Nottingham Forest made a deadline day swoop to bring Ross McCormack to the City Ground, in what was an incredibly shrewd move by the club.

When news emerged that McCormack was going to Forest, the news was met with a touch of scepticism given the fact he probably wouldn't leave Villa to step down to Forest.

After a sour end to his time at Villa, McCormack made the bold move to leave Villa Park for Forest in the hope of finding some regular game time.

There is no doubting McCormack's quality as a player and he will slot nicely into the Forest side, but his application has been questioned lately and that is something Forest will have to address to get the best out of him.

Forest have found themselves pulled into a relegation battle in recent weeks largely due to the good form of the Championships bottom four but with McCormack signed, you would expect they will be okay.

Here's THREE reasons why McCormack is a shrewd signing by Forest...

He scores goals

The biggest strength in McCormack's game is his goal scoring ability and that will no doubt have been the biggest pull in deciding whether Forest would sign him or not.

McCormack has consistently netted 20 goals in the Championship, so it has come as a great surprise that he has struggled for Villa so far this season.

There is no doubting that the Scot will score goals for Forest and they could be the difference between Forest staying up or being dragged deeper into the relegation dog fight.

Was in a similar position last season

 McCormack found himself in a similar position last season with Fulham, as what Forest find themselves in now and his experience could be invaluable.

Like Forest, Fulham were loitering around the drop zone for large parts of the season but in the end they stayed up fairly comfortably.

If Forest are to get dragged deeper into the relegation battle, then McCormack will have to use all his experience of last season to help get Forest out of danger.

Only on loan

Perhaps the clinching factor in making sure the deal happened was the fact that McCormack is only on loan, as Forest wouldn't have been able to buy him because of his hefty price tag.

It also gives Forest a chance to assess McCormack for five months and re-assess at the end of the season, making a decision on whether they would take the risk and sign him permanently.

The wages on offer for McCormack from now until the end of the season is small fry in comparison with the money on offer if you stay in the Championship rather than being in League One, which makes the move even more shrewd.