White-hot favourites Forest looking good for the top six

Forest are almost home and dry, but while there's a faint question mark hovering beside our play-off place, we cannot afford to get too carried away, because in football freak results do happen sometimes, and we do not want to look really silly next weekend if against all the odds Leeds do manage to overhaul that six-goal deficit.

I said last week that if Forest could mete out a thrashing against Scunthorpe, it would do them the power of good, and that's exactly what happened as they in the end cruised to a 5-1 victory which in the first half had seemed rather unlikely as Scunthorpe were making life very awkward for the Reds. It seemed rather unfair on them that Forest had a two-goal lead after 25 minutes thanks to an 8th minute strike from the in-form Kris Boyd, and another header from newly crowned Player of the Season Luke Chambers. Forest's first half performance left a lot to be desired, and they were given a wake-up call when Scunthorpe pulled a goal back from the penalty spot ten minutes from half time. But while there were a lot of doubts floating around about Forest's ability to win this match given their poor first half display, the news from elsewhere was very good as Millwall were losing at home to Swansea, meaning that if Forest could net three points only Leeds, who had beaten Burnley earlier, would be able to catch them on goal difference.

The message from Billy Davies at half time would have been quite simple: we need goals, and lots of them. He made a double substitution for the second 45 minutes, sending on both Guy Moussi and Paul Anderson, who made a welcome return to the squad following a month on the sidelines with cracked ribs. And Anderson had only been on the pitch a couple of minutes before he was celebrating scoring Forest's third goal as he scored from a tight angle to make it 3-1 and give the Reds a nice comfortable cushion. And after that it was pretty much plain sailing for the Reds as further goals from Chambers and Boyd completed the rout and ensured that the Reds start as white-hot favourites to book their place in the play-off semi finals as they complete the season at Crystal Palace. Hopefully we will get a result there for ourselves and not have to worry about the unlikely scenario of Leeds winning handsomely at Champions QPR.