Nottingham Forest are back in league action this weekend after a 14 day International break as the Reds face a tough looking trip to Bristol City in the EFL Championship.
Forest have already sold out their allocation of tickets for the trip to Ashton Gate on Saturday (3pm KO) with the team full of confidence after back to back league wins including last time out in the East Midlands Derby Clash as a Lewis Grabban goal saw off their bitter rivals Derby County with a 1-0 win at the City Ground.
That win which seemed so long ago pushed Forest into the top five on 28 points ironically level with tomorrows opponents Bristol City who lie sixth as both teams are just five points behind leaders West Bromwich Albion but Sabri Lamouchi’s men do have a game in hand.
The Robins are unbeaten in four in the league having won two and drew two beating Cardiff last time out by a single goal in Wales.
Managed by Lee Johnson with former Ram Andreas Weimann in attack they have the talented Callum O’Dowda in midfield along with Hungarian International Adam Nagy are buoyed by the presence of Welsh veteran Ashley Williams in defence and will go into the game knowing that Forest haven’t won in Bristol for seven games dating back to 2011.
The Reds however are looking forward to ‘rellishing the challenge’ with former Robin ‘uncle’ Albert Adomah stating “Our home and away performances have been great so I am sure if we do what we do best, we can beat them.” Adomah said “I had a great three seasons there and I was appreciated by the supporters, the downside was obviously getting relegated with them but it is a tremendous club.”
“Every time I have played against them I have had a good reception, it is a team that took to me and when I have played against them we have won or drawn so hopefully we can get the win.”
Sabri Lamouchi ahead of the game told us “We know that it’ll be tough. I remember their first game of the season, it was against Leeds. A bad start for them, like us at home.”
“But they haven’t lost another game at home, not much different to us. We know we will face a good team with good players. The way the manager wants to play is good, and they have picked up good results at home.”
“We need to focus because we have a lot of games. Don’t use too much energy and we need to immediately think about the next one.
“In this kind of situation, we need to be brilliant in our preparation because when you are facing difficult moments, we know we will face some problems and we need to be ready to face those problems.”
Lamouchi also stated that the likes of Michael Dawson, Carl Jenkinson, Yohan Benalouane, Alfa Semedo and Michael Hefele have all returned to training after injury lay offs whilst Samba Sow has still some way to go.
The Reds are likely to go with a similar starting XI to what featured against Derby with one or two minor additions potentially including Adomah to start against his old club.
*Main image @BristolCity the fabulous Ashton Gate stadium venue to Saturday’s game.
