Nottingham Forest ace Ben Osborn looks ahead to upcoming Championship games

Follow us on Google Discover

The Reds midfielder seems optimistic about Reading, Bristol City and Wigan, claiming his side “will have a bit more of the ball” during the games.

Nottingham Forest midfielder Ben Osborn has outlined what his team needs to do to ensure they get through their upcoming run of Championship games as successfully as possible.

Although the Reds claimed a superb 4-2 win over Leeds United on New Year’s Day, their recent form as a whole has not been particularly impressive.

Forest’s last seven games in all competitions have yielded four defeats, and while a 2-0 loss to Chelsea in the FA Cup isn’t much cause for concern, defeats to Preston, QPR and Millwall will be.

There have also been two draws in that run – a good point away at bitter rivals Derby County, and the collapse at Norwich City in which the Reds led 3-0 by the midway point of the second half only to ship three late on for a 3-3 scoreline.

Up next for Forest is a trip to relegation-battling Reading on Saturday followed by two home games against 11th-placed Bristol City and 20th-ranked Wigan Athletic, all relatively winnable games on paper – but then again so were Preston, QPR and Millwall.

Osborn has suggested that the upcoming three fixtures will give the Tricky Trees a real chance to add points on board and build momentum, but he thinks they need to show more confidence against such sides.

“It is a good game for us, away at Reading, then we have Bristol and Wigan and I think we do need to be a bit more confident when we play the teams below us,” he told the official Forest website.

“We will have a bit more of the ball so we need to believe in ourselves a bit more, be a bit more patient and maybe not panic if we are going in at half-time at 0-0 or 1-0 against these teams. We just need to keep believing in what we are doing and believing that we can get the results.”

Given how Jack Robinson suggested that Forest could “blow QPR out of the water” before they ended up losing 1-0 to them, Osborn should perhaps be more mindful of making such statements as “we will have a bit more of the ball” and referring to “teams below us”.