Nottingham Forest 'target' approach laid out as promotion push reaches decisive period

Nottingham Forest will work towards hitting “small targets” as it reaches make-or-break time in the Championship campaign.

Boss Steve Cooper has barely veered from a tunnel-vision approach all season, focusing on where his team are and what they can do. And he has been keen to stress the Reds simply have to take their promotion push game by game, rather than look too far ahead.

Defender Scott McKenna says small goals are set for Forest to aim for. But their overarching aim is to maintain the momentum they have built up, as they head to Luton Town on Friday on the back of five straight league wins.

“It’s not always easy to carry on the momentum when you’ve had lads away on international duty, but we got off to a great start at Blackpool and we used that momentum in the next two games,” he said, as Cooper’s side reflect on a nine-point week. “It was a brilliant run for us.

“The games come thick and fast, so we have to carry that on. Now, the focus is just on Luton.

“I don’t think we can look at where we are. All we can do is keep trying to play the way we know we can, following the manager’s tactics, playing with the confidence we have been doing, and trying to keep the momentum going. We want to keep that for as long as possible.

“The manager sets small targets in-house, but they will stay between us. We try to hit them. They are only small targets. We take it a game at a time. It’s been working so far, so I see absolutely no reason why we will change it.

“We just need to carry on the form we have been doing. There are still things we can improve on, for sure. We’ll go to Luton looking to take three points.”

Cooper’s side make the trip to Kenilworth Road sitting fourth in the table, on a 10-match unbeaten run in the