Sky Sports EFL pundit David Prutton has suggested that Nottingham Forest will be able to come out on top in their clash with Hull City at the City Ground on Saturday.

Steve Cooper’s side head into the game aiming to build on their back-to-back wins against Peterborough United and Swansea City as they aim to continue climbing the Championship table. It has been an excellent start to life at the City Ground for the former Swansea boss and his side delivered a brilliant display to secure a comfortable win against his former employers last time out.

Forest head into the game unbeaten in their last eight Championship matches since their 4-0 defeat at home to Fulham. If they were to continue their good winning run against Hull it would give them a chance of closing the gap on the teams above them in the table.

Nottingham Forest will need to be at their best to try and keep their run of form going though because Hull head into the game on a six-match unbeaten run of their own. The Tigers had secured four successive wins to climb out of the relegation zone before they have been held to successive draws by Reading and Bristol City.

 

 

Making his latest round of predictions for Sky Sports, Prutton suggested that Forest should have slightly too much for Hull on Saturday. He believes that the Tigers' impressive recent upturn will come to an end with a 2-1 defeat.

He wrote: “Nottingham Forest have picked up back-to-back wins and Steve Cooper would have been very satisfied to take all three points from Swansea last week. They have the play-offs in their sights.

“Hull are unbeaten in six now, although they would have been frustrated not to have taken the victory against Bristol City last week. They will want to keep their unbeaten run going, but I think this is where it comes to an end.

The Verdict

This is a hugely important match for both of these two sides. Forest will be needing to try and secure all three points to continue their push towards the play-off places and it would be a major step in the right direction if they were to make it three wins on the bounce. That sort of run would show that they are beginning to turn their draws into victories more consistently.

These are the games that the Reds are going to have to win between now and the end of the campaign if they are to secure a top-six finish. Therefore, there will be a lot of expectations on them at the City Ground. This is when Cooper really needs to get his side delivering because Nottingham Forest have had many a false dawn over the last few years.

Hull, meanwhile, would do well to take any result back home with them and that would extend their unbeaten run. Grant McCann has been doing a very good job to keep his side clear of the bottom three over the last few weeks. However, they are only a handful of points above the bottom three so they can not afford to relax.