Martin: It’s a game to be excited about

The Swans head to Nottingham Forest tomorrow to end their away campaign for the season against one of the sides still with ambitions of automatic promotion to the Premier League.

Former Swans boss Steve Cooper has lifted Forest from the relegation zone to the brink of the Premier League in just 35 games and he will know that if they can secure three straight wins to end their campaign then automatic promotion will be theirs.

If that fails though they always have the fall back of the play offs to come and a third successive crack at those will be a good consolation for Cooper should they not make the top two in the division.

IF it is the play-offs then Cooper will lead his side in as undoubted favourites and that could add to the pressure that this time of the season can throw out and I certainly wouldn’t rule out any an unexpected result tomorrow as that pressure can do strange things to even the most in form of teams.

Forest won 4-1 in SA1 back in December but the Swans have certainly advanced since that time and will prove to be a tougher test for Forest tomorrow – something that Russell Martin acknowledged at his press conference yesterday before finalising his plans for the trip to the East Midlands.

“I thought we were really good in the first game against them,” said Martin. “We should have scored early and we didn’t; I think we’ll have learned a lot from that.

“So I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a game for the guys to be really excited about.

“The squad want to pick up as many points as possible and try to squeeze into the top half which we’re really close to.

“From where we were at the start of the season to where we are now has been a really big change and hopefully you can see that against Forest on Saturday.

“Steve Cooper has done a brilliant job since he’s gone in there to galvanise them and get them moving in the right direction. They’ve built momentum now.

“They’ve got some outstanding players at this level who possess real athleticism. So, it’s going to be tough, they’ve been on an incredible run and possess a real threat in certain areas and we’ll have to be aware of that.”