Defeat to Luton Town may have been a stumbling block in Nottingham Forest's push for the play-offs, but Steve Cooper's side remain on track to reach the Championship top six.
The Reds went into the game enjoying ten games unbeaten, including five back-to-back victories, but had their fine form cut short as a controversial penalty proved to be the difference between the two sides at Kenilworth Road. That defeat, coupled with Bournemouth's home draw with Middlesbrough, means the Reds are seven points adrift of the automatic promotion spots but four points inside the play-offs.
It remains a tight race for the top six Championship spots. Seven points separate Forest (5th) and Bournemouth (2nd), whilst the same number of points divide Huddersfield Town (3rd) and Blackburn Rovers (8th). This is what the managers of those fighting to extend their season have been saying...
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Nottingham Forest - 5th
“We were going to lose a game at some stage. We were on a good run, in good form, playing well and scoring goals,” boss Steve Cooper said after defeat to Luton Town.
“I’ve said to the players everything I’ve just said, plus we were going to lose a game at some stage - even if we didn’t really deserve to lose. Now we have to show that we can handle that. I don’t want to see any disappointment on the training ground. We get on with it.
“I’ve said to the players, we’ve shown lots of our good sides to our game and to our mentality. We need to show another one for Monday. Nobody wants to lose a game. But we’ve lost a game, so we’ve got to show we can deal with that and move on quickly.
“I’ve said to them, if I see any disappointment on the training ground, then that’s when I’ll really have the hump. That will be our approach. Whatever happened in this game, we were still going to play West Brom on Monday. So stick to the plan and the approach, get the frustration out of us. We love working for and playing for this huge football club, so let’s go represent it as best we can in the next game.”
Luton Town - 4th
After a 1-0 win over Forest, Hatters boss Nathan Jones said: "You’d be an absolute idiot if you didn’t describe that as a mammoth win.
"Forest hadn’t lost in ten, they’d won the last five and they have been annihilating teams with pace and power. Then they came up against a side who could match them today. Tactically we had to be right. I felt, on the balance of play, it was a pretty even game, with two top teams."
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Sheffield United - 6th
"That was the takeaway message that I left with the players," Blades boss Paul Heckingbottom told Yorkshire Live after losing to Reading. "You look at where we are now, we have four games left. It's turning into a sprint, there are more teams involved because of other results and games are going to get tighter and nervier and more important than that one.
"The message is we have to make better decisions. I thought the emotion of scoring and the stadium erupting affected our next two minutes. We had more than enough experience to get set up properly to deal with that threat. That's the takeaway because we will find ourselves in that position again when we have scored and the whole place has gone up."
Middlesbrough - 7th
Looking at the overall picture after his side's Bournemouth draw, Chris Wilder said: "We’re delighted with a point off the back of the two defeats. I didn’t believe we deserved to lose either game but after doing so it was really important for us to get a point today. From a psychological point of view, it hopefully gives the players a boost going into the big game on Monday.
"We’ve played the two best teams in the division in the space of ten days and they’re both really good sides. The performance levels were okay to good in both games and I think we just have to keep adding to our points total. If it’s enough then you get your rewards off the back of that.
"If we get those extra two points I feel we deserved against Fulham and Hull, you’re looking at that as a decent little run of adding to the points total. I haven’t got a crystal ball, so who knows what’s around the corner and what will be needed to get into the play-offs, but definitely if you can’t win make sure you don’t lose."
Blackburn Rovers - 8th
Discussing a 2-1 defeat to Peterborough United on Good Friday, Rovers boss Tony Mowbray said: "It’s a huge blow to us and to our aspirations this season.
"We’ve come to a team struggling at the bottom of the table and not managed to win.
"The circumstances, playing with 10 men for more than a half is not ideal, but we got ourselves infront and they hadn’t really threatened our goal and to lose two goals in the last 10 minutes, we need to show more backbone.
"How does that happen?
"You have to drive your team-mate next to you, it’s a lesson for young players and they have to learn the lessons otherwise they won’t get their careers where they want to go.
"We’re hugely frustrated, they're hugely disappointed, it’s a desperately disappointed dressing room and we have to pick them up because we have another game in a couple of days.
"We needed to come here and win and the sending off didn’t help. Frustrated, disappointed, upset, I thought the supporters were really good and we’re disappointed for them because they’ve had a long trip and when we got our noses in-front right in-front of them it looked like it was going to be a good day for them and it’s really disappointing for them we couldn’t see the game out."
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Coventry City - 9th
On being just three points off the play-off zone, Mark Robins told Coventry Live: "What's good is that you’ve got a situation now where nobody believes outside the club that you can get anywhere near it. Obviously, we’re playing catch up with teams that are in better position than us clearly, with the three extra points.
"You’re still outsiders but the difference is we’re in with a sniff with four games to go and that’s the biggest thing for me. Last season we only just got promoted and we were playing our home games here. In terms of what we’ve been able to achieve in five relatively short years is nothing short of astonishing."
Millwall - 10th
“We feel in with a chance, even if we are probably going to have to win most of our five remaining games and are going to need some teams to slip up," Millwall boss Gary Rowett said on April 15.
“All teams at the top have a blip and also many of the teams above us have to play each other and will drop points, so it’s all to play for.
“I feel we’ve been relatively consistent in the last 20 games and we have reached the sort of position we set out to achieve at the beginning of the season, and we can’t afford to slip up now.
“I was particularly pleased with our performance at the weekend and it’s made our week a little bit easier. But at this stage, you have to forget about it and move on quickly because the games come along so fast around Easter.
“The best way we can get results in the remaining games is to focus on the outcome of each individual game and see where that takes us. It’s impossible to say what we are going to need, but we are still in there fighting.”
West Brom - 11th
"It’s unbelievable," Bruce said. "It's what if. We're going to ask that all the time, what if. Who knows? I think we've got too much to do, but it's big game on Monday (away to Forest), though. There's frustration for everybody to see, so it's what if, but not to be."
