Nottingham Forest’s push towards the Europa League final is lifting spirits on and off the pitch, with Omari Hutchinson saying the semi-final run is driving the club’s Premier League survival effort as much as the European campaign.

Forest hold a 1-0 advantage over Aston Villa from Thursday’s first leg at the City Ground, giving Vitor Pereira’s side a narrow lead before next week’s return match and keeping the club within touching distance of a first European final since the 1980s.

The victory over domestic rivals Villa extended Forest’s unbeaten sequence to nine games in all competitions, a spell that has also opened a five-point gap to the Premier League relegation places with four league fixtures still to play, easing pressure while sharpening focus on both fronts.

Forest’s position after a first-leg win is usually strong, with the club progressing in 12 of the last 13 knockout ties when leading after the opening game; the single failure came in the 1983-84 UEFA Cup semi-final against Anderlecht, a collapse that still stands out in the club’s European history.

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Attention now turns back to domestic matters, as Forest visit Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Monday, where Hutchinson and team-mates aim to use the belief from Europe to edge closer to safety while managing fatigue during a demanding schedule that leaves little recovery time between decisive fixtures.

I think for us getting to the semi-final has been a massive boost to the club, to us players, because it’s very hard to get into the semi-finals, he toldFlashscore.com. If we get to the final, it’s going to be amazing for the club and for everyone, really. It’s about recovery. I think we’ve got to recover fast and just treat our bodies right. We’ve just got to dig through it. It’s the last four games now, so we’ve just got to dig deep and keep going. We want to win all our games. I think we’ve got massive confidence now, we’ve been winning a lot. I think next week, we can get at [Villa in the second leg] again.

Forest now balance their Europa League advantage over Villa with the urgent task of finishing above the bottom three, and the squad’s recent results, combined with Hutchinson’s insistence on recovery and hard work, leave the club entering the final four Premier League matches with renewed belief and a realistic chance of success on both fronts.