>
>
Nottingham Forest and Swansea go head to head in the first leg of their Championship play-off semi final on Thursday evening.
With a place in the Premier League the eventual prize, the pressure is on for these two teams as they look to finish a decent season with victory at Wembley at the end of the month.
They need to get to Wembley first though and that is why Thursday night’s game is so important. It is the first of two-legs, but tonight could be the deciding game. The nerves will be at their freshest and if either team could nick a win, it would give them the advantage going into the second game.
Looking at Nottingham Forest in more detail first, they will be determined to make the most of home advantage in this first-leg. They are a strong team at home and will want to go to Wales next week with a lead.
Finishing 6th in the Championship, they are arguably the outsiders for winning this year’s play-offs, but they are in good form at the moment and should go into these two games with Swansea in good spirits.
Since losing to Norwich in the middle of April, they have won four games in row, scoring 14 goals on the way. They have certainly found their shooting boots at the right time and will hope this continues against Swansea.
Forest have had their fair share of play-off disappointment though. They have been involoved in three play-off ties and lost them all, missing out to Blackpool last year.
Manager Billy Davies’ record isn’t much better either. He did progress to the Premier League with Derby in 2007 via the play-offs, but he missed out with Preston in the two previous years. Then he was Forest boss in last year’s defeat to Ian Holloway’s men.
As for Swansea City, they are arguably the best footballing side in the league on their day. Trouble is, they were too inconsistent to secure automatic promotion, having to settle for 3rd position.
The fact that they followed a 3-0 victory over promotion rivals Norwich with two draws and a defeat sums up their season. They often defeated the top teams, but dropped crucial points when they were expected to collect the win.
This bodes well for the play-offs though. They are a team for the big occasion and will be relishing the chance to go to Forest and pick up a positive result to take back to Wales.
With three victories on the spin going into this game, they are certainly in good shape to progress to the top flight for the first time since 1983. They know there is a lot of work to be done first though.
Looking at the team news for this one, Forest duo Lee Camp and Guy Moussi have been passed fit, while Swansea manager Brendan Rogers has somewhat of a selection headache with plenty of players to choose from.
Overall, it should be a tense affair at the City Ground and with both teams looking to play their natural attacking game, it should be entertaining to watch.
