Let's hope the Swans will be singing a week on Monday

It's very rare that I am able to watch a Forest match in a complete state of relaxation! I will certainly not be able to say the same about the play-offs, so I made the most of it. The next two weeks are going to be extremely stressful indeed as Forest take on Swansea in the play-off semi-finals, hoping that it will be a case of fourth time lucky and they will finally make it past the first hurdle.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Forest's performance at Crystal Palace. I really thought it would be a very dull end-of-season game, but the players seemed determined to go into the play-offs on the back of a good win and reward their 3,000+ loyal fans who had made the long and awkward journey down to Selhurst Park. We really dominated the game from start to finish and made Palace look exactly what they were all season: relegation fodder. It was a good job for them that they had secured their safety last week as Forest were just far too strong for them and looked full of confidence on the back of a fantastic run of form with four wins in their last five matches and a glut of 14 goals. Forest knew that a point would definitely seal their place in the top six and even a defeat would in all likelihood not be damaging as Leeds needed to overturn a six-goal deficit on their goal difference, and as they were away at Champions QPR, who were in buoyant mood after the FA decided not to hand out a points deduction despite finding them guilty of two charges of wrongdoing, Forest had every reason to be very confident. As it happened Leeds did manage to beat Rangers, but only by a one-goal margin, and even if they had won 10-0, it wouldn't have mattered as Forest were taking care of their own business at Palace, romping comfortably to a 3-0 win thanks to a trademark long-range effort from Lewis McGugan, a Marcus Tudgay header and a fantastic 25-yard screamer from substitute David McGoldrick. Forest's cause may have been helped a bit by the straight sending-off of Dean Moxley nearly half an hour into the match for an awful tackle on Tudgay. This was the second time Moxley had seen red against Forest this season as he was also giving his marching orders in the closing stages of the win over Derby at Pride Park back in January.

The Forest fans might have been secretly hoping that Derby would do them a favour down at Reading so that Cardiff and not Swansea would be their semi-final opponents given the contrasting form of the Welsh sides, but alas Reading won. Swansea like Forest ended their season with a goal blitz and now two sides in red hot form will meet at the City Ground next Thursday night in the first leg. Hopefully Forest will continue where they left off and notch up a few goals, because to be frank it's going to be very difficult going to Swansea a week on Monday and pulling off a win there.