Cooper insists Forest have the ‘experience’ to end poor run of form – ‘We have to roll our sleeves up’ | OneFootball

Steve Cooper greets Unai Emery before a match.

Steve Cooper has reminded Nottingham Forest fans that he knows how to get his side to bounce back from a losing run.

Forest’s 2022-23 Premier League campaign included five successive defeats early on, after which – with boss Cooper having signed a new contract – they collected 20 points from the next 13 games, a sequence featuring five wins and only three losses.

They also recovered from being beaten four times in a row in April to win three and draw two of their six remaining fixtures that season.

Cooper’s men are currently on a run of three losses after going down 1-0 at home to Everton last Saturday.

And ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Fulham, Cooper told a press conference: “Of course it was a disappointing result, and we’re not going to hide away from it’s the third one, and two back to back at home.

“There’s nothing good about that, but we have to face up to it, we have to roll our sleeves up.

“(It is) not a new experience, because we had some similar feelings like this last season, and we know what it took to put it right.

“So myself, the staff and for the players that were here last year, there’s a great reference point to say ‘OK, this isn’t really new territory for us’.

“It isn’t one that any of us like to be in of course. But we know what we did last time in terms of coming out of it and we have to talk about that and more importantly do the same again in terms of getting a result I think we definitely owe the supporters, but I think we owe ourselves as well.

“Losing by the odd goal in the last three games, and games we know we could have done better in and should have got different results – the main factor to that is what we’ve done, not so much the opponent, and they are the bits we are really focusing on putting right.”

Cooper – whose 15th-placed side lost 3-2 both away against West Ham and then at home to Brighton prior to the Everton contest, and have won only once in their last 10 games – added: “We have to look forward, be motivated and have a good anger about the previous results in terms of believing in ourselves.

“There’s a lot to stand up for and we really want to represent the football club the best we can.”

Forest face a Fulham side lying one place and two points above them in the table.

The east midlands outfit have been assessing defenders Willy Boly and Murillo after they sustained problems during the Everton match, while Cooper has said forward Chris Wood “did well to get through the game with a hyper-extended knee in the first half.”