While they were leading 1-0 at a Sheffield United side that had posed virtually no threat during the first half of yesterday’s FA Cup fifth round tie, news filtered through that a home draw with Championship strugglers Sheffield Wednesday or Charlton awaited the winners in the sixth round.
No disrespect to any of those sides but suddenly a Wembley semi-final became more than a possibility.
Then, in trademark Forest fashion, those dreams were brought crashing back down to earth by a Blades team managed by Reds legend Nigel Clough.
In the 22 years that have passed, QPR and Fulham of are the only other sides in the top two divisions that haven’t played at Wembley at least once – although Rangers visited Cardiff for a play-off final and Fulham lost a Europa League final in Hamburg.
Forest, meanwhile, have found some astonishing ways of snatching failure from the jaws of success.
The Blades started it all off in the 2003 play-off semi finals, over-turning Paul Hart’s Forest who held a 2-0 second half lead at Bramall Lane only to lose 4-3 after extra time.
The most infamous was the 2007 League One play-off semis in which Colin Calderwood’s Reds won 2-0 at Yeovil in the first leg only to contrive to lose 5-2 at home.
They have even managed it twice under Davies, crashing 4-3 at home to Blackpool in 2010 before failing to beat Swansea the following year even though the Welsh side had Neil Taylor sent off in the first minute of the first leg.
Some Forest fans may cruelly refer to the second best goalscorer in their history as ‘Non League Nigel’ but he provided the right motivation yesterday, mentioning the prospect of a Steel City quarter-final during his half-time team talk, and seeing his side come back from 1-0 down to win 3-1.
That’s not a criticism of Davies. The FA Cup may have been treated with contempt by some of his contemporaries but the manager’s desire to take Forest as far as possible in the competition, despite being in the midst of a promotion battle, cannot be questioned.
As Forest took more than 5,000 fans to Sheffield, it may have been more suitable to talk about which set of fans wanted it more.
Having thrown away their Wembley dreams in the cup, the best way Forest can ease their fans’ latest disappointment would be to avoid the play-offs – and a possible trip to Wembley – by winning automatic promotion to the Premier League.
