Head coach Steve Cooper remains convinced Nottingham Forest can turn around their dismal run of form as they fight to retain their Premier League status.
Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa saw the Reds drop into the relegation zone for the first time since January. They have now gone nine games without a win and have suffered five straight defeats on the road.
Forest have eight matches remaining to try to avoid an immediate return to the Championship, starting at home to Manchester United next Sunday. Cooper insists they cannot afford to lose belief as it remains tight at the bottom of the table.
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“I’ve seen the other results and I know about the league position,” said the Welshman, who was warned by owner Evangelos Marinakis in midweek that results needed to improve “immediately”.
“That’s what you have to accept on a day where you don’t take care of your own business, which is what we haven’t done. We’re not coming into these games thinking about what’s going on elsewhere, we’ve got to come into these games thinking about what we can do and what we can influence.
“Unfortunately, we’re not doing that well enough, and that’s why the league position is what it is. We have to take it, take the negativity which comes with being in that position and do our best to sort it out.
“We have to believe we can turn it around, because if we stop that then we’ve got no chance. We know who the next two or three games are against - really difficult, like every game is.
“This one was always going to be difficult, but if we stop believing and stop thinking we can achieve, then we definitely won’t have any chance. As tough as it sometimes is straight after losing a game, when you start preparing again, you have to go with confidence as best you can to try to get results.”
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