Fixtures for Nottingham Forest's 2004/2005 League Campaign are released this Thursday, the 24th of June. The day the fixtures come out is the day that we must put all the doom and gloom of last season behind us and start a-fresh as we embark on a mission to see Nottingham Forest lose their Football League status and replace it with one of the top-flight of English football. The Premiership.

As I sit here in my warm living room I am thinking to myself, "Well don't we say this every year?" and the answer, I realise, is yes. Nottingham Forest fans have high expectations and are always looking for their team to achieve the best of what is there to be a achieved. It puts pressure on the players- but that's not necessarily a bad thing and they must know the expectations of a Forest faithful before they pull on the famous Garibaldi jersey.

The truth is that Nottingham Forest are a Premiership club trapped in a First Division club's body. I mean, come on, we are twice European Champions. We are roaming around playing our football against the likes of Crewe Alexandra (No offence) whilst wearing world famous red tops sporting stars that you would normally see the likes of Real Madrid and AC Milan wearing. It just doesn't suit us. Nottingham Forest need promotion.

And we too can play our part in helping the worldwide reputable club achieve it's goal and win back it's über-respectability. We have to continue supporting our club. Showing the world what it means to be a Red by churning in 25,000 attendances week-in-week-out like we were doing when we were battling relegation last term and Joe Kinnear was bringing around something of a "Nottingham Forest Revival."

If we continue supporting our club, that will bring the staff, the players and everyone connected with Nott'm Forest Football Club a more confident person- and with the way that football is going these days the financial stability that gate receipts can bring about will also prove important in the transfer market.

But what can I tell Reds about supporting a team? They do everything to perfection! They (we) never give up and we all never stop loving our team. We have been doing this for years now and promotion hasn't happened yet. And that's because, however great it is to have a good flowing, the key to a successful side is always down to what happens on and off the pitch with the backroom staff and the players' performances.

In Joe Kinnear, it is mine, and most other sensible Forest fans' view that we have the right man at the helm to lead The Tricky Trees to glory. He's a dab-hand in the transfer market- a kind of David Dickinson of football (without the orange-ness) you might say with the way he has brought in cheap buys such as Paul Evans for just 25k!

The players that we already had a hold of weren't too bad either. We have many young starlets who will surely move on to bigger and better things if we don't go up soon, meaning that it is essential as these players have world class potential! Examples of the aforementioned quality of young Reds are Michael Dawson and Andy Reid who can be summed up in one word: Immense.

You cannot say our squad is too young, though. Under Paul Hart our squad did have a kind of feeder-club feel to it as most of our players were under 24 years of age. But we're not like "Leicester-Innit," either, a team in which most of the players walk with the aid of a Zimmer frame- no. Too many cooks spoil the broth* we have just enough young players for the future and just enough David Johnson and Eoin Jess's to say that we have the perfect average age. (*Did I mention that the same guy that said that also said "The more the merrier. Contradictory or what!)

Anyway, back to the football banter. Next season I'd say that Nottingham Forest, as a club and a business, have everything required to win promotion to England's top-flight. Something that we are in desperate need of.

©ForestFC.co.uk, 2004