Cup run shows Forest can mix it with big boys

DESPITE my Derby connections, I hope Nottingham Forest win the Championship play-off final.

To win promotion after taking just one point from the first seven games would be incredible.

No disrespect to Huddersfield, who spent two years in the top flight under David Wagner, but I think this Forest team would have more to offer the Premier League.

I want to see how the likes of Brice Samba, Joe Worrall and Brennan Johnson (all above) will get on in elite company every week.

Their FA Cup exploits against Arsenal, Leicester and Liverpool suggest they would have a real chance of staying up.

And manager Steve Cooper (inset) has done a remarkable job. He deserves promotion simply because it looked impossible when he took over.

NIGEL CLOUGH was a fantastic influence towards the end of my playing career, so I make no bones about it – I’d love to see him win promotion with Mansfield.

Today’s League Two play-off final against Port Vale is too close to call, but if honesty, man-management, the way he treats individuals and the surname count for anything, Clough (right) deserves to take the Stags up.

Like Nottingham Forest, they were joint bottom of their league earlier in the season. Like Everest, the longest climbs in football are usually the most satisfying.

UNLIKE Jurgen Klopp, I could be celebrating a quadruple this weekend as my managerial career comes to an end.

Macclesfield’s Under-16s won the league as invincibles, the League Cup and the Cheshire County Cup.

Now we can complete a clean sweep if we beat Hyde United in the Manchester County Cup – and what a way it would be to bow out if we won it.

For a group of kids, parents and coaches, it’s the end of an era. Some of the boys will go their separate ways, but we have made friends for life.