Simon Jordan has revealed a hidden motive for Nottingham Forest to get promoted this season through the play-offs after they narrowly missed out on automatic promotion.
The Reds' fell to a 1-0 defeat on the south coast in a fixture crucial to either side's aspirations of automatic promotion. Forest needed to win in order to leapfrog the Cherries into second-place going into the final day, but the narrow loss ended the Reds ' chance of automatic promotion with Bournemouth celebrating a return to the top-flight instead.
Forest dominated the first half at Dean Court and were harshly denied a penalty when Sam Surridge was brought down inside the area and incorrectly deemed to be offside. Fortunes changed after half-time and Bournemouth snatched the winning goal seven minutes from time when Kieffer Moore tucked home a quick free-kick from Philip Billing.
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The result means Forest must now go through the Championship play-offs in order end their two-decade exodus from the top-flight.
Speaking on talkSPORT, former Crystal Palace owner Jordan said: "If they stay as they are their semi-final will be against Luton or Middlesbrough. Luton are coming off the back of a 7-0 drumming [at Fulham].
"God I hope they get promoted because we don't want to be in a situation where we're talking about Steve Cooper not getting promoted again."
This will be Cooper's third involvement in the Championship play-offs having taken former club Swansea City into the extended campaign, but he has never produced a successful play-off campaign. In his first season in Wales, Cooper's side were beaten in the semi-finals by Brentford and the Bees beat Swansea again the following season in the play-off final.
Former West Ham and QPR winger Sinclair added: "[Losing to Bournemouth is] a bump in the road. You look at the teams they could potentially be playing in the play-offs: Luton, Sheffield United, Huddersfield, maybe Millwall, there are a few others in and around there too.
"I've seen them play. I've seen them beat Arsenal and Leicester City. I've been blown away by them. First half they were unlucky against Bournemouth. They could have been 2 or 3 up. It's all fine margins. If they won that game, they'd have gone to Hull and would win automatic promotion. So I would say Steve Cooper needs to keep doing what he's doing."
