Nottingham Forest must stop talking and deliver a victory that would put two key stats to bed – and properly demonstrate their play-off intent – when they head to Rotherham next weekend, says Martin O’Neill.
The Reds lifted themselves back to within two points of the top six with a ground out 2-1 win over Swansea at the City Ground.
And O’Neill says it is time for Forest to follow that up by securing their first away win since November and their first back-to-back wins since September, when they head to the New York Stadium.
The Reds boss says there can be no talk of the play-offs until they can deliver some consistency and momentum, by building on their gritty success.
“That would be lovely and that is the thought we will have in our heads now - go there and win the game,” when asked about the two statistics that have undermined Forest’s season since long before O’Neill took charge.
“You can talk about play-offs; you can talk until you are blue in the face.
“If you do not win these games, the play-offs are going to be a million miles away for you.
“Momentum now would be really great. It is what we must aim for.”
O’Neill made no bones about the fact that Forest must also strive to be far better when it comes to their performance levels, following a game in which they need late headers from Daryl Murphy and Molla Wague to secure a precious three points, against a Swansea side that had dominated possession.
“I am delighted with the players, delighted for the players and delighted that we won the game,” said O’Neill. “Let’s get ourselves prepared now, for Rotherham.
“It was great to win the game. I don’t have to tell you that we have lots to do.
“It would be nice to be able to play it out from the back, which is really important, but it also takes a little bit of time.
“You need confidence within the camp. Sometimes you can be undone with it, when you try to do that.
“We tried to squeeze Swansea in certain areas, which worked well in the first half but, as we tired, they got more of the play and we dropped back at little bit.
“There is loads of improvement in the team to be made, but we know that.
“I think if you looked at the game, on its own, you would think that Swansea were the better footballing side. Sometimes you have to grind something out. I do not want it to be a grind, I want us to be able to play.
“I want us to be able to sweep teams aside here and, at some stage or another, we will do. But just hold on for a second or two.”
Forest were boosted by the return of Lewis Grabban and Matty Cash from injury, while Pele and Tendayi Darikwa both returned from international duty unscathed.
“We had players coming back from international duty, like Pele for example, who I thought did great when he came on, he made a significant contribution and was driving at them,” said O’Neill.
“You would never know that he had been away; that he had only had one proper training session with us.
“Tendayi had a difficult afternoon with young (Swansea winger) James, but stuck to his task.”
