Reid: Martin will be ideal fit for Forest

MARTIN O’NEILL is a “really good fit” who can lead Nottingham Forest back to the big time after years in the doldrums.

Andy Reid, who played for 10 years at the City Ground, welcomed the appointment yesterday of the man who helped Brian Clough’s Forest lift the European Cup twice almost 40 years ago. And he reckons O’Neill, who left his role as Ireland manager in November, can improve Forest after the Aitor Karanka era and take them into the play-offs in May.

Reid (below), who retired at Forest in 2016 with long-term injury problems, said: “It’s a good time in Martin’s career to come here, with Forest in need of a little bit of an upturn.

“On the face of it, it seems a really good fit, but football boils down to ‘are you going to get results?’ “Can he galvanise the team and get them moving forward in the right direction? “Let’s not forget, they’re only four points off the play-offs. They could easily make that up in the Championship. “There’s some good players there, some really top players and the owners have been willing to put their money where their mouths are and back the previous managers. It’s exciting times for Forest, really.

“It was a bit disappointing after Karanka left, but I think there’s a lot of excitement in the air now.”

O’Neill wasted no time getting down to business yesterday, taking training as he began to prepare the team for Saturday’s visit of Bristol

City.

He was joined on the training pitch by former Leicester winger Steve Guppy, who was on O’Neill’s coaching staff at Sunderland and with Ireland.

Talks are ongoing with former Forest and Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane about resuming the role he had in the Irish set-up as O’Neill’s No.2.

And Reid says supporters are desperate for them to bring success back to a club that has not been in the top flight since 1999.

Reid said: “It’s a really, really big club and it’s a club that deserves to be back up in the Premier League.

“There’s been plenty of different owners as well, which hasn’t really helped.

“Martin will understand that. What it means now is, can he get the three points on a Saturday? “If you get that, everybody is happy and everything else is forgotten.”