Head coach Steve Cooper blasted Nottingham Forest’s performance as “unacceptable” as they were dumped out of the FA Cup by Blackpool.
The Reds were a goal down at the break at Bloomfield Road and were still in the game, having mounted a response to falling behind. But they spurned a glut of chances and collapsed in a woeful second half which saw the hosts ease into the fourth round with a 4-1 win.
Cooper had changed his full line-up after Wednesday night’s victory over Southampton, with some players given a rare opportunity to impress from the start. But few made the most of that, leaving the Forest boss with some harsh words after the full-time whistle.
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“It’s really disappointing. I’ve said to the players, the individual mistakes for the goals we conceded are unacceptable - equally, the missed chances,” Cooper said.
“Apart from Emmanuel Dennis’, we’ve not even hit the target. They were absolutely clearcut chances.
“For me, we accepted defeat too early in the game. Even when we were 2-0 down - although it was a terrible second goal to give away - we were the team looking like we were going to score.
“There was still 25 minutes to go. It wasn’t a good situation, but we were still very much in the game. We just accepted the situation too easily and didn’t do enough about it. It’s as simple as that, for me.
“Terrible mistakes for the goals. Really poor finishing for the chances we created. Didn’t fight enough to get back into the game.
“It’s unacceptable. It’s not good enough. It’s all of those negative words that you can think around it. I’ve said exactly the same thing to the players.
“We have to accept we fell short today, in every way, shape and form. Recently, we’ve had some good examples of what it takes to play well and win. We’ve showed a good example of the complete opposite today.
“I won’t even say we’ve got to learn from it, because that’s like saying today was okay, and it’s not. We’ve just got to make sure that never, ever happens again.”
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