Forest Firing at The Right Time

[/br />The latest upturn in Nottingham Forest's roller-coaster 2009 has come at the perfect time to keep them in the Coca-Cola Championship, hopes manager Billy Davies.

It has been peaks and troughs for relegation-threatened Forest since former Preston North End and Derby County boss Davies took over in January.

Three wins in his first three League matches were followed by a five-game run that brought just one point, then after two wins and a draw came three straight defeats.

But they have now put together their best run of the entire season, four unbeaten games that have brought eight points.

That has put them three points above the drop zone as they head towards their last two games of the season, at Blackpool then finally at home to Southampton.

And Davies believes that survival is now within his team's grasp. "We could be safe on Saturday night," he says as he looks ahead to the trip to Bloomfield Road.

"That would obviously depend on other results," he adds, "but before we look at the table we have to go out and do our own job.

"We've got good results of late after a period of ups and downs, but we've got a very young team and that probably explains the inconsistency.

"They've worked very hard though, and now they're beginning to mature and to understand what it takes to get results on a more consistent basis."

Davies' squad has been thin on numbers and he has recently been without a couple of key strikers in Rob Earnshaw and Nathan Tyson.

But the manager is hopeful that both players will be available for the final push towards ensuring that Forest maintain their Championship status.

"These players can bring goals to the team," says Davies, "and Tyson in particular can stretch teams with his pace.

"It would have been good to have a full complement of players available since I arrived at the club, but that just hasn't been the case.

"We weren't able to make any permanent signings in January and although we've since brought in some loan players, it has been difficult.

"There's been a great effort from everyone within the club though, and the fans have been very positive which has helped us.

"Now we have to get the points we need to stay up and it's in our own hands - so no matter what anyone around us does, if we do our own job properly we'll be okay."