Both Nottingham Forest and Stoke City will be looking to extend their winning streak to three matches now on the bounce across all competitions when they lock horns at City Ground in widely anticipated Championship fixture of the weekend. The showdown is scheduled for Saturday evening with kickoff at 18:00.
Nottingham Forest had a difficult start to the 2021/22 Championship campaign, but the club has found its feet under Steve Cooper, who have spearheaded the most remarkable of turnarounds with the 42-year-old losing just four of his 24 matches in charge and has kept the club in line for their most successful campaign over the past decades.
Forest have been on an upward trajectory in the tier and now sit sixth with 46 points on board in their name and are undeniably the dark horses for an automatic promotion having collected 21 points from their last 10 Championship fixtures.
They head into the match high spirits as they are coming off a mighty 2-0 win against direct-promotion seekers Blackburn Rovers at away on Wednesday night and prior to that is the 4-1 demolition job of Leicester City in the FA Cup.
The hosts have now won six and lost just one of their seven matches in 2022 across all competitions, including the wins against Premier League outfits Arsenal and Leicester City in the cup and they will be confident of getting another positive result in the Saturday’s clash.
Meanwhile Stoke City have made an inconsistent campaign this season with the club recording 12 wins, six draws ad 11 defeats from their 29 matches to collect 42 points which have left them sitting in the 11th spot with four points outside the top six.
The Potters also head into the match in good mood as they are coming off an emphatic 3-0 win against Swansea City in their midweek fixture, which made their biggest margin of victory in almost a year. Prior to that Michael O’Neill’s men were coming off an impressive 2-0 triumph over Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup.
Therefore, although Forest are clear favorites to see off Stoke at the weekend, Michael O’Neill will feel that his side are back on track after the two convincing wins and he will expect them to cause their hosts a few problems.
Nottingham vs Stoke head to head
Both sides have met in 19 encounters since 1993 with Nottingham claiming six victories while Stoke have claimed five victories and there have been five draws.
- Stoke 1-0 Nottingham 21/08/21
- Nottingham 1-1 Stoke 24/04/21
- Stoke 1-1 Nottingham 29/12/20
- Nottingham 1-4 stoke 22/07/20
- Stoke 2-3 Nottingham 27/09/19
Home
- Blackburn 0-2 Nottingham
- Nottingham 4-1 Leicester
- Cardiff 2-1 Nottingham
- Nottingham 3-0 Barnsley
- Nottingham 2-1 Derby County
Away
- Stoke 3-0 Swansea
- Stoke 2-0 Wigan
- Huddersfield 1-1 Stoke
- Coventry 1-0 Stoke
- Stoke 2-3 Fulham
Nottingham team news
Nottingham will be without Loic Mbe Soh, Lewis Grabban and Alex Mighten due to injuries.
Stoke team news
Stoke will be without Tyrese Campbell, Romaine Sawyers, Mario Vrancic Harry Souttar and Abdallah Sima due to injuries.
Prediction and odds
- Nottingham win
- Both sides to score
- Goals over 2.5
