Forest must pick up here

If you’re going to be wrong you might as well be thumpingly so. This has been a good season for us but Manchester City outclassed Southampton last week and looked quite superb at times. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen them keep it up for 90 minutes like that but it was a demonstration of how beautiful football can be. Outstanding.

From the sublime to the whatever, I start to think that Tottenham can reel in Chelsea in the Premier League but the FA Cup semi-final is hard to call. They are certainly playing better than their west London rivals and I thought Chelsea were poor indeed against Manchester United. Spurs, on the other hand, are hardly giving the opposition a look-in and I would certainly make them favourites here, while Manchester City, if they play with last week’s elan, will account for Arsenal.

I shall look elsewhere for betting opportunities and a couple of Championship matches take the eye. BRISTOL CITY have been disappointing, to say the least, but every now and then there is a flicker of what they can achieve, the 4-0 thrashing of Huddersfield being the best recent example. They OWE the supporters, who were not far off calling for Lee Johnson’s head a while back, and I feel there will be no end-of-season staleness against Barnsley. For a start, City are not entirely safe and need to settle any remaining nerves. Barnsley are not to be underestimated and score plenty away from home but I think they will bump into a team with its confidence restored and this looks a home win. 4/6 is pretty shabby but, as I say, City have kept people waiting and now may be the time to side with them.

Reading’s nearest and dearest are very pleasantly surprised that a play-off place now looks more than likely. They are hard to predict, having lost 7-1 at Norwich and trailed doomed Rotherham for a long time last week. They go to NOTTINGHAM FOREST, a pale shadow of the team they used to be and in acute danger of dropping out of the section, especially if Harry Redknapp does the business at Birmingham. I know Harry reasonably well through racing and I ghosted his programme notes at Southampton. This Birmingham job, for a short spell with no strings attached, will suit him but I rather doubt that he will ever want to be away from Dorset for any length of time. At Newcastle a few years ago there was talk of three days there and four days at home – a measure of just how much London and the south-east means to the boy. But Birmingham will stay up and they’ll make him an offer.

My view is that Reading have over-achieved and this is the time for all loyalists to get behind Forest. The value is there because 7/5 is available with three or four firms.

I don’t like the Premier League matches at all, though the best of Bournemouth would be enough to beat Boro, while I can see a few goals going in when West Ham host Everton. Hunches are no good when hard cash is on the table, however.

BRISTOL CITY 20 units at 4/6 to beat Barnsley

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 20 units at 7/5 to beat Reading