Live on SkySports and 3 Counties Radio This coming Thursday sees Watford travel to The City Ground for the start of a run of games that will define both teams seasons. Nottingham Forest currently sit in 5th place, 5 points clear of the team in 7th and seven points off automatic. They haven't lost in the league or cup since the end of November when they were beaten at home by Reading in a run that stretches to 11 games. Before Saturday's disappointing draw with Preston in the FA Cup, Forest had won the previous 4 games at home, scoring 13 goals and conceding just 2. This run included wins over QPR, Leeds and West Ham so this is going to be a difficult game for Watford. Since Beppe Sannino came in the defence has improved 10 fold but have still only won 1 out of 14 games in the league. Watford will go in with a little bit more confidence though after the magnificent effort at The Etihad on Saturday and will look to use this game as a platform to start building towards a better second half of the season. Team news As it stands, there are no new injuries from the weekend in either camp and anybody signed in the next couple of days would seem unlikely to start although that of course may change with Forest on the verge of signing striker Rafik Djebbour from Olympiakos and possibly Danny Graham on loan which is an area where Forest have struggled this season. Watford will see Bellerin, Hall, Merkel return for this game which may also see Ranegie play some part and maybe even Hoban who was in the squad at Man City. Recent history The most recent game was at Vicarage Road in August last year where the two teams shared the spoils in an entertaining 1 all draw which included a magnificent, and probably inevitable goal from Lewis Mcgugan [video=youtube;fO_do2YkbO4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO_do2YkbO4[/video] The previous season saw Watford do the double over Forest for the first time since 2000/01 which included a hugely impressive 3-0 win at The City ground. This was during Watfords purple patch with Vydra at his very best and when we looked as good as we have ever done. 47 matches have been played between the two and there is only a gnats chuff between them, Forest having won 16 games to Watfords 14 and there have been 17 draws. In that time Forest have scored 62 goals to Watfords 58 with the most scored by one team being the 7 Forest scored in The Milk Cup game in November 1982. Opposition view Simon Brown is a work colleague of mine and also a season ticket holder at The City Ground and was kind enough to answer a few questions. 1. Are you happy with your current position in the league? At the moment yes, it is still a very young team and more than half of them are new this season, with the other teams in the league that you would expect to be near the top (QPR, Leicester, Reading) I think we are doing well to maintain our position 2. Which Forest players should we watch out for? We don’t really have a main striker to keep an eye out for but the likes of Andy Reid is very dangerous when given space to pass and Henry Lansbury who is very energetic in midfield. There is also Jamie Paterson who is showing a bit of form at the moment after scoring 5 in his last 3 games 3. What are your expectations for the rest of the season? Where would you be happy to finish? I would be happy to finish in the top 2 (as anyone would) but realistically top 6 would be acceptable, but the problem then would be getting over our play-off hoodoo, where we have never won a semi final. 4. Billy Davies is not very highly thought of outside of Nottingham, what do you think of him? I was a huge fan of Billy during his first stint at the club and was gutted when he left, as I thought after losing to Swansea in the play-offs then the next season we could have made a real impact. We then had a few years of poor management, and new owners and then Billy returning. Since his return though he has put a club ban on anybody speaking to BBC Radio Nottingham (who have live coverage of every game) and is not very media friendly at all. This seems to distance the players and staff from the fans as the only interviews they seem to give are via the official website. Any club needs their local media on side but with no post match interviews with either management or players we don’t seem to get any reaction from the club. So at the moment I don’t really care about what he has to say as we have heard all his moaning before and it seems to be getting a bit boring, saying that though if he gets us promoted this year then I am sure all Forest fans as well as myself may grow to like him again. 5. What do you think the score will be? Going on form of both teams it will go for 2-0 Forest 6. Watford are having an awful run and are currently 15th. Do you think we’re under achieving and where do you think we should be. After getting to the Playoff final last year in such fashion as you did (beating our lovely neighbours Leicester, thanks) then I would have thought you would have built on that and really looked to make moves this year, but with getting rid of Zola and the 30-odd loanees that you had you have had to rebuild an almost full team. Your current position is nowhere near where I thought you would be, I would have expected you to be nearer the top 6 and am surprised that you are down in 15th. 7. Were you disappointed to see Lewis McGugan leave? Lewis can be one of the best players in the league on his day and for the past 5 years we have been saying what potential he has got. Unfortunately though he is not consistent enough and seems to go missing for large periods during games. He has got the talent though and he is a master of the dead ball (as his goal against us earlier in the season proved) but I think he needs to find that manager that can get the best out of him week in week out Predictions Certainly since the departure of Zola it is far easier to predict who will start most games but with so many players back from injury or it might be a little tougher for this game but I would think it might look a bit like Almunia Angella Hall Ekstrand Faraoni Bellerin Battochio Abdi Merkel Deeney Forestieri Subs Bond Pudil Doyley Fabbrini Ranegie Murray Hoban Never an easy game at Forest but after Saturday I have renewed faith and am going for a 2-0 win Good luck and a safe trip to those travelling
