Steve Cooper hails ‘magical’ club as Nottingham Forest return to Premier League

A tearful Steve Cooper hailed “magical” Nottingham Forest for reminding the world of the City Ground club’s rich history by securing a Premier League future.

Forest will return to the Premier League for the first time in 23 years next season, after defeating Huddersfield 1-0 in Sunday’s Championship play-off final at Wembley.

Luckless Levi Colwill’s own goal settled football’s most lucrative match, with Forest standing to benefit to the tune of £170million through top-flight promotion.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Cooper inherited a Forest side bottom of the table and winless after seven matches in September: at the end of an arduous route to promotion, the 42-year-old struggled to keep his emotions in check on assessing a journey complete.

STEVE COOPER: Has led Nottingham Forest to the Premier League. Picture: PA Wire.STEVE COOPER: Has led Nottingham Forest to the Premier League. Picture: PA Wire.
STEVE COOPER: Has led Nottingham Forest to the Premier League. Picture: PA Wire.

“I’m so glad everybody at the club gets to do their job in the Premier League,” said Cooper.

“There’s no doubt we deserve to be promoted, the football we played, the games we’ve won, the attitude we’ve given. Every time we’ve had an average game we’ve recovered.

“I’m just really proud of everybody connected with the football club: it’s a magical football club, and we’ve just reminded the world of that. It isn’t about individuals, success is about the team, the football club.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I knew it before I came but when I walked in the biggest thing that struck me is how proud people are of this football club.”

Cooper talked of nostalgia in running the rule over Forest’s top attributes. But now the men from the east midlands can forget about harking back to former glories, and start plotting new days of success ahead.

“It’s such a nostalgic, brilliant, massive club that everyone knows,” said Cooper.

“And I’m so delighted we can go to the Premier League and the supporters and everyone connected to the club can experience that. It’s been a brilliant season, the players have provided a fantastic attitude and culture, and the training ground is such a good laugh; there’s a real pride and togetherness.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It’s been brilliant to be a part of it from day one. It takes a group of men to get off the canvas and fight back, and that’s what they’ve done. Everyone’s probably looked down their nose at them where they were.

“They’ve fought back, and in a really attractive way. The first objective was to get out of the relegation zone. And there were times I was thinking we’re not making much progress here, and maybe we won’t get into the top 10.

“Then as soon as you get into the top 10, you think ‘right, top 10 now’, then you start hoping for top six. It was April that really put us in there for the play-offs. And we never gave up, we just kept playing.”