Ex-Nottingham Forest player issues promotion claim involving AFC Bournemouth

Nottingham Forest have surged up the Championship table since Steve Cooper took over – and it has now put them in a very good position to be able to seal a Premier League promotion.

Forest are now third in the second tier and are only six points behind Bournemouth in second. It seemed like a push for a spot in the top six wouldn’t have been on the cards at the beginning of 2021/22 but their fortunes have been massively transformed.

An automatic spot is a very real possibility now and a top six spot seems a cert, minus a catastrophic end to the season.

Now, former Forest man Steve Hodge has spoken to the BBC and claims his old team should ‘shoot at’ Bournemouth and aim to overtake them in the table.

With seven games left for both clubs, there is every chance that the Cherries could drop points and that Forest could end up clambering into the top two. Forest have been in excellent form, having not lost a league game since a defeat to QPR right at the end of January. Bournemouth on the other hand have lost one of their last five Championship fixtures – and only two of those were wins to boot.

The possibility is now there – and Hodge believes that his side should go for the glory and try and take aim at Bournemouth and their automatic promotion spot as the season comes to a close.

Speaking to the BBC about it, he said: “Bournemouth will know there’s only one team that can shoot them down and that’s Forest. And there is only one team for Forest to shoot at now, and it’s Bournemouth.”

“No-one would have given Forest a chance of being within six points of second place after they were bottom after seven games of the season, and the players were looking a sad group,”

“I would rather still be where they [Bournemouth] are – the