Nottingham Forest boss Chris Hughton insists he will remain positive despite speculation about his future after four successive Championship defeats.

Forest are bottom of the table ahead of Saturday's East Midlands derby against Wayne Rooney's Derby County.

The 62-year-old took over last October but Forest have only won 14 of his 50 games in charge.

"I am fully aware of the reactions and the feelings of the supporters," Hughton told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"It's my responsibility to put on a brave face, a positive face that says the next game is the opportunity to turn it around.

"In the game, you will always have ups and downs, sometimes more difficult than others, and I'm not used to being a manager that has lost four on the spin."

Hughton led Newcastle and Brighton to promotion from the Championship and is the 13th full-time Forest manager since Billy Davies' first spell at the club ended in the summer of 2011.

Forest's only win this season was against League Two side Bradford City in the Carabao Cup, but they were then knocked out of the competition by Wolves on Tuesday evening.

"All the managers that have been in the game for a while have gone through difficult periods," said Hughton.

"The manager has a responsibility to walk into training every day, to be positive about the work he can do, irrespective of what the circumstances and the challenges are.

"There are always good parts of a difficult period and you've got to lean on the positives and you've got to try to eliminate as many negatives as possible."

Asked about speculation on his future among some Forest fans, he replied: "If I thought about that, then the things we've spoken about, positivity, coming in every day and working with the players, would go straight out of the window. I can't afford to think that way."