“I’m quite shy and retiring in private. I don’t have much self confidence and I never swear.”

At last night’s Audience With… session at The Approach, which I’m sure will remain a talking point for several days, Billy Davies showed he was a master of irony.

He was also a deft interviewee, dodging awkward questions, but still playing to the crowd with his body language and quick wit.

And the most striking thing about the night was that Billy seemed to show his cards more frankly than he had done to date.

“Believe none of what you hear and half of what you read” was his repeated mantra as he dismissed his cautious talk to the media this season as “bullsh*t”.

He seemed to truly believe that he could get Forest promoted this year and implied that, in talk to the papers and radio, he was deliberately downplaying the chances of this happening.

So, the truth is: Billy has his sights set on promotion this season. Or is it?

If we should believe none of what we hear, why should we believe what we heared last night? His reasons for being reticent in front of the cameras and dictaphones are obvious, but so are the reasons for him to talk up our chances in front of a boisterous rabble at a Nottingham boozer.

I’m erring on the side of cynicism here because Billy on stage comes across the true showman. He stood up for most of the question-and-answer session and looked genuinely touched by the fans singing his name. In all he enjoyed the night as much as the audience.

But he remained in control throughout. The only things he actually said that could have got him into trouble were a few harsh remarks about Derby, most of which – such as saying he is going to plant Nathan Tyson’s corner flag on the Pride Park centre spot next time we play there – were clearly jokes.

In summary, Billy was a riot – funny, but also intelligent, and his detailed answers (he went to great lengths explaining how he uses video technology to analyse, not only matches, but also training, and also rebutted criticism of our defending at corners eruditely) were as revealing as his quips.

In would be nice to believe in his proclaimed faith in the team and have you have to admire Billy’s confidence in his own abilities. But if he’s been playing the media for fools so far this year, we ourselves should be wary of taking all he says at face value.

On Monday night at the same venue, Sven-Göran Eriksson set out his own stall for promotion within one year, albeit in a slightly more laconic manner. As a Forest fan, impressed but not exactly thrilled by the prospect of ambitious little Notts County rising to the Premiership, it was hard not to see the whole exercise as one in public relations.

If any non-Forest supporters went last night, they probably didn’t get caught up in the atmosphere as much as we all did. And that meant they could probably see more objectively the storm Billy was skilfully stirring up.

So what’s in it for Billy to get everyone all excited? I don’t think it was ego-boosting – at times you caught him blushing at the crowd’s adoration. But he ended the night with a clarion call for continued support and this pretty much took the roof off the place.

Billy’s not stupid. He knew what he said last night, though not necessarily on the record, was going to be leaked out by the likes of us. And let’s face it, by Saturday everyone in the City Ground will know he said “fuck ’em” about Derby County. If our recent success hasn’t won everyone over to him, that anecdote might help.

Even after last night, Tony Morgan is still not sure whether Billy Davies genuinely thinks Nottingham Forest can get promoted this season. But he is sure that Billy Davies knows the task will be made easier with the support of the fans behind him. Last night wasn’t about exploding any myths or revealing scandalous truths – it was about making sure that, even if Billy doesn’t truly believe, at least the fans will.