Head coach Steve Cooper rued Nottingham Forest’s “naivety” in the goals they conceded as they lost 3-0 to Manchester United in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final.
The Reds have a mountain to climb when they head to Old Trafford for next week’s second leg. It could all have been very different had a Sam Surridge goal not been ruled out, however.
Forest had been on the back foot after Marcus Rashford opened the scoring with six minutes gone. But Surridge thought he had equalised midway through the first half, only for a VAR check to rule he had been offside.
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That sparked the hosts into life, but they were unable to take advantage of positive moments. Wout Weghorst dealt a suckerpunch just before the break, with Bruno Fernandes adding a third for United in the closing minutes.
“We’re really disappointed with the scoreline. The last thing you want to do is go to Old Trafford with the result we got," said Cooper.
“The manner of the goals were disappointing, from the timing of them to how they have gone about them. Rashford is one of the most in-form players in the country at the moment, so for us to allow him to do what he did is disappointing.
“The second goal, we came off the game-plan and the timing of it. To be 2-0 down, I still would have been saying a lot of the same things, but you two goals down, you never know. To concede late on is disappointing, and in the way we did.
“I know we played some good football in the first half and had a marginal goal disallowed. But maybe we shouldn’t be offside, because there was time and space to get that right.
“I won’t lose sight of the fact we did alright at times in the first half and steadied the ship in the second half. But the naivety and the timing around the goals has made it incredibly tough for the second leg."
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