Stoke City doubled their points tally for the season over the weekend when they picked up a point in a 0-0 draw away at Brentford, such has been their poor start to this new Championship season under manager, Nathan Jones.
Jones’s tenure has been given a stay of execution following that solid point at Griffin Park, but surely his job is hanging by a thread as he prepares his Stoke side for this upcoming clash against high-flying Nottingham Forest in one of the two matches being played this Friday evening.
Having lost 6 of their opening 8 matches of the season, Stoke City find themselves firmly ensconced in the bottom three of the Championship, and the bigger picture presents an even bleaker outlook as The Potters have now endured a wretched 14-match sequence without a win in the second tier.
This woeful set of results has seen Stoke lose 8 of these last 14 matches along with having lost 3 of their first 4 matches at their bet365 Stadium so far this season.
By contrast, high-flying Nottingham Forest will be supremely confident when they make their way to Stoke on Friday night as the Tricky Trees bring a 7-match unbeaten run into this encounter at the bet365 Stadium.
Following their opening day 2-1 defeat at home to West Brom, Nottingham Forest have since responded in positive fashion by putting together this decent and solid sequence of results which include wins against Birmingham City, Fulham, Swansea City and Barnsley, which has helped lift Sabri Lamouchi’s side into one of the early play-off positions.
However, it’s a familiar story for Nottingham Forest as they usually start their campaign off in promising fashion but have tended to fall away as the season unfolds, but could this be Forest’s year for promotion finally?
Recent results away from home have certainly given the players and fans plenty of encouragement as they’re unbeaten in their last 5 matches on the road which is a definite improvement upon their previous sequence of 13 away matches without a win, which included 7 defeats!
But wins at QPR (last season) along with Fulham and Swansea City this term should give Nottingham Forest plenty of belief of getting a result at Stoke City on Friday night at very good odds.