Mills – It’s Starting To Come Together

Defender Matt Mills has said that he feels Nottingham Forest have made significant progress during the short space of time he’s been at the club.

Having moved to the City Ground over the summer following his release by Bolton Wanderers, Mills has told the Nottingham Post that he feels the club have come on leaps and bounds in the months since then and all the pieces are now starting to come together for us as we find some consistency in results once more.

The 29 year old explained that with our unbeaten run now at eleven games, and with five wins, he felt that our development and work was now starting to come through on the pitch properly and in a consistent fashion as we were difficult to beat now.

‘The progress we are making is very pleasing. I will be honest, when I first signed and then when we saw Michail Antonio sold, it did feel as though the squad was depleted. Compared to where we are now, it felt completely different. We had injuries and we had to bring in players. But when you look at where we are now, as a club, I think we have moved on leaps and bounds. That is a credit to everyone involved, to the manager, to the players, to the fans even. It is so important that they stick with us.’

Having referenced the fans, Mills went on to say that their support was invaluable in helping the players to maintain their momentum at the moment – especially with the games we have coming up against Middlesbrough, Queens Park Rangers and Watford in the FA Cup.

‘You do not achieve anything in football with just one cog in the machine, all the pieces have to come together. The fans are one of those pieces. We have been chipping away, we have been working hard and I think you are starting to see us getting our rewards for that. Hopefully the fans will stay behind us.’

Moving back to the defensive improvements, only Preston and Blackburn have conceded fewer than Forest at this stage of the season, and Mills was bouyed by that and his more recent central partnership with Michael Mancienne.

‘As a squad, we do pride ourselves on keeping the ball out the back of the net. I am not sure how many teams have conceded fewer goals than us – but it is something that we see as being particularly important. It is not just the defence that play their part in that, either. You can see the midfield working so hard. And the Bolton game was a game where the front boys were able to have an impact on things a little bit more. Jamie Ward has been a little frustrated that he has not played more minutes for the side this season. But he trains well and he did his job brilliantly when he was called upon for this game. It was a very good performance from him. At the back, as a central defensive duo, we felt really comfortable out there. Birmingham is the only goal we have conceded in open play, when we have played together. That tells you that it is a strong partnership and long may that continue.’