Nottingham Forest, a best league position for 26 years and the promise of what is to come

In the first week of September 1998, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire made its television debut, internet giant Google was only just being formed — and Nottingham Forest sat third in the Premier League table.

Forest fans could be forgiven for wanting to phone a friend or to do a Google search just to double-check they are not dreaming now, after seeing their side return to that position for the first time in more than 26 years.

Callum Hudson-Odoi — the last player to dance off the City Ground pitch and all the way down the tunnel into the home dressing room, following a memorable 3-0 win over West Ham United — had not even been born when Forest last climbed this high.

Jean-Claude Darcheville and Steve Stone were the scorers as a Forest side managed by Dave Bassett won 2-1 at Southampton to offer a false sense of optimism at the very start of a campaign that ultimately ended in relegation.

Fast forward to 2024 and the current mood of positivity is entirely justified. That fate will not be Forest’s destiny this time around.

The afternoon began with a huge Forza Garibaldi banner in the Trent End, celebrating Nottingham’s proud history as a rebel city, which began in the days of Robin Hood and continued when the castle was a focal point of the English civil war in 1642.

The line, ‘It’s best to be a rebel, so as to show ‘em it don’t pay to try to do you down’, felt aimed at least partially in the direction of the Football Association (FA), following the recent touchline ban and stadium ban handed down to head coach Nuno Espirito Santo and owner Evangelos Marinakis respectively — and the £750,000 ($970,000) fine for a social media post that questioned refereeing standards.

And the afternoon ended with them upsetting the establishment again by forcing their way into the Champions League places.

Forest may only remain there briefly depending on results on Sunday. But what is not in doubt is that, after 10 games, they deserve to be there and are in this position on merit.

Supporters should enjoy every moment. They are witnessing some of the best football Forest have played since Frank Clark led them to an unlikely third-place finish in 1994-95, in what was their first season after promotion. There is an argument to be made that this is the best Forest side since then.

Stan Collymore was the rampaging figure at the forefront of that most unexpected of title challenges, scoring 22 goals. When Chris Wood scored his eighth goal in 10 games to put Forest ahead against West Ham, the New Zealand striker edged one goal ahead of Collymore in the list of Forest’s Premier League goalscorers. One more would put Wood level with Bryan Roy, the man who leads the way on 24 goals.

Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina added spectacular strikes of their own, all part of one of the most convincing performances Forest have produced in recent years. West Ham played with 10 men after Edson Alvarez was sent off late in the first half. But Forest were dominant long before that moment.

Morgan Gibbs-White was back to his creative best on his return from injury and, when his battery ran low, Elliot Anderson — who had been an injury doubt himself — picked up the baton brilliantly when he replaced him off the bench. Finding a way to fit both of them into the team against Newcastle United next weekend will be the most positive of headaches.

In the meantime, the landmark stats keep piling up — this was the first time since May 1999 that Forest have won three Premier League games in a row. It was their biggest Premier League win since they beat Coventry 3-0 in August 1996. Only Liverpool (six) have conceded fewer goals than Forest (seven). Only Liverpool (five) have kept more clean sheets than Forest (four). For context, this is a team that kept four clean sheets in the entirety of last season.

Making Forest more difficult to beat was Nuno’s priority in the summer — and he has done so emphatically.

When they were promoted in 2022, amid the celebrations in the Market Square, Marinakis pledged that a return to European football was the target. Even the fiercely ambitious Forest hierarchy did not expect a challenge for that this season. The target this summer was for a significant degree of improvement.

There has definitely been that. But in Nuno they have a grounded head coach who will not allow anyone to get carried away — we are still barely a quarter of the way through the season. But there was a broad smile wrapped across the face of the often reserved Portuguese who, for understandable reasons, cut a tense figure during his first few months in charge, following his appointment last December.

And the club may, at the very least, have to re-evaluate what might be possible if their current form is maintained.

Chants of ‘Forest are back’ echoed noisily around a stadium with a supremely proud history; a venue that witnessed back-to-back European successes under Brian Clough — but one where positivity had been in short supply for two decades.

A 23-year exile from the top division of English football included three years spent in the doldrums of League One, heading to places like Hartlepool, Yeovil and Oldham. As the chant fans have for Hudson-Odoi suggests, they can now at least dream of spending Thursday nights with him at places like ‘Copenhagen, Leverkusen and Marseille’.

Steve Cooper credited the wall of noise that these fans can deliver as being the wind in the sails on Forest’s journey to the Premier League, via promotion through the Championship play-offs. It was also a major factor in helping the club survive two consecutive fights against relegation.

Now it could be a driving force as Forest embark on a journey that might — might still being entirely the key word — just lead them to a different destination.

Forest shocked football when they secured European qualification in 1995. It would still be a significant surprise if they did so again in the coming months.

But Nuno led Wolves to back-to-back seventh-place finishes immediately after guiding them to promotion in 2018. And maybe now a club with a proud history of delivering shocks and of upsetting the establishment can at least dream of doing so again.

(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)