Nottingham Forest will play at last in front of supporters tomorrow as they travel south to Reading who’ll have a small number of home fans in attendance in a match aired live on Sky Sports at 12:30pm.

The Reds received praise midweek for a better performance against Watford than we’ve seen of late but having drawn blanks for the fourth successive match in the Championship, Manager Chris Hughton will be looking for his goal-shy strike force to come up with the goods as the club look to climb away from the danger zone and the three sides, Derby County included, currently below them in the table.

Hughton said “It is a problem that we need to solve. If we are going to go on and win games, we need to get the right formulas when we get into the final third.”

“I have been encouraged by the work we have done to get into those areas, it is just the final bit.”

Forest face a Reading side fourth in the table and going well under their Macedonian Coach Veljko Paunovic with the Reds Manager saying “Somebody wasn’t looking after us when the fixtures came up. But that is the nature of this division. We have had incredibly tough games against teams that have just been promoted to this division, in Wycombe and Coventry.”

“It is relentless, but what we have to make sure we do is put in a similar type of performance that we did in midweek.”

“If you are playing against the top teams, you have to make sure that as a team, your structure is as solid as it can be because they can hurt you.”

One positive in midweek was the return of Joe Worrall who was immediately given the captains armband against Watford by Hughton.

Worrall stating “I couldn’t have asked for more, I have been waiting for the opportunity. It probably came a bit sooner than I thought it would have done, I was looking more towards the Reading game, but Scott was unavailable and the gaffer has said to get ready for Watford.”

“I was more than ready, the fire in me has been growing even more being injured and watching from the stands.”

Of what to expect this weekend the Hucknall born centre half said “Reading probably have done what we did last season, after 10 or 15 games are near the top of the table.”

“I think they play nice, expansive football and are a good side in their own right, but they are definitely open to counter attacks and we will have a look at their weaknesses and look to punish them.”

Jack Colback will again be missing so Cafu who impressed on his debut against the Hornets is expected to start in the centre of the park with Lewis Grabban hopeful with an outside chance of at least making the bench although the game might come too early in the rehabilitation if ex-Royal Tyler Blackett.

For Reading George Puskas, John Swift, Andy Yiadom and Felipe Araruna are all unavailable but Guinean midfielder Alfa Semedo could feature against a side he played for 26 times last season.

*Main image @NFFC Manager Chris Hughton says he’s been encouraged by recent performances.