Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper explains lack of substitutions in Preston stalemate

Head coach Steve Cooper has explained his lack of substitutions in Nottingham Forest’s 0-0 draw at Preston North End.

A flat performance saw the Reds having to settle for a point at Deepdale on a night where they found themselves under pressure for long spells.

At the other end of the pitch, they struggled to create chances, with James Garner the only one to force a save from Daniel Iversen.

Keinan Davis argued he should have had a penalty in the opening 10 minutes, while Djed Spence stretched his legs and put in a tasty cross in the closing stages, which went unconverted.

But while his team struggled to get going, Cooper resisted the temptation to turn to his bench - Sam Surridge for Davis being his only change of the evening, coming in the 81st minute.

“I was definitely going to get Sam on at some stage,” Cooper said.

“You’re thinking, do we put Phil (Zinckernagel) on or go to a back four, which we’ve done before.

“But we couldn’t get any rhythm in the game. And I just felt the lads were in the spirit of the game, and we played with three midfield players.

“Sometimes it’s a decision not to make a change. That’s a decision sometimes as well.

“Normally I like to get subs on and make changes, but my heart was telling me to just stick with it.

“To be fair, we did get that moment with Djed at the end. We could have nicked it - and it would have been nicking it, there’s no doubt about that.

“Sometimes your decision is not to make changes, and that’s what we went with.”