At some point, Steve Cooper must have wondered what kind of reception he would receive from the traveling Nottingham Forest supporters. Unfortunately for the Leicester manager, it took a chastening defeat to their East Midlands rivals to find out. After Chris Wood capitalized on some laughable Leicester defending to score his second and Forest’s third goal, the away fans chanted an old favorite: “Stevie Cooper, Stevie Cooper, he hates the Leicester, he hates the Derby, Forest are massive.” The Leicester fans, stunned, sat in silence. Forest should have made it 4-1, but homegrown midfielder Ryan Yates, who opened the scoring, missed a sitter from four yards. Only Erling Haaland has scored more league goals than Wood’s tally of seven this season. Wood’s first goal, with his back to goal, was a beauty. Since Nuno Espírito Santo’s first game in charge of Forest, only Haaland has scored more non-penalty goals than Wood. By the end, the away fans were rampant, singing about Europe, goading Leicester, and Forest had climbed up to fifth, for a few hours at least.
This week, Cooper was at pains to avoid discussing his time at Forest despite the obvious history, reiterating his desire to focus on the task at hand and the challenge of the game itself. Even in his programme notes—aside from the customary welcome message for his successor, staff, players, and visiting supporters—Cooper, who still lives in Keyworth, nine miles south of Nottingham, made no reference to his spell in charge. Regardless, Forest fans will always cherish how the Welshman brought the good times back to the City Ground.
It was, of course, Cooper who ended Forest’s 23-year absence from the top flight after an unthinkable rise from the foot of the Championship to a playoff final win at Wembley inside nine memorable months. Then came the civic reception and those magical scenes on Old Market Square. One of Cooper’s toughest days in charge of Forest came here the following season, a 4-0 defeat, and another looked on the cards when Yates opened the scoring after 16 minutes to register only his second league goal since April 2022, when Cooper was his manager. Yates punished a fluffed clearance by James Justin and caressed a first-time right-foot finish into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. Cooper stood hands in pockets on the edge of the home technical area as Yates flew on to the turf on his knees, Anthony Elanga quick to join him. Then came Yates’s goggles celebration, a nod to the Forest supporters’ ditty: “If Yatesy scores, we’re in the Trent.”
Leicester, though, rallied and leveled seven minutes later courtesy of Jamie Vardy’s fourth goal of the season. Harry Winks kickstarted the move on halfway and, after being played in down the left channel by Stephy Mavididi, he whipped a brilliant cross towards the box, where an alert Vardy slinked between Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo to convert, another cold-blooded finish. Leicester struggled to build momentum and a couple of minutes later, at the other end, Mads Hermansen made a superb save to deny Nicolás Domínguez. Murillo toe-poked a shot goalwards from a corner, which deflected off Facundo Buonanotte and to an unmarked Domínguez. The Forest midfielder leathered a shot at goal but the ball cannoned off the right shin pad of a sprawling Hermansen, subsequently the recipient of adulation from his teammates. Leicester were out of jail. The goalkeeper later made a couple of fine saves to thwart Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi. Mavididi had the final shot of the half but sent a rasping strike wide in stoppage time.
The hosts could hardly have started the second half worse, as Forest punished another error. Domínguez seized possession after Winks’s botched pass and when Elliot Anderson squared for Wood, only the Forest striker knew his next move. Wood spun Caleb Okoli, looked towards Elanga to his right, and without even a glance at goal buried the ball into the bottom corner, in off the base of Hermansen’s left post. Either side of Vardy glaring at the referee for not punishing Milenkovic’s tug and Buonanotte driving a shot over, the visitors sensed blood. Forest’s third, however, stemmed directly from another Leicester lapse. Okoli looked to Wout Faes to deal with a routine long kick downfield by Matz Sels and Faes merely headed the ball into the air, allowing a game Wood, who could barely believe his luck, to steal in and send a looping header over an exposed Hermansen.
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