Midfielder Luke Freeman says Nottingham Forest must embrace the challenge of their upcoming run of fixtures.
A trip to Watford on Saturday kicks off what looks to be a tough few weeks for the Reds, coming up against teams fighting for promotion.
After the third-placed Hornets, they have home games against Reading and leaders Norwich City, followed by away matches at Brentford and Cardiff City.
Chris Hughton’s side have spent this season concerned with matters at the opposite end of the table, though are now eight points clear of the bottom three.
But Freeman believes there is nothing to fear when taking on those at the top, with Forest having recently put in decent performances against the likes of Swansea City.
The Sheffield United loanee said: “It is a test. But why not look forward to it?
“I think a lot of people look at it and go, ‘ah, here we go, this is going to be trouble, we’ve got some tough games’. But embrace it. Why not?
“This is where a club like Forest want to be at, so embrace it, take it on and try to relish the opportunity you’ve got to play against the top teams.
“We’re looking forward to it.
“People raise their games when they play tough opponents. Sometimes it can suit you playing against the top teams.
“As a team, collectively, we’re probably more on our game. The games we’re expected to win are a lot tougher, because the opposition have got nothing to lose.
“Teams are dangerous when they’ve got nothing to lose because they’ll come at you and give everything they’ve got.
“We play better against those top teams, and we relish it - you’ve got to. It’s beyond me how people go into those games and worry about them or be nervous about certain games.
“They are the type of games you want to be involved in.”
With a promising gap having opened up between the Reds and the relegation zone, Freeman believes they are close to ensuring another season in the Championship.
But the squad remain wary of taking their position for granted.
“Logically, we’re not nearly there, but you know two or three more wins would probably get you over the line,” said the 28-year-old.
“But nothing is guaranteed in this league, so we’re not looking at it going, ‘once we get two or three wins, that’s us done’.
“We’re just taking it game by game and trying to get as many points as we can; see where it takes us.”
Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat at home to Luton Town was a warning Forest are not there yet.
And another reminder of the need to take their chances.
“It’s the conversion rate that we need to work on at the moment, but there’s a lot of good signs that we’re showing,” said Freeman.
“We can still play a lot better, but as a team, we feel it’s starting to work. Once we start converting those chances, I think we’ll be fine.
“We’re not converting as many chances as we would like to, so you’re living life on the edge a bit, because it could go either way.
“There’s games we’ve ended up drawing, where if we’d taken our chances we could have ended up winning 2-1. We’re aware of that.
“The most promising thing is the performances are there and the chances are there. It’s more worrying if you’re not getting any chances at all in games - when that happens you get to the end of the game and scratch your head going, ‘when are we going to score? How are we going to score’.
“But the chances are there, that’s the positive thing.
“Sometimes it happens in football, you have strikers that have goal droughts and you have teams that have goal droughts, where no matter what you do you can’t seem to buy a goal.
“It’s a very common thing.
“The only thing you can do is keep going, keep doing the right things and it will turn.”
