Russell Slade has two reasons to relish a play-off double-header against Forest.
The Yeovil boss is both an ex-Reds supporter – and former manager of their cross-Trent rivals Notts County.
Add to that the possibility of avenging the West Country side’s two 1-0 defeats by Forest this season – and Slade should have no trouble motivating his players ahead of Friday’s first leg.
But after slipping down to fourth place it set up a clash with Yeovil, which Slade said he was anticipating.
‘It is going to be tough obviously and I had an inkling it would be Forest, my old team,’ he said.
‘We will give it our best shot – hopefully we are good enough to go through.
‘It is a massive one for me and I hope my team can do the business.
‘Ten years ago this football club was in the ICIS League and ten years ago Forest were in the Premiership and now we meet for a place in the Championship.
‘We have to switch our attention very quickly because we have a very important week ahead of us.’
Oldham boss John Sheridan insists there will be no nerves ahead of their clash with Blackpool, despite the Tangerines’ ominous form of late.
Simon Grayson’s side overtook Forest in third place after their seventh consecutive win on Saturday – beating Swansea 6-3.
But Sheridan said: ‘Blackpool are the side in form, but we fear no one and have proved over the season that on our day we can beat anybody.’
And following Oldham’s 1-0 win over Chesterfield, he added: ‘We looked like a decent team and are coming into a bit of form ourselves at the right time.
‘We haven’t won anything yet, but to get this far is a great achievement. We are definitely going the right way.’
Grayson, though, is understandably confident of his Blackpool side’s prospects given their impressive end of season run.
‘We know we are the team people should fear,’ he said.
‘We’ve got to keep the momentum and keep working hard because we have a local derby, so it’s got all the ingredients for a cracker and we are hoping we can come out on top.’
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