Fans of other clubs often accuse Nottingham Forest supporters of living in the past, but who could blame them?
Not many English teams can look back on two European Cup wins. Chelsea are the only others in fact, including the Champions League era. Liverpool have won it six times, Manchester United three and Aston Villa one. That's it. No Manchester City wins and none for Tottenham or Arsenal.
Forest have their place in football folklore and in the minds of fans of a certain age that puts them on the list of clubs who should be in the perfect Premier League. The problem is, Forest have not been there since 1999. That could all change in the next few months with the Reds three points off the top six with at least two games in hand on the teams who currently occupy the play-off places.
Read more: Leigh Wood calls out Josh Warrington over City Ground comment
Read more: Transfer prediction made over Brennan Johnson
Sunday's FA Cup defeat to Liverpool showed the best players deliver consistently in the key moments as Diogo Jota scored the only goal minutes after Philip Zinckernagel missed Forest's big chance, not that he will ever need reminding. Reds fan and chief football writer for the I newspaper, Daniel Storey, says Forest must now follow Jota and Liverpool's example and be clinical when it counts, over the next 10 (potentially 13) games having turned around such a miserable start to the season.
"If you ask people aged 35 and over for their ideal 20 Premier League teams, 90 to 95 percent include Forest. That's a compliment to the history of the club but for that not to feel patronising we have to make good on that now," he said on the latest Garibaldi Red podcast.
"We've been given a real chance that none of us saw coming at the start of the season with those first seven games. Like we said about players taking chances, the best clubs have to make the most of the unexpected chances that come their way. The next 10 games give us a great chance and one we've not had for far too long."
So how big a club are Forest really? If they can get into the Premier League and establish themselves in the next few years, are they a Brighton, a Leeds, a Leicester or perhaps a club of the scale of Aston VIlla? For Storey, that answer cannot be dictated by history but only by what happens now and in the next few years.
"I think this is a blasphemous thing for a Forest fan to say, but you have to park history. That can mean something in terms in terms of the feel of the club and the atmosphere on the big nights, but the reality is that in the last 10 years, outside of the financial elite, football has become a meritocracy," he said.
"The reason Leicester and Brentford are in the Premier League and Brighton have been pushing for the top half is not history, it's that they are incredibly well run, they have a clear identity and they don't change managers all the time. For too long Forest made those mistakes and perhaps the history weighed them down. There was an expectation we couldn't match and we chased that expectation too quickly.
"What I hope and what I'm starting to believe is that with (manager) Steve Cooper and (CEO) Dane Murphy, they're creating an identity. The history of the club is an ingredient in its success and not a barrier to it. It starts to mean something, but it can only ever be an add on to what you are doing now. What Forest needed to do was get it right now. I'm not giddy because of a good cup run, but that is what we are doing now."
Fellow podcast guest, Forza Garibaldi's Greg Mitchell, believes Forest have the potential to match a club of Villa's size if they can finally end their Premier League exile this season.
"What Daniel said isn't blasphemous at all. We often look at the past and say we deserve to be up there. Clearly we don't," he said. "The way we've turned things around this season, if we were to get up you'd look at survival, but the way we play, it can propel us.
"It's amazing we're talking about this, but I don't see why we can't rival our neighbours in Villa and Leicester. You want to be the biggest club in the Midlands. Forest, with our fanbase and a stadium that might hold 40,000, plus new training facilities - it feels like the jigsaw pieces are slowly coming together."
