The Blues ended a disappointing run of results last weekend by overcoming Leeds United to book a place in the FA Cup final, which will see us take on Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday 16 May.

McFarlane, who is leading the first team on an interim basis until the end of the season, afforded his players three days off after our semi-final victory, before they regrouped at Cobham on Thursday to begin preparing for our Premier League clash against Nottingham Forest on Monday.

And our interim head coach says the atmosphere within the group has been lifted after we ended our poor form and earned the chance to compete for another piece of silverware.

'It [the mood within the squad] is really positive,' said McFarlane at his pre-match press conference. 'Football is a results business, and when you're losing, it feels like everything is the worst thing in the world. And when you win, it feels amazing.

'So, the mood has lifted after breaking the recent run of losses. I thought we performed really well against Leeds at times, which is another positive. We showed different elements of our game that we were really happy with, and we need to try to continue that and stick to the processes that brought that performance.'

On his players getting back to work at Cobham, McFarlane added: 'They have trained in the last two days and been in a really good place – as have the staff and Cobham as a whole.’

Forest travel to London for Monday's game sitting 16th in the Premier League and in the midst of a relegation battle. However, Vítor Pereira's side are in good form, having avoided defeat in their last six top-flight matches in addition to establishing a 1-0 first-leg lead over Aston Villa in the Europa League semi-final tie.

‘I watched them last night and I’ve watched many of their games,' said McFarlane. 'They're a really, really good side in really good form, and they have several top-quality players, some real threats that we have to be aware of.

'It's another massive game, another big challenge, as every game in the Premier League is. But we’ll be ready and prepared for the game.'

In contrast to Forest's recent fortunes, the Blues haven't won a Premier League game since early March and have slipped to eighth in the table.

Yet we head into this weekend's fixtures just two points off sixth and still in the hunt to claim a European place next season.

'We just have to win our games and not worry about anything else,' said McFarlane. 'If we make sure our performance levels are right, the results will come. So we have to focus only on ourselves, and then the next game, the next day and the next training session.'