Nottingham Forest host Wolves in a Midlands derby at the City Ground, as both teams fight for Premier League survival.
Victory would see Forest leapfrog Wolves and potentially go as high as 12th in the table, whilst Wolves can move four points clear of their hosts with a win and go 12th if Palace fail to win elsewhere.
Team News
Andre Ayew is ruled out for Forest after he suffered a knee injury whilst on international duty for Ghana.
Wayne Hennessey (knee), Serge Aurier (knock), Scott McKenna, Cheikhou Kouyate (both hamstring), Ryan Yates (shoulder), Emmanuel Dennis (toe), Brennan Johnson and Taiwo Awoniyi (both groin) are all doubts and could face late fitness tests.
Dean Henderson (muscle), Giulian Biancone (knee), Omar Richards (leg), Willy Boly (hamstring), Gustavo Scarpa (unspecified) and Chris Wood (thigh) remain absent.
Wolves will be without Jonny for their next three matches after he was red carded in their 4-2 defeat at home to Leeds last time out, but Matheus Nunes will be available after his red card was rescinded upon appeal.
Nelson Semedo (foot), Hugo Bueno (muscle) and Boubacar Traore (groin) are all set to be in contention for selection.
Hwang Hee-Chan (muscle), Chiquinho and Sasa Kalajdzic (both knee) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Forest face Wolves in a 3pm BST kick-off at the City Ground on Saturday 1 April, albeit untelevised live in UK.
Stat Attack
- Forest lost their only previous Premier League meeting against Wolves (L1), losing 1-0 in October 2022.
- Wolves are visiting Forest at the City Ground in a Premier League clash for the first time, but are unbeaten in their last six visits in all competitions (W4, D2).
- Forst have conceded twice in three of their last four home meetings against Wolves in a league match, except for a 1-1 draw in April 2016.
- Forest have scored in 13 of their 14 league matches at home this season, except for a 2-0 loss against Tottenham in late August.
- Wolves have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last 13 away matches in all competitions (W2, D5, L6).
Prediction
Locked in a tough scrap for survival, Forest now need to make their excellent goalscoring record at home count and cut out their mistakes to convert more results into wins, because they were pretty unlucky to not snatch a draw against Newcastle through small errors amidst excellent counter-attacking.
Their injury crisis though is Forest’s biggest Achilles heel but with Brennan Johnson set to return, I do expect them to come out fighting for the win to ease pressure upon them across this run-in.
Wolves’ run-in however does look tough given their poor goalscoring record and there is improvement to be made, following poor defensive marking, composure in possession plus end product in their defeat against Leeds despite displaying excellent quality in their intensity and movement.
A win though is crucial for both teams here but if Forest can find the opening goal, I fancy them to have the edge in what should be a tight contest.
Prediction: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Wolves
Result: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Wolves
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