Billy Davies today declared himself excited by the challenges awaiting his Nottingham Forest side in the Championship next season.

The fixtures for the 2009-10 campaign were released earlier this morning, whetting the manager's appetite yet further for what lies ahead.

Forest kick off their season at Reading and are scheduled to face West Brom, QPR and Derby inside the opening month.

Davies broke off from a family holiday to tell us: "It's an exciting start but there's no doubting the fact that there are no easy games in the Championship.

"We can all sit down and look at the fixtures and claim we need three points here and three points there but every game will be tough, home or away.

"We'll look forward to it. There are some great challenges in there and we'll be playing against other excellent clubs.

"But we've got to go in there and enjoy the whole occasion.

"We're no longer the new boys in the Championship. We've got to adopt a different approach and start to realise we've got to become a real force and prove that home and away."