Nottingham Forest's journey from "intensive care" to verge of top flight return

Nottingham Forest stand on the cusp of a long-awaited Premier League return.

Not for 23 years have the Reds been in the top tier, with decades of mediocrity seeing an entire generation of supporters starved of regular dust-ups with the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.

But victory over Huddersfield Town in the Championship play-off final will see them return to a division they last graced in May 1999. This is the closest the side has ever come in all those years to sealing a top flight return but whatever the outcome on Sunday, City Ground regulars are just happy to have their club back.

In 2017 Vangelis Marinakis completed his takeover of the club and despite some rocky moments, the club are finally starting to look up once more.

It is a far cry from five years ago when incoming chairman Nicholas Randall described the two-time European champions as being in "intensive care" with regards the bleak outlook it had.

He said at the time: "We know that the necessary infrastructure is not in place to take the club forward. I do not want to dwell on the past but it is clear to any outsider that the club has not been run as it should have been. To use the medical analogy the club is in intensive care. It is our job to ensure that we nurse the club back to health."

It might have taken a few more years than they would have liked but Forest are in much better shape now - and it is manager Steve Cooper who has breathed new life into them.

The Welshman arrived back in September and must have wondered what he had inherited. The team were slumming in the doldrums of the Championship and were morale-sapped after a shocking start to the season under Chris Hughton.

But Cooper quickly got to work and their form ever since his arrival has been nothing short of transformational. They rose and rose and even looked like they had timed an assault on the automatic promotion spots to perfection only to come unstuck right at the tail end of the season. But a fourth-placed finish was not in the wildest dreams of most supporters when they were loitering in 24th spot back in August.

Cooper has been a massive part of that renaissance with canny acquisitions and tactical tweaks ensuring a strong end to the campaign.

They showed their grit too, in the pulsating semi-final with Sheffield United and will be hoping for one more push to seal what would have to rank as one of the most remarkable promotions in recent history.

One of Cooper's biggest achievements, according to one of his many predecessors, is getting the fans back on board and getting them to believe again. Frank Clark had the unenviable task of immediately following legendary boss Brian Clough into the dugout following Forest's top flight relegation in 1993.

He managed to take them back up and then led them to a third-placed finish in the Premier League so knows all about revitalising the club.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Clark said: "Steve has done a wonderful job. When he came in the club was really rock bottom. We were bottom of the league, we had one point after seven or eight games and the team looked very, very ordinary; poor.

"He's rejuvenated the whole club, gotten the fans back on side, they're really thrilled, and what he's done is given the fans hope; that's the big thing about supporting a football club. I think if you've got hope that the club is going somewhere, you can put up with a lot of things. That's what Steve has done here."

After the bleak diagnosis from their own chairman back in 2017, few would argue that Forest are now in rude health.