BILLY Davies has told his Nottingham Forest players their play-off dreams are still alive – and again insisted the club have already achieved something 'remarkable' by simply avoiding relegation.
The Reds boss has challenged his players to produce the same level of performance against Millwall and Leicester in their final two games as they did against Barnsley on Saturday, when their luck dried up at the City Ground.
Forest were denied by the woodwork four times and saw Tykes keeper Luke Steele make a string of outstanding saves as the strugglers held out for a 0-0 draw, which left the Reds in eighth place, two points behind sixth-placed Bolton.
But Davies has demanded that his players do not become downhearted – and merely focus on producing the same level of performance in their final two games, which he believes will be enough to secure the six points they need to have any chance of a top six finish.
"It is still possible for me to get 70 points and either just miss out on the play-offs or just sneak into the play-offs. Looking back 13 games ago, 70 points would have been an ambitious target," said Davies.
"I said a long time ago, when I first took over, in the first week in fact, that we have a very good squad on paper, but that games were won on football pitches. We had a job to do to lift the confidence of this team.
"I felt that getting to 54 or 55 points would have been a remarkable achievement under the circumstances, given that we had no confidence and given what happened at Bristol City, prior to us taking over. Now we are sitting here with almost 70 points, which I am very pleased about.
"We can go anywhere and win, we can. And, sitting with two games to go and six points required to give us a chance – I would have taken that (position) all day long.
"We needed seven points, we have got one point, even though we wanted three and deserved three. We still have two games left and this is the Championship for you.
"We just look to the next game. I have been here many times and seen many things happen at the end of the season. The simple facts were that we needed two wins and a draw, now we have picked up a draw, we need two wins. We need to carry on from where we were against Barnsley and take that into the next two games.
"I told the players to perform to the same level again, then we will pick up six points, which will take us to 70 and, with that amount, it might be enough to get us in."
Davies admitted he could not believe Forest's luck as he saw Billy Sharp denied by the woodwork twice, Henri Lansbury hit the bar and Steele make a string of saves, including one that pushed a spectacular Andy Reid effort onto the foot of the post.
"I can ask no more, you saw the same game as me. We can ask no more. You have seen the post, you have seen the bar, you have seen the crosses and the shots … we deserved three points and we should have got them," he said.
"In the end, we got a point. From that point of view, we are obviously disappointed it is not three.
"I said to the players at the end – if they do that in the next two matches, they will win both games. I can ask for no more than they gave me against Barnsley. But Lady Luck was against us, I am sure you would agree."
