Nottingham sports bar Southbank City is ramping up the excitement ahead of Forest's FA Cup clash with Liverpool on Sunday. A massive banner of Reds' manager Steve Cooper raising his fist in celebration has been draped over the building. .
The 50ft x 50ft banner, designed by local artist Raph Achache, covers nearly three floors of the property housing Southbank in Friar Lane - and it's certainly attracting attention from passers-by and followers on social media in the run-up to the quarter-final match.
One footie fan said: "That is absolutely class" while another commented: "Wow! That’s just amazing!… I love it." Other described it as incredible, awesome and superb.
However, not everyone agreed about the likeness to Cooper. One follower said: "Thought that was Nelson Mandela". A fan asked: "How long has Warwick Davis been manager of NFFC?" while someone else thought it was David Attenborough.
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Tom Holodynsky, operations manager of bar owners Great Northern Group, said the banner is part of wider project which is having the finished touches put to it at the moment.
He said: "Seeing as we had the banner, we thought it would be a great idea to display it over the venue for the weekend to really get the city behind Steve Cooper and the team ahead of Sunday's mouth-watering FA Cup clash with Liverpool - although they're doing a good enough job of that themselves at the moment.
"There is a real feel good factor and buzz around the city at the moment and the whole game changed when Steve Cooper walked through the doors at the city ground - you feel it in the venues, on the streets and indeed the whole city will doubtless feel the benefits of the team performing so well on the pitch.
"The banner is actually too big to fully display on the front of the building so our friends at All Bar None in Colwick had to be creative to get it displayed correctly for us!
The details of the wider project are set to be revealed next week. Mr Holodynsky added: "As a local independent Nottingham business we're so incredibly proud of the city and we love providing a service to the people of and tourists to the city of Nottingham.
"Not a day goes by that we aren't discussing ways that we can celebrate, promote or give back to the city that we love whether that be charity fundraising, sponsorship of grassroots or indeed elite local sports teams and athletes such as Nottingham's own World Champion boxer Leigh Wood, or just a simple Instagram post of Robin Hood.
"The idea of the wider project was conjured up between my business partner, Owen Roach and myself and has involved a lot of people, all local Nottingham businesses/freelancers (which was very important to us) and we hope the great people of Nottingham will enjoy that too when it comes out, hopefully early next week."
