Garner starts: The predicted Nottingham Forest XI to play Stoke City

Nottingham Forest are certainly a team to watch in the second half of this Championship campaign, with Steve Cooper making the side pleasing to watch and tough to beat.

They’ve gone from bottom of the table dwellers to play-off challengers again and the more points they can pick up in the second half of the season, then the more chance they will have of potentially bagging an elusive promotion back to the Premier League.

They’re a squad that is now packed with talent, so they will fancy their chances of seeing off Stoke at the weekend. The Potters though are not an easy team to beat and the side have play-off aspirations of their own.

With that in mind then, who could start for Forest and give them the best chance of a result?

After an incredible win over promotion chasing Blackburn, you’d be surprised to see Steve Cooper change any of the side that claimed that victory.

Brennan Johnson was excellent as ever and bagged a goal, while his strike partner Keinan Davis got himself an assist too. Both are likely to start again, especially in the absence of Lewis Grabban.

James Garner was equally as impressive and despite having some other options who could come into the midfield, they had a good balance in that Rovers win and Cooper will not want to mess with that as he looks for another three points here. Both flanks were equally adept at getting forward and creating so neither player should change.

Finally, the biggest amount of options for Forest comes at the back. Even with Richie Laryea and Tobias Figueiredo available as options, the side kept a clean sheet when they squared up to Blackburn. You can’t see him tinkering with that either, especially when they fared so well.

It means that Forest could very much be lined up