Bennett Wants Promotion

Julian Bennett has called on Nottingham Forest to rediscover the spirit of last year’s play-off push in their bid to climb out of League One.



The defender played a crucial role in Forest’s backs-to-the-wall win at Chesterfield on Saturday.

And Bennett hopes that victory will now spark a run of form similar to that which turned around last season’s fortunes.

Bennett said: ‘This time last year we were well outside the play-offs but we went on a great winning streak.

‘Hopefully, we are about to start another one. If we did that again you’d expect us to be right at the top.’

Forest strung together a ten-match unbeaten run between February and April last year under caretaker managers, Frank Barlow and Ian McParland.

It saw them climb from four points off the relegation zone to the play-offs. Ultimately their promotion charge ran out of steam – but a similar run this season would almost certainly be enough to see them claim an automatic spot.

Despite only winning three of nine league matches since the turn of the year, Forest currently sit third in the table a point behind Yeovil but with a game in hand – although they are now ten points behind leaders Scunthorpe.

They may have watched a once seven-point lead eaten up by their challengers, but they are still well placed to see out their title charge.

And Bennett is convinced that the character they have in the dressing room will see through their promotion bid this time around.

‘Some results have gone against us,’ he said. ‘We are not where we’d like to be – we’d like to be at the top of the league – but there are games to play and top teams have got to play each other as well.

‘As long as we pick up the sort of form we showed this time last year, I’m sure we will be back up there.’




Nottingham Evening Post