Nottingham Forest will head to Wigan Athletic on Sunday afternoon looking to go 11 games unbeaten in the Championship.
The Reds haven’t lost since a 2-1 defeat to West Brom on the opening day of the campaign and Forest are currently sitting pretty in second.
By the time Sabri Lamouchi’s team play again they will probably be lower in the league but maintaining their unbeaten run will certainly be the order of the day.
The Forest team under Lamouchi’s guidance look like a different, more resolute animal. The manager might not be aware going into Sunday’s game but the Reds have an atrocious record at the DW Stadium.
Not since a David Johnson strike in May 2004 have Forest defeated the Latics on their own turf. Six meetings have taken place in Lancashire since then between the two sides with two home wins and four draws making it a less than fruitful hunting ground.
Lamouchi won’t be bogged down with history. For over 3000 supporters making the trip on Sunday, however, it will see a return to some for the venue for arguably Forest’s lowest ebb since their return to the second tier of English football.
During the 2016/17 campaign Forest were drawn to travel to Wigan in the third round of the FA Cup. Philippe Montanier’s team went into the contest on the back of a run of six games without a win.
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Amid boardroom uncertainty, the Reds threw the towel in on their FA Cup campaign and turned in a dismal performance, going down 2-0 to Warren Joyce’s team.
It wasn’t the scoreline that provided the biggest gripe, but the performance on the whole.
A quick glance towards the team-sheet that day should tell you everything you need to know about the struggles Forest were under at that point in their recent history.
Henderson, Cash, Hobbs, Mancienne, Lichaj, Dumitru, Lam, Pereira, Osborn, Bendtner, Assombalonga. The used substitutes that day were Lica, Carayol and Vellios.
Lowest ebb
Cash remains at the club of course and has gone from strength to strength. Osborn fetched Forest £3 million in the summer; whilst Britt Assombalonga helped Forest avoid relegation and then jumped ship to Middlesbrough for £15 million.
Forest managed just one shot on target in the 90 minutes – a saved penalty from Lichaj and on another day Wigan might have scored seven or eight. In the end, Will Grigg and Yanic Wildschut goals proved enough to put Forest out of their misery.
It was a game that earns a manager the sack. Indeed, the following week following a 0-0 draw with Birmingham, the axe would fall on Montanier.
Just 5163 people watched that cup tie at the DW Stadium. If Forest can sell out their latest allocation for Sunday’s game they could take 4000 fans north.
If that isn’t an indication as to just how far the football club has come in the last two years, then it’s hard to pinpoint anything as a barometer.
Forest will go to Wigan full of confidence with a squad that many believe is finally capable of pushing for a place in the higher echelons of the Championship.
A win on Sunday will certainly help erase the nightmares of Forest’s lowest ebb for many years back in 2017.
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