Steve Cooper must have wondered what kind of reception he would receive from the travelling Nottingham Forest supporters but, unfortunately for the Leicester manager, it took a chastening defeat to their East Midlands rivals to find out. After Chris Wood feasted on some laughable Leicester defending to add his second and Forest’s third, the away fans returned to an old hit. “Stevie Cooper, Stevie Cooper, he hates the Leicester, he hates the Derby, Forest are magic,” filled the air as Leicester’s fans sat in silence. The reality is Forest should have made it 4-1 but the homegrown midfielder Ryan Yates, who opened the scoring, missed a sitter from four yards.
Only Erling Haaland has scored more league goals than Wood this season and the Forest striker’s first, with his back to goal, was a beauty. Since Nuno Espírito Santo’s first game in charge of Forest, only Haaland has scored more non-penalty goals than Wood. By the end, the away fans were singing about Europe, and Forest had climbed to fifth, for a few hours at least. Cooper allowed Forest, defeated once this season, to finally return to the biggest stage but Nuno is seemingly driving them to higher ground.
