Nottingham Forest's final Championship outcome…

Nottingham Forest's final Championship outcome predicted as rivals tipped for promotion

Nottingham Forest will have ambitions that this could finally be the season that the club are promoted to the Premier League.

The Reds are enjoying a bright start to the campaign in what is new manager Sabri Lamouchi’s first season on Trentside.

Lamouchi’s side were held to a 2-2 draw with Millwall at The Den in their previous outing, and are now busy preparing to face Middlesbrough at the City Ground on Tuesday night.

are two points behind Fulham and Bristol City who occupy third and fourth place, respectively.

The Reds have a game in hand on their closest rivals, while Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion remain the front runners for automatic promotion.

So could this be the year that Forest finally get promoted and return to the Premier League?

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 fifth place in the final standings, and compete in the play-offs.

The prediction has tipped the Reds to accumulate 72 points, level on points with sixth-placed Bristol City and two above Sheffield Wednesday who are predicted to narrowly miss out on the play-offs.

The other sides predicted to finish in the play-offs are Fulham and Brentford, while West Bromwich Albion and Leeds are being tipped for automatic promotion.

The predicted table has given Forest a 14% chance of securing promotion to the Premier League, with a 37% chance of getting there via the play-offs.

It has also been predicted that Forest have a 2% chance of winning the Championship title.