Chris Hughton admits, in his “quieter moments”, he is tempted to join some fans in dreaming about just how high up the table Nottingham Forest could finish this year.
But the Reds manager is determined to keep a sensible head and feels Championship safety is not yet certain, let alone daring to think about anything else.
Forest are up to 16th after Friday night’s draw at Derby County, on a good run of form which has seen them lose just twice in their last 15 games.
They are now 11 points clear of the bottom three. And, tantalisingly, are 12 off the division’s top six.
Given Hughton’s men are one of the form teams, there has been an air of optimism among supporters of late.
Whether a late push towards the play-offs ultimately proves beyond them or not, given where they were a few months ago, it is a turnaround which nevertheless bodes well for next term.
“It is a great encouragement, and I absolutely can’t blame them,” Hughton said of fans looking up the table.
“Our game is full of emotion.
“Even us, as managers, in our quieter moments start dreaming about things.
“That’s the nature of the game, because you’re so involved and you so want to do well.
“There is still that buzz you get and that excitement you get from winning games, and you want to take that into the next one and the next one. It’s no different being a player or a manager.
“We all have those moments, but the large majority of time I have to try to be as sensible as possible.”
It is with that in mind that Hughton says there are no guarantees when it comes to survival just yet, as the Reds prepare to host Luton Town on Tuesday night.
“It’s always different from our side,” he said.
“There are two ways of looking at it, as a manager, you could want to breed confidence and speak that way, but I don’t think it’s the way I prefer - and probably most managers would be the same.
“If I’m looking at the game against Derby, if we’d got the result we wanted to, it would have been nine points in three games, which would have been wonderful.
“But we also know that in a bad week, that can go completely the other way.
“I don’t think we’re in a position yet.
“We’re certainly more comfortable now than we were a couple of months ago, as the league table indicates.
“We’re in a better place at this moment, and we still want to try to finish the season with as many points as we can.
“But I don’t think we’re at the stage yet where we can very safely not look over our shoulder.”
