Matty Cash has claimed that he and his Nottingham Forest teammates still believe that they can reach the playoffs places, and says that they are "fighting for their lives" to do so.

That's despite losing to playoff rivals Aston Villa and drawing with bottom side Ipswich in their last two games, leaving Martin O'Neil's side eleventh in the Championship table, three points off the playoff places.

Speaking about the mood in the Forest camp after the Ipswich draw, Cash was quoted by the Nottingham Post as saying:

“We definitely think we can do it. There is still that belief in the dressing room, because we know that two or three wins would get us right up there.”

One reason Cash is still confident about his side's playoff prospects is the fixtures they have against other teams in the hunt for the playoffs, with the midfielder going on to claim: “We still have to play Middlesbrough, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday and they are all up there. There is a chance to take points off them.

“We are fighting for our lives; we are close – we have to keep going.”

Cash also went to add that ending a wait for back-to-back wins that stretches back to September could be crucial to Forest's top six hopes, claiming: “We are frustrated that we have not won back-to-back games since September, of course,

“But now is the time for us to go and do that, isn’t it? If we can address that now, we can push on."

The verdict:

Though Middlesbrough's playoff push has hit all sorts of hurdles recently, it is hard to see Forest or anyone getting something over the two Sheffield sides right now.

That could of course change as the pressure of the finish line coming into view starts to take effect, but with those three games all taking place in the space of two weeks, with only the visit of Blackburn to the City Ground splitting the trips to Sheffield with Middlesbrough following the latter, Cash's assessment could prove eerily accurate one way or another.