Nottingham Forest will hope this is the year that they finally make the step up and have a real challenge for promotion to the Premier League.
Under new manager Sabri Lamouchi, the Reds are currently fifth in the Sky Bet Championship, five points behind leaders West Bromwich Albion with a game in hand.
That extra match will be the rearranged fixture against Reading, after the original clash was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch at the City Ground. A new date for the game is yet to be confirmed.
The Reds’ next test in the Championship sees them welcome to Trentside this weekend, which could see Forest strengthen their position in the league table even further.
Respected statistics and analysis website FiveThirtyEight has forecast the final standings in the Sky Bet Championship this season, based on a complex model which takes into account a host of factors.
They have crunched the numbers and are predicting that Forest will finish in seventh place in the final standings, and narrowly miss out on the play-offs.
The prediction has tipped the Reds to accumulate 70 points, agonisingly one shy of sixth-placed Swansea City who occupy the final play-off spot.
The other sides predicted to finish in the play-offs are Fulham, Preston North End and Brentford, while West Bromwich Albion and Leeds United are being tipped for automatic promotion.
The predicted table has given Forest a 16% chance of securing promotion to the Premier League, with a 29% chance of getting there via the play-offs.
Here is the full predicted table made by FiveThirtyEight.
- Leeds United
- West Brom
- Fulham
- Preston
- Brentford
- Swansea City
- Nottingham Forest
- Bristol City
- Cardiff City
- Sheffield Wednesday
- Hull City
- QPR
- Birmingham City
- Derby County
- Millwall
- Huddersfield
- Blackburn Rovers
- Charlton Athletic
- Reading
- Wigan Athletic
- Stoke City
- Middlesbrough
- Luton Town
- Barnsley
