How Premier League side gave Nottingham Forest boost in Bournemouth preparations

Nottingham Forest took plenty of “positives” from a practice game against Norwich City this week, ahead of Friday night’s crunch clash at Bournemouth.

After a busy start to the month, the Reds had no midweek match this week, instead hosting the Premier League Canaries behind closed doors at the City Ground.

As well as being a chance for some players to get valuable minutes, head coach Steve Cooper also used it as an opportunity to work on tactics - and to take a look at some younger players.

“It was really good. I hope they’d say the same,” the Welshman said. “It had been planned a while.

“I thought it was treated by both teams with the right attitude and respect.

“We certainly got a lot out of it, with match minutes, with performances and with some tactical things. It was definitely a productive day.

“We’ve done a few of them, and we’ll do a few more of them.

“It could be important.

“Players got match minutes, and there were some really good performances in that as well.”

Cooper has generally stuck with a fairly settled line-up when it comes to Championship action, with some of his squad currently struggling to get much of a look-in.

With the season’s run-in fast approaching, though, he knows how important strength in depth will be.

“It was a chance for some players to get some game time,” he continued.

“It changes the scenery a little bit. It was played at the City Ground.

“We got loads of good things out of it.

“If you make mistakes, it’s good to do that in those games rather than a league game.

“I only see pluses in doing things like that, as long as it fits nicely into the schedule, which it did.

“And also, a lot of young players got to play as well, which is something we want to do. We want to expose them to