Nottingham Forest winger Joe Lolley has admitted he felt automatic promotion was beyond the Reds when they trailed second place by 11 points.

West Brom and Leeds United had been running away with the Championship leading up to Christmas but they both went on very poor runs that saw the chasing pack catch up considerably.

As it stands, Sabri Lamouchi's men are eight points behind leaders West Brom but they are just four points behind the Whites as we head into the final 13 games of the season.

So, automatic promotion still feels possible for Forest but Lolley told the Sky Sports EFL podcast that it seemed a long shot earlier in the campaign.

"Realistically, yeah. Once you go 11 points clear, with two teams of their quality, you don’t expect them to keep dropping points, which they had done.

"It’s obviously brilliant for us and teams around us. We put a very strong run together as well and put us back up there, so it makes for a pretty exciting end."

Forest drew with Albion in an entertaining game on Saturday and will hope to get back to winning ways against QPR this weekend.

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The verdict

Lolley is a very honest player and he doesn't come out with the usual comments that you expect from footballers and it's refreshing to see.

Most Forest fans, and others in the promotion race, felt West Brom and Leeds were too far ahead and they wouldn't be caught, so it's natural that Lolley thought the same.

Clearly, that didn't impact his performances and he has played his part to get the Reds back into contention and it's now about finishing the job in the coming months.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.