Just watched Forest spank Leicester 4-1 in the battle of the ex Swansea managers. Couldn't believe my eyes! Was this a Steve Cooper team performing in front of me? They defended with commitment if not ferocity and attacked with pace and penetration. Premier League Foxes couldn't cope and were blown away. And all this, mind, without top scorer Lewis Grabban!! The commentator was moved to say that Brian Clough would be looking down and smiling his approval. Martin Keown added that Forest were tougher, stronger and wanted it more. When was the last time we heard that said about the Swans?????
I never saw us perform like that under Cooper for sure. Does that mean that Cooper was hiding his light under a bushel? (no, I don't know the origin of that saying either) Or might it be that Forest have a far stronger and better team than we had complete with the likes of Connor Gallagher, Marc Guehi and Connor Roberts et al? I don't know. I do know that, had Cooper got us playing like that when he was with us, I don't think any of us would have wanted to see him leave.
I hope Russell Martin was watching because that is the sort of football I want to see us playing. It could be that Forest had one of those days when everything clicked but remember, they were playing a good Premier League team who were the present Cup holders and blew them off the park. It will be interesting to see if that was a flukey one-off and I will be watching closely to see how they go from now until the end of the season.