Steve Cooper said he knew Swansea City would offer up "a hell of a lot of chances" and believes Nottingham Forest should have been 5-1 up at half-time on Saturday.
Cooper's players ran riot in the second half at the The City Ground, eventually running out emphatic winners by the same scoreline against his former employers. Cooper's efforts in the east Midlands this season have been astonishing, having taken Forest from bottom of the Championship when he took over in September to the brink of automatic promotion, with a mouthwatering clash against second-placed Bournemouth to come on Tuesday night.
For Russell Martin, the game and result showed where Swansea are right now and where they need to strengthen this summer, with recruitment work needed in a number of areas of the squad. The head coach labelled the second half "embarrassing" but a nine-game unbeaten run prior to the Forest collapse points to improvements, with next term a more likely gauge of progress in SA1.
READ MORE: 'Tore them to shreds' - Nottingham Forest set new record against Swansea City
Cooper, though, says they had a game plan for facing Swansea and said his team executed perfectly, believing the tie should have been out of sight at the turnaround point. He said he knew the visitors would have the lion's share of the ball and that he was perfectly happy for that to play out, adding that he anticipated plenty of chances for his side because of the way Swansea operate.
"(I) thought we were excellent today," he said. "The game plan came off perfectly. We were very happy for Swansea to have the ball. We wanted to control the game without the ball which we did brilliantly, 5-1 is obviously a great result.
"But I'll be honest with you, it could have been a lot more - it should have been 5-1 at half-time. We know Swansea have a lot of the ball, but they also give up a hell of a lot of chances, and concede a hell of a lot of goals. So for me that was a clear game plan to let that happen and fortunately it came off."
Forest have now scored nine goals against Swansea this term, having emerged 4-1 winners in south Wales earlier on in the campaign. Cooper said the win wasn't any sweeter for it coming against his old team, though, stressing the positives of the collective in Nottinghamshire.
"It didn't matter who we played, if the satisfaction means it's a personal thing, we don't work like that here," he added. "There's no hierarchy, there's no individual incentives, it's all about the team. This club is huge and it's really together at the moment, so it was just a coincidence more than anything, but we play a football match and are very clear on what it takes to win. It was a really clear game plan for us today and fortunately it came off winning the game 5-1, but it should have been 5-1 at half-time."
There were jubilant scenes at full time, with Cooper and the players acknowledging the supporters in what was Forest's last game of the season - with a play-off match still a prospect should the Cherries pip them to second place. Cooper, though, was keen to downplay any notion of getting carried away.
"No celebrations, no celebrations," he said. "It was just the normal thing to do at the end of the game where... my first game was in September, we were bottom of the league and there were 25,000 people there. That doesn't happen in many places, so we've tried really hard to get the best connection with the supporters, obviously it works both ways. This was normal today, the way they got behind the team. It wasn't a celebration, it was a normal thing you do at the end of the season and us showing gratitude to them."
