalty area. It was a goal worthy of the good-quality passing football that Forest were playing, but their lead did not last long as Blackpool were back on level terms less than 15 minutes later when Kevin Southern netted from close range. It was a really entertaining first 45 minutes with Forest having the better chances. Dexter Blackstock and Wes Morgan both went extremely close to restoring the lead, while Lee Camp had relatively little to do at the other end.

While Blackpool failed to trouble Camp much after the break, sadly Forest offered little themselves. Perhaps Davies was content to play for a draw rather than go for goals, but it was a decision that may come back to haunt him as Forest had really looked very threatening before the break and could easily have gone on to score a few goals in the second half and set themselves up as red-hot favourites to reach Wembley. But James Perch, who it's got to be said had a very shaky game at right back, gave away a penalty just before the hour-mark, and Charlie Adam, a constant thorn in Forest's side all season, made it 2-1 from the penalty spot. The closest Forest came to equalising was when Cohen produced an excellent save from the Blackpool goalkeeper with another long-range shot in the dying moments of injury time. What a hero he would have been had it gone in, and considering his ill-health leading up to the game, it would have been some story.

Still, the result could have been a lot, lot worse. I think Davies will be much happier than Ian Holloway with the scoreline because really to have the upper hand in this two-legged tie Blackpool could have done with a two-goal cushion. It really is all to play for on Tuesday night. I actually think that the fact that we are chasing the game this time around could work in our favour. Against Yeovil, even before the game, the Forest players were accused of believing their place at Wembley had already been assured, and their shocking performance certainly backed up those claims. They will not be complacent this time around and know that they are going to have to be at their very best to go through.