Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I CAN FIRE UP FOREST
New boss Hughton’s Prem target
CHRIS HUGHTON is desperate to give Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis the results he craves.
Hughton is the shipping tycoon’s fifth boss since buying the club in May 2017.
Marinakis also owns O ly mpi a c o s w h o a re the champions in his native Greece.
He wants to restore Forest to th e P remi er L eagu e aft er relegation in 1999.
Now he appears to finally have the right man as Hughton has never finished outside the top four in his four full seasons in the second tier.
Ex-brighton, Norwich, Birmingham and Newcastle manager Hughton, 61, said:
“You have bosses and owners and want to be able to give them what they want.
“I have come in at a stage of the season that is very early which i s something I am grateful for.
“There is still an awful lot of football and games to be played. There is expectation anywhere you go.
“Pressure comes with every job and probably in most circumstances as a manager it comes from within to do well, to get results and to get the team playing the way you want.”
To succeed, Hughton must reverse a decline which started at the end of last term and has continued this season.
Forest are in the drop zone having lost all five competitive matches since September under predecessor Sabri Lamouchi and are winless in 11 games.
Hughton i s planning an instant impact ahead of a hectic period of seven games in 21 days starting today at Ewood Park.
Hughton, back in work since being sacked by Brighton in May 2019, added: “Blackburn are in good form and it is a big test. They are in a good place and have rhythm. It is a tough one to come into but that is the challenge.
“I have been out of the game for a while but this is what I have done for a long time.
“It clicks back i n on the training ground and organising the players.
“I am very much l ooking forward to the game which I hope will come quite naturally.”
Forest striker Lewis Grabban said: “He’s had great success in this league and it’s good to have a manager who has had success because you can believe in everything he’s putting forward.”