As with so many Championship games at this stage of the season, there are high stakes at both ends of the table when Nottingham Forest welcome Huddersfield Town to the City Ground on Sunday afternoon.

For the home team, a long-awaited promotion push needs to be realised by a play-off place but with half the division still in contention, the three-point cushion Forest went into the weekend with means very little.

Things are no clearer at the bottom, where Huddersfield are part of an eight-team scrap and just one point outside the relegation zone ahead of this round of games.

Neither made ideal restarts last week with Forest letting two points slip from their grasp in the 93rd minute at Sheffield Wednesday, while the Terriers were abject in a 2-0 home defeat to relegation rivals Wigan Athletic.

With this tie being the last of the weekend, results elsewhere will likely put further pressure on both teams to claim maximum points by the Trent.

Team news

Forest reported no injury concerns ahead of the game, with both Samba Sow (knee) and Ben Watson (knock) back available again.

One unavailable player will be loan winger Adama Diakhaby, who is ineligible to play against his parent club.

Huddersfield are hopeful that strikers Steve Mounie (quad) and Fraizer Campbell (achilles) will both be fit after missing out last weekend.

Emile Smith Rowe had illness ahead of that Wigan game and Juninho Bacuna suffered cramp during it, but both are fine for this week. Tommy Elphick (knee ligaments) remains a long-term absentee.

Predicted line-ups

Nottingham Forest: Samba; Cash, Figueiredo, Worrall, Ribeiro; Yates, Watson; Lolley, Silva, Ameobi, Grabban.

Huddersfield: Lossl; Duhaney, Stankovic, Schindler, Toffolo; O’Brien, Chalobah; Willock, Bacuna, Grant; Campbell.

What the managers have said

Looking ahead to the game, Forest head coach Sabri Lamouchi said:

“We have had a good week, I have liked the attitude from the players with quality. We have to keep going, after the draw at Sheffield, and we have to focus on Sunday.

“Huddersfield will be a difficult game to play, we have to start in the right way, we need to focus in the best way to concede the minimum and take the maximum points.

“We have to do the simple things. In a strange situation with the pandemic and the preparation being different, we have to do the simple things. We are not fully ready, they know that so we have to play together with and without the ball and do the simple things.”

Huddersfield manager Danny Cowley reiterated the confidence he has in his side ahead of the game, he said:

“We’ve prepared really well, and I trust in them (the players) as people. When we have had bad days we’ve always responded. We worked hard this week to try and find the right response come Sunday.

"I have huge faith in myself, Nicky (Cowley, assistant), the management team and the players. We are determined. I’ve got the most trust I’ve had in this group since I’ve been at the football club.”

The Huddersfield boss will be hoping the disappointment of the last result will help motivate his team for this one. 

"There's no hiding place from last Saturday. We take the criticism. We will keep it close and use it to drive us.

"We want to show a true representation of us on Sunday.

“It's time for us to make sure we respond with actions and not just words."

Head-to-head

Huddersfield came out on top when the two sides last met in December, with skipper Christopher Schindler and Mounie scoring in a 2-1 win at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Forest were the winners in the last clash at the City Ground though, winning 2-0 in April 2017.

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