Head coach Steve Cooper felt a taxing week took its toll as he rued Nottingham Forest’s decision making during their 2-1 defeat at Brentford.
The Reds threw away a lead handed to them by Danilo as the Bees turned the game on its head in the closing minutes. Keylor Navas couldn’t keep out Ivan Toney’s free-kick and then Josh Dasilva netted a contentious winner in added time, with the goal given after a lengthy VAR check for offside.
Forest had limited their hosts to few chances apart from that, and might have added to their tally with some promising moments in the second half. Cooper pointed to fatigue playing a part after the midweek win over Brighton and Hove Albion and last weekend’s loss at Liverpool.
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"There's no doubt it's been a really tough week physically with the three games - Liverpool away, Brighton and the emotions of that win, then trying to take it into this game,” he said. “We were really trying to play on momentum and adrenaline, because it was such a taxing week with two away games.
"What you did see from the guys is a real level of commitment and a real level of togetherness, and a will to do well. At times we could have looked after the ball better when we played it forward, and we could have made better decisions when we were in and around their box, I know all of that.
"But the game was going as we thought it would, particularly after going 1-0 up. For all the ball Brentford had through open play, they never really created any real opportunities. Set-plays you have to be very careful with, because they are that team. You have to respect that.
"You try not to give away set-plays because of how dangerous they are with them. They really are a set-piece team and a direct team.
"I thought we managed that well by being in a low block and not really giving them great opportunities to play aerial balls. Although the first goal will go down as a set-play, we had been defending them well.
"I didn't really see us conceding a goal. I was hoping we could make better decisions when we did get opportunities to break, but through the tiredness we never managed to do that as well.”
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