THEIR teams will be fighting tooth and nail for the points this afternoon, but Phil Parkinson and Nottingham Forest boss Mark Warburton are in agreement about one thing – Zach Clough.

The striker left Wanderers for the City Ground last January, in a move many Whites fans felt would spell disaster for their promotion bid.

While Parkinson regrouped, re-invested and revamped his squad, Clough’s career has stalled somewhat this season, with just three starts in the league. But Parkinson is only too aware of what his former charge can do when he is given a chance to shine.

So does he feel, with hindsight, the deal turned out far better for Wanderers than the man who came through the club’s youth system to earn a more lucrative contract in Nottinghamshire?

“You’d have to ask Zach for his opinion on that,” he said. “He’ll have got a terrific contract there first and foremost but it’s not all about money for Zach because he loves his football.

“Players want to play and he hasn’t played as much as he wanted so I don’t know his thoughts on it.

“But at the time we needed the finances to keep us going to the end of the season and we had a change of shape and in terms of the way we played and we brought Fil Morais in as well so we moved on and managed to get promotion.

“Zach has gone to a club where they’ve got a lot of players who are similar to him, similar technical players so he’s struggled to break into the team, so he’ll probably be a bit frustrated by that but he’s a lad who’s come through the academy and I enjoyed working with him during his time here. As everyone knows we sold him because we needed the money at the time.

“We were pleased we were able to push on and we’ve always kept an eye on his progress.”

Clough’s current gaffer, Warburton, has some sympathy with the striker, who is only on the fringes of the team due to the form of Kieran Dowell, one of those Parkinson feels play in a similar vein.

Warburton’s message to Clough has been made clear – keep your head down, stay positive and take your chance when it comes.

“I am never going to tell you the team, but Zach Clough is a very talented player who is suffering because of the form of Kieran Dowell,” said Warburton. “That is me being brutally honest.

“Zach trains really well every single day and he is getting stronger and fitter. I am delighted with his quality. I have no hesitation about playing Zach Clough at all. We have said to his face and we will say it again, when his opportunity comes along, I have no doubt about his quality at all. But right now it is Kieran Dowell, who is playing way above the level – consistently – than anyone would have imagined.

“He has done really, really well while Zach is frustrated and disappointed, but his attitude is really first class.”

Parkinson will no doubt have sympathy with Clough, as he has his own group of players itching to get on the field of play, but he says the men playing the waiting game have impressed him with their positive approach.

“We feel we’ve got a good set of lads, in terms of the morale in the group of players, the ones who are not in the team too,” he told The Bolton News.

“That’s so important and we have to have that, we have to have everyone pulling together to get to where we want to be.

I had a good chat with Mark Howard this morning about that, he’s a good example because he’s been outstanding in training, he’s pushing Ben [Alnwick] and Mark and other lads are training well and that’s how you conduct yourself when you’re not in the team.

“It’s great for me as a manager and Steve [Parkin] as assistant manager to have that. We’ve got to keep it because we are all about togetherness, we haven’t got the luxury that other clubs have got but we’re about everyone sticking together and we’re starting to show that, it’s getting better all the time.”

Wanderers’ last four visits to Forest have each seen them finish the game with 10 men.

After he was handed his own marching orders during the Wolves defeat Parkinson – who escaped a ban and will be free to prowl the touchline today – stressed the importance of his side being able to fire on all cylinders.

“We’ve got to keep cool, obviously,” he added. “I imagine there’ll be a very good atmosphere, although there will be a bit of negativity from their end as well because they’re a club expected to be up there so we’ve got to try to create that edginess in the home supporters.

“I still think the sending-off was harsh, we did a conference call with the FA and I think they realised it was harsh.

“They didn’t give me a touchline ban but they still fined me so I’ve got to take that and we’ll move on.”