ROBERT Earnshaw is happy to take the pressure off the younger players to help steer Nottingham Forest to Championship safety.

The striker made a surprise return from a three-and-a-half week lay-off in the 3-1 defeat to Derby on Saturday.

But with such a depleted and young squad at the City Ground, Earnhsaw knows it is vital he stays fit to boost the whole camp.

And despite still seeing himself as a young player, the Welsh international knows his experience – and goals – will be vital in the battle against the drop.

Earnshaw, who scored his sixth goal in his last seven games at the weekend, said: "It is an extra responsibility on me. And I never thought at 27 I would be a veteran campaigner. I am still young myself and I look around and people are a lot younger. I feel sometimes I have a responsibility to be that older head.

"I have to tell people what to do and where to be and sometimes I forget myself because I am still 27. But I think, like the manager has said to me, he wants me to be out there and it takes the pressure off some of the other players."

Earnshaw now has 12 goals for the season following his £2.65m summer move from Derby County. Forest have slipped to fourth from bottom and are just one point clear of the danger zone with a tough match at Reading to come this Saturday.

But the striker said they were all battling for their Forest careers as well as avoiding relegation to League One.

"You cannot let your foot come off the pedal and you have to keep going, trying to impress in every game," he said. "To be fair the lads are working very hard, the effort you cannot fault. The runs, all the little bits and pieces of the game we have to learn and improve on

"We have 12 games left and we need to start now, start pushing for next season because there is nobody in that dressing room saying we are going down. There is no chance of that. We going to be working our backsides off to try to stay up and we have got the capability to do that."