Head coach Steve Cooper is determined to make sure his Nottingham Forest team sticks together as they try to spark an upturn in fortunes.
Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers saw the Reds slip to bottom of the Premier League table again, having lifted themselves off it with a draw against Aston Villa earlier in the week. They are without a win in eight league games.
Ruben Neves fired in a penalty early in the second half, after Forest felt they could have had a spot-kick of their own before the break. In a match in which VAR proved a significant talking point, however, the visitors did get an opportunity to equalise late on.
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Referee Thomas Bramall consulted his pitchside monitor for the second time in the match and pointed to the spot, following a foul on Ryan Yates. But Brennan Johnson saw his effort from 12 yards saved by Jose Sa, leaving Cooper’s men heading home empty-handed.
"He's not great, obviously,” Cooper said of Johnson. “He'll be disappointed he's missed the penalty, but he's also scored some really important ones for us over the last 12 months or so.
"You can miss a penalty from time to time. Like us all, we have to learn from some of the things we didn't do so well.
"No blame. We win and we lose together. Sticking together is going to be really important this season.
"You saw a team that never gave up. You saw a team that was committed to the game and wanted to get something out of it. That's why there's a real disappointment in the dressing room.
"We've got to support the players with keeping that spirit going, because it's going to have to be a massive part of us improving. But I repeat, we have just got to do better with the ball than what we did.
"It's a disappointing result. We could have got something out of it, with the penalty and the chances, but at the same time, you've got to earn your luck and earn the right in this league - and in the first half, we didn't do well enough with the ball in the first half.”
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