Steve Cooper
Boss Steve Cooper has set his Nottingham Forest players a fresh challenge after the Reds climbed out of the Premier League relegation zone for the first time since September. Taiwo Awoniyi’s first-half goal clinched a hugely-important 1-0 victory over Southampton for Cooper’s side. It was their first away win of the season in the league, with Awoniyi’s strike only the second time Forest have found the net on their travels. Three points lifted the Reds up to 15th in the table. And now they are out of the bottom three, Cooper is keen to make sure they stay there.
Steve Cooper said: “It’s better to be out of it than in it, of course. We’ve spent enough weeks in there. We’ve had a couple of chances in the last couple of games, albeit against Manchester United and Chelsea, which were always going to be tough games. Now we’re out of there, the obvious challenge is to stay out of it, and, if you can, climb away from it. That’s going to be one step at a time. Much easier for me to say than to do; same for the players. This is a start. It’s also our first away win, goal away from home – which we needed – so loads of boxes ticked, in terms of challenges to the players, which we managed to overcome. We were good for it. The dressing room is really together – particularly the lads who didn’t play, which is what I love and what we need. We’ve got a couple of cup games now, which we look forward to and will commit to in exactly the same way, but when the league comes back around, we will start from nothing, earn the right to play well and win, and hopefully take it step by step.”
