Football – England – Championship
Saturday 5th April 2014 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Nottingham Forest will be keen to get back to winning ways at the City Ground when they host lowly Millwall in Saturday afternoon’s Championship clash with both teams needing the points at each end of the table.
Nottingham Forest have dropped out of the play-off reckoning in recent weeks after a nightmare series of results – a run of nine matches without a win culminating in an embarrassing 0-5 defeat to east midlands rivals Derby County was the final straw for the Forest board and manager Billy Davies’ second stint with the club came to an abrupt end.
Youth coach Gary Brazil has taken over in the interim until 1st July when former Forest legend Stuart ‘Psycho’ Pearce will take the reigns on a permanent basis, returning to a club where he had immense success as a player. Brazil’s first match in charge ended in a 0-1 home defeat to Charlton but steadied the ship at Ipswich Town last Saturday in a 1-1 draw.
Nottingham Forest’s overall home record still stands at a reasonable 9-6-4 32/22 but they’ve only managed two points from their last four matches at the City Ground thanks to draws with Leicester City 2-2 and Doncaster Rovers 0-0.
Millwall’s season continues to be one of constant struggles as the London outfit have now gone five matches without a win and indeed have chalked up just one win from their last thirteen which was courtesy of a surprise 1-0 win away at Derby County (what would Billy Davies have given for that result I wonder?)
Anyway, recent defeats at Blackpool 0-1 and Leeds United 1-2 along with a 2-3 loss at home to Birmingham City have thrown The Lions into a desperate relegation battle and it’ll be interesting to see if manager Ian Holloway can turn things around at the New Den and add ‘Championship survival’ to his resume.
Millwall now find themselves second from bottom and five points adrift of Charlton Athletic who are in the safety position of 21st place, but one win from their last fifteen away matches and an overall away record of 2-5-12 14/38 suggests that they could well struggle again at Nottingham this afternoon.
Forest have a great opportunity to get back to winning ways this afternoon, and with the recent appointment of Stuart Pearce as future manager, this will lift the club on and off the field; I’ll go for a straight Forest win here, perhaps 2-1.
Pick: Nottingham Forest straight win @ 1.78 Pinnacle
