Wild celebrations. A mass melee. Even the reappearance of the penalty shootout water bottle. These kinds of nights, filled with drama, under the lights on the banks of the Trent are special.
Steve Cooper and his Nottingham Forest class of 2022/23 have delivered another one to add to a growing collection under the Welshman. And you wouldn’t bet against there being more to come.
A wry smile crept across Cooper’s face when he was asked if the Reds could perhaps even dare to dream of lifting a piece of silverware they have won four times in their rich history, now they are in the semi-finals. “One step at a time,” was the very level-headed reply, delivered with a grin.
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Forest have not been down this particular path since the 1990s. Recognition of their past success in the League Cup is all around the City Ground. Cooper had reminded his players of it before they faced Wolverhampton Wanderers.
For a whole generation of fans, however, those victories are from another era. Whatever happens in the next round, they now have their own tales to tell.
“It’s given our older generation a chance to reminisce, and it’s given our younger generation a chance to enter new territory,” Cooper said. “That will always be important to me.”
Henderson the hero
Dean Henderson beat away Joe Hodge’s spot-kick, sprinted off and slid on his backside in celebration - stopping just short of the advertising hoardings as “Deano, Deano, Deano” rang around the stadium. The Reds goalkeeper was the man of the hour on Wednesday night.
It is a particularly cruel twist of fate that Forest being paired with his parent club, Manchester United, in the semi-finals will almost certainly deny him the chance to be involved. He doesn’t deserve that after this performance.
The Reds largely have Henderson to thank for getting them there. He pulled off three big saves during the game, including a couple of superb ones to deny Raul Jimenez and Hee-Chan Hwang. He then channelled the spirit of Brice Samba, referring to notes on his water bottle during the shootout - just as his predecessor between the posts did against Sheffield United in the play-offs last season.
Forest had prepared for this moment, just in case. They had talked through the processes involved. But as Cooper admitted afterwards, there is always a “human element”, a little bit of the unknown about individual reactions and whether Lady Luck will be on your side.
Henderson, though, has already proved to be something of a set-piece specialist. And he was brilliant on this occasion, too, thwarting Ruben Neves and then Hodge.
Wolves old boys
There was no repeat of the “playtime” Twitter storm from the league game at Molineux earlier in the season. Lessons have been taken on board since then. But this encounter had its own touch of spice about it.
Willy Boly opened the scoring against his former club, with another ex-Wolves man, in Morgan Gibbs-White, also involved. The latter’s corner was flicked on to the bar by Serge Aurier, with Joe Worrall - on his 200th appearance for the Reds - keeping the ball alive, before Boly poked it home. At that point, it was no less than the hosts deserved.
Boly added to a concerning injury list, however, when he twisted awkwardly after catching his studs in the turf when making a challenge in the second half. He needed treatment on the pitch and a stretcher was being brought on, but the defender was determined to get back on his feet.
He managed to continue for a very short time, before, sensibly, making way and ending the evening with ice on his ankle. The hope is that he hasn’t suffered anything too serious, but it could still add urgency to plans to sign a centre-back this month.
Gibbs-White, meanwhile, had a much more enjoyable end to the night. The summer signing has really started to find form in the Garibaldi, and he was at the heart of plenty of positive play again.
He was taunted by the visiting supporters throughout, though. And he took great delight in marking his conversion from the spot - at the same end where he had missed when on loan with the Blades last term - by standing serenely in front of them, fingers in ears and eyes closed. Jack Colback did the same after he had netted, while pictures show Renan Lodi later pulled a face and stuck out his tongue.
Once it was all over, Gibbs-White’s knee slide in front of the away end seemed to play a part in sparking the confrontation between the two teams which followed. Coaching staff and stewards had to step in to separate the players.
Once that was broken up, the celebrations could continue. ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ was booming out, the Cooper fist-pumps made an appearance and the Reds did little jigs of glee in front of the Trent End.
Nod to history
Ever since his appointment, Cooper has been keen to draw upon Forest’s past. He embraces it; embraces the experience and the stories of past players. And he was eager for a number of them to be at the heart of the post-match celebrations after a first League Cup semi-final since 1992 was reached.
“They are all in the coaches’ room now, which we love,” he said, in his press conference. “We will always embrace that. “The first thing they do when they come in is apologise! But we want them in there.
“I said to John McGovern, ‘whoever is here, please bring them down after - win, lose or draw’. There’s a few of them in there now. It’s good. It’s as it should be.”
United next
Cooper says his first thought when he learned who would be waiting in the last-four was of how his team didn’t show the best version of themselves when they went to Old Trafford in the league, only a few weeks ago. That is something they will be eager to put right.
Indeed, he wasn’t particularly happy with how his team played against Wolves. After taking the lead, they lost their way a little bit in the first half and after the break.
Just as he did on the way to promotion success last season, though, Cooper has created an incredible team spirit. It was evident during the game as the hosts dug in, in the joyous scenes (after the melee) at the end which saw injured pair Jesse Lingard and Cheikhou Kouyate hugging their teammates, and in video footage from the changing room which Emmanuel Dennis posted on Instagram of Lingard, Aurier and Gibbs-White dancing.
“What we have at the moment, and what we need to keep building here, is a real togetherness amongst the group,” said Cooper. “After Southampton, I said the bit that pleased me most in the dressing room was the guys who didn’t play. That tells me a lot about the culture. The dressing room will be the same this time, because we are going to need everybody. We’ve picked up some injuries recently.
“Maybe some new players will come in. But the players who do come in, will come into a more together and established group than what it was like in the summer. That’s really important.
“We’re still a long way behind a lot of other clubs, in terms of time and building togetherness. But the lads have worked so hard in making a bond. I’ve been fortunate to have had some teams which have won things, and a real togetherness in the group has been a common denominator.”
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