Skipper Glad To Have A Sniff

Forest skipper Ian Breckin admitted they thought their chances of automatic promotion had gone after Bristol City’s victory at Carlisle last week.

But he praised his team-mates for beating Leyton Orient to ensure the season goes down to the wire.

Two goals from Jack Lester and another from Kris Commons, his fifth in his last three games, saw Forest bounce back from Matt Lockwood’s opener for Orient.

It means the Reds can still edge Bristol to second place if Gary Johnson’s side fails to win at home to Rotherham this week.

But Breckin admitted he thought Forest’s chance had gone.

‘It was a blow last week because we thought the Carlisle game would be the one where they’d slip up,’ he said. ‘The way we played last week, we thought that would be when we clawed them back.

‘It wasn’t to be, but this week we’ve shown brilliant character and won again and we’ve taken it to the last match so we have to keep our fingers crossed.

‘We said all along that we thought Bristol might slip up and this has proved that.

‘They are still in the best seat with a point lead, but it’s going to be exciting on Saturday.’

Breckin reckons Forest have shown tremendous character to keep their hopes of promotion alive.

‘It would have been easy to sit back and think it’s over,’ he said. ‘But we’ve kept on going, kept pushing all the way, won our last three games and we’re going into the last game with the chance of automatic promotion still, which is a credit to all the lads.

‘We believe in each other and the football we’re playing. Everyone is contributing to the cause.’

He said the players were aware that Bristol were losing at Millwall while they were on the pitch.

He said: ‘When the crowd were going crazy we thought Millwall had scored and once we got the third goal the game was over. I’m delighted for the fans that we’ve taken it to the last match.’