FOREST boss Gary Megson has compared the Championship run-in to the back nine in a top golf tournament.Megson, who has steadied the Nottingham Forest ship with a run of six games unbeaten, four clean sheets and two successive away wins, is confident they are on course for survival.

By Derek Davis

FOREST boss Gary Megson has compared the Championship run-in to the back nine in a top golf tournament.

Megson, who has steadied the Nottingham Forest ship with a run of six games unbeaten, four clean sheets and two successive away wins, is confident they are on course for survival.

He believes safety, and automatic promotion for the Blues, depends on mental toughness.

Megson said: “I know the situation, I had it at West Brom when we got promoted.

“You can't go the whole season without a few wobbles. Sunderland and Wigan have had theirs, now Ipswich are having one.

“It is like the final nine holes in a big golf competition. You have got to get pars or better while playing under intense pressure.”

With former Ipswich striker David Johnson now on loan to Sheffield United until the end of the season and Marlon King now at Leeds, Megson is looking to new signing Scott Dobie, who he had at The Hawthorns, to link up with 10-goal striker Gareth Taylor.

But he has also unearthed another goal-getter in midfielder Kris Commons, who netted both goals in the 2-0 win over Watford in midweek.

Commons has warned Town to be afraid after his double strike fired the Reds to within three points of safety.

Victory today at Ipswich could lift Forest out of the relegation zone.

Commons said: “There is no doubt that other players from other clubs are going to start looking over their shoulders.

“It is now putting the pressure on them to get a result, and rightly so.

“People are now starting to look at us in a different light.

“We are scoring goals, keeping clean sheets and look solid, and people are starting to get worried.

“There are at least four or five teams above us who can still get dragged into the trouble.

“Other teams know that if they slip up they will be in trouble, so we have just got to keep up the pressure.”

Frenchman David Friio has recovered from a calf injury and could replace Paul Evans in midfield, otherwise Forest are unchanged from the side that took their tally to 10 points from a possible 12.