Earnshaw: Winning at home is key to survival

ROBERT Earnshaw has called on Nottingham Forest to recreate their superb away form on home soil at the City Ground to fire them up the Championship table.

The Welsh international grabbed his third goal in as many games in the 2-0 win at Charlton on Saturday.

It kept the Reds out of the relegation zone as they extended their unbeaten run on the road to nine games in all competitions with a fourth consecutive away victory.

But at home they have won only twice in 13 league games and Earnshaw knows it is imperative this improves – starting with Plymouth on Saturday.

Forest home wins (click here for table)

Forest away wins (click here for table)

The striker said: "You want to play well at home but if you are playing well away, the fans won't mind whichever way we do it.

"But we want the balance of doing well at home and away and if we do that, that is huge.

"That is what the Wolves and the Readings do. They do it away, then they do it at home. They get wins all over the place.

"As soon as you get that balance, that is when you start pushing up the table and that is the difference.

"That is where we are trying to get to, getting the wins at home as well as away and then you will quietly see us flowing up the table.

"There are still four months left, lots of games and points to play for, so we have to get that consistency and that is what we are trying to do."

Despite their improved form, Forest are still only one point above the drop zone with 19 games to play.

"We had a meeting a few weeks ago, a good look at the seven or eight games up until February time and there are games we need to win and show what we can do," he said.

"Things are going well for us, but the main thing is we keep it going because this game is brutal, as we have found out earlier in the season. We did well one game and the next game we were awful.

"We have to be clever and do what we do and hopefully the goals will keep going because that is going to be huge for us.

"The big thing about last Saturday was a clean sheet because the first 20 minutes you thought they might get a goal here but our defence kept us in it and then we broke away and scored two goals. It was game over then."