Boss Steve Cooper says Nottingham Forest are “in great shape” ahead of the play-offs, having finished fourth in the Championship.
The Reds had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Hull City in their final game of the regular season. Brennan Johnson’s late penalty looked to have secured a victory, only for Lewie Coyle to immediately respond for the Tigers.
And that last-minute equaliser changed the play-offs picture. A win would have seen Forest finish third and face Luton Town. Instead, they will now take on Sheffield United over two legs in the semi-finals, in a bid to reach Wembley.
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With a top-six place already in the bag, Cooper had made seven changes to his starting line-up at the MKM Stadium. And though disappointed with how the game panned out, the Welshman focused on the “bigger picture” at the final whistle.
“It’s not a disaster, fourth! From where we’ve been,” said Cooper.
“The game was just an okay one. We didn’t show enough threat and enough creativity in the final third. We had good ball and enough opportunity to make a difference in the final third, and we just didn’t show enough, really, on the day.
“We had enough attacking players on the pitch, and we could have really gone and made a difference, in terms of creating and scoring goals. We needed to step that part of it up.
“The build-up was fine, and we got into the areas fine. We just needed to change the rhythm of attack and variety of attack. We didn’t quite have that on the day.
“The game opened up. We changed to a back-four, with Joe (Lolley) as a left-back. We thought we may as well go for the win - and if you lose, lose trying to win. You could see the chances we gave away, in terms of the counterattacks.
“In the end, we got the breakthrough, got the penalty. You’re thinking, okay, just manage out the next minute or so. And obviously we did the complete opposite, which was disappointing.
“But the bigger picture is, we were able to change the team today - a lot of it because of injuries. There was only really Brennan who we rested, everyone else was forced a little bit.
“We’re in good shape. We go into the play-offs in fourth position - the highest position and most points for a long, long time. There’s everything to feel good about.
“I’m naturally disappointed that we didn’t win the game, because that’s me. But I’m also not naive or narrow-minded enough to not know that we are in great shape going into the play-offs now.”
