How 'magician' Steve Cooper transformed struggling Nottingham Forest to FA Cup heroes

There have been plenty of false dawns at Nottingham Forest over the past two decades.

The two-time European Cup winners have fallen on hard times since their most recent exit from the top flight of English football 23 years ago.

After the inauguration of the Premier League, Forest suffered three relegations in the space of just seven seasons. They were the original yo-yo club before West Brom, Watford and Norwich took over that unwanted mantle.

But the last of those Forest demotions was in 1999. They haven't dined at the top table since, and the last time they reached the Championship play-offs was 2011.

Aside from a final day collapse two years ago when they missed out on a play-off spot, the past decade has offered precious little in terms of genuine promotion aspirations, with the club largely treading the water of the River Trent for most of that time.

But something feels different with Steve Cooper at the helm.

Sunday saw another famous victory as Forest demolished local rivals and FA Cup holders Leicester City 4-1 at a boisterous City Ground.

Forest regulars claim it is right up there in terms of performances and atmosphere that the grand old stadium has seen in a long time.

When Cooper was appointed Forest had just a solitary point from their opening seven league games.

The Chris Hughton experiment had failed miserably and so Forest turned to a man who had led Swansea to back-to-back play-off campaigns.

With effectively the same bunch of players, Cooper managed to coax more out of the group and a superb run of form followed.

A tweak to the system, with three central defenders and wing-backs deployed, resulted in an outstanding sequence of results that saw them lose just one of Cooper's first 16 league