Boss Chris Hughton has addressed concerns expressed by some fans that Nottingham Forest’s season is in danger of becoming a relegation battle.
After coming so close to the play-offs last term, it was hoped the Reds could build on that this time around and go a step further.
A miserable start of four league defeats, however, cost Sabri Lamouchi his job, while his replacement, Hughton, has picked up 12 points from his 10 games in charge.
Forest sit 21st in the table, two points above the drop zone, and on a three-match losing streak going into Wednesday night’s clash with third-placed Watford.
Hughton says he knew he had a tough job on his hands when he took up the City Ground post.
And while he understands why supporters may be starting to worry, he insists there is plenty of time to turn this campaign around.
“I can always understand fans’ concerns about that,” he said. “For our supporters, this is their team; it’s their concern.
“We are three games without a win, so I can understand it.
“It’s their team and it’s an emotional game.
“But we are very, very early in the season and there is so much football to be played.
“I have no doubts that, for the percentage (of fans) who think that way, if we had done better in the last three games, they would have thought differently.
“Equally, if we go through a good period - which is what we are working as hard as we can to do - then the thinking changes again.
“I understand the fans’ concerns, and their support is very important. Unfortunately, that support is not in the stadium at the moment.”
Hughton believes his team have not always picked up the rewards they have deserved in some matches.
And he argues, even in fixtures against sides currently fighting at the other end of the table, there hasn’t been a sizeable difference between the two clubs.
“I don’t think you can ever argue with the league table,” he said.
“But I am around a group of players who feel we should be doing better than what we are, certainly as regards results.
“It is only us, as a group of staff and players, who can put that right.
“I’m certainly seeing a determination in training. The spirit has been good.
“I don’t think the margins are too big. There isn’t really anybody, or in any game we’ve played - and that includes Bournemouth - who have really given us a good beating as such.
“I think that’s where some of the confidence that we can start picking up results comes from.”
Hughton added: “Until the last three games, coming into the job when I did, with the team having the start to the season - and the end of last season - that they’d had, I would have been more happy than unhappy.
“It’s mostly been about these last three games, and two of them have been against very good opposition.
“I knew it was a tough job. They all are in this division - particularly in a season where it’s very difficult to gauge results.
“When the three teams who got promoted are picking up some of the results that they are, and giving you as tough a game as they are doing, it has become an even tougher league than at any other stage.
“I thought it would be a tough job.
“And when they are tough jobs, you look forward to that challenge even more.”
Asked if his expectations of what is possible between now and May have changed, based on recent weeks, Hughton said: “No, ultimately, I think it’s always about coming in and doing the best job you can.
“For any club, certainly any club of this stature and in this division, it’s doing the best job you can and trying to get as close to those play-off positions as you can.
“My responsibility and my drive wouldn’t have changed.
“Results, or runs you go on, sometimes change that a little bit. But we also know what can happen in this division.
“Three wins on the spin, as some clubs will have seen, can shoot you up five or six places.
“It is still about competing - and competing in all ways - to try to get into that top six.”
