Head coach Steve Cooper wants Nottingham Forest to take confidence from a positive performance against Wolverhampton Wanderers ahead of two key away games.
The Reds were left frustrated and disappointed at being held to a 1-1 draw at the City Ground as their winless run stretched to seven matches. But there was plenty to build upon as they look to turn around their miserable form on the road.
Brennan Johnson put the hosts ahead in the first half with his 10th goal of the season in all competitions. And Forest really should have had the points wrapped up before Daniel Podence netted an equaliser less than 10 minutes from time.
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Ahead of Tuesday night’s trip to Leeds United, Cooper’s side still sit two points above the drop zone. They remain in the thick of the fight with 10 games to go, despite having had to face plenty of challenges this season in the club’s first year back in the Premier League for more than two decades.
“They’re all big ones now,” said Cooper. “The circumstances we’ve been under this year, with the new squad, all the injuries and trying to find a way to play at the highest level in the world, to think we’ve given ourselves an opportunity to stay ahead of some of the pack with 10 games to go should give us confidence and reassurance.
“Nobody has had to go through what we’ve gone through. It’s a great challenge, I’m not complaining about it; it’s something which is only going to make us all better longer term.
“It’s something we know is a unique situation that we’ve found ourselves in this year. The players deserve a lot of credit, really. We know some games should have gone better and we could have done better. But we always have to take a deep breath and look at, ‘okay, who’s ever had to deal with what we’ve had to deal with, what coaching staff have ever had to deal with what we’ve had to deal with?’. The answer is, nobody.
“The fact we are as together as what we are and are showing some good bits, like we did in this one, should give us confidence to go play well in these games. It’s going to be really hard. Everyone is going to be asking about the away form next, and rightly so, because we own that. Everything negative that’s been said about it is right.
“But the best thing about what’s not good about our away form is we can still change it and put it right. We’ve got to stay committed to doing that.
“The lads are really, really disappointed we’ve not won. It’s a really down dressing room.
“What I have to say is, I’ve got to look a little bit deeper than the result, and performance wise there was a lot of good things in it. If we replicate them, we give ourselves a chance of having good days.
“The overriding feeling is one of frustration and disappointment. It’s guys knowing they played well, knowing we were the better team and should have won.”
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