David Johnson offers amazing insight into Steve Cooper’s methods as Nottingham Forest gear up for play-off final

Nottingham Forest have had a brilliant season since Steve Cooper arrived at the club and now find themselves 90 minutes from promotion to the Premier League.

After finishing the league in fourth position, Forest were able to overcome Sheffield United in the play-off semi-finals.

The Reds are now preparing for the play-off final against Huddersfield Town and regardless of the result, you can be sure that Forest will go into this game with a strong sense of team spirit given the relationship Cooper has built between the club and fans.

Talking to the Garibaldi Red podcast, Brennan Johnson’s dad David, who is a former Reds player himself, spoke about what happened before the Bournemouth game, which could have seen Forest gain automatic promotion: “The manager got them up and Joe [Worrall] was that emotional he started crying. He was saying you don’t understand how much this means to me, my family and the people who work here.

“It went through the whole team. You need people like that at a football club. If you don’t have that everyone is just an employee and it’s a job. It means the world for those lads. Sunday’s a massive game for everyone but you need a core of homegrown players and they’re the ones who will carry a lot of burden but with a lot of pride.

“He got all the parents – and himself – to write a note to all the players so every time they open their locker there’s a message. It must mean a lot. Those little details from the manager and his staff are spot on.”

Furthermore, Cooper is carrying this relationship on away from football as Johnson shared how the club were preparing off the pitch as he said: “We had a barbecue on Saturday and the legends were all there – John Robertson, Ian Storey-Moore. You had the