'Promise you' - Steve Cooper makes Nottingham Forest promotion pledge ahead of play-offs final

Boss Steve Cooper says his previous play-offs experiences have made him "stronger" as Nottingham Forest prepare for their Wembley showdown with Huddersfield Town.

A place in the Premier League is the prize up for grabs when the Reds meet the Terriers under the famous arch a week on Sunday. For Forest, it would bring an end to a 23-year exile from the top-flight.

Cooper says he will be doing everything possible to achieve promotion. And he insists it is a different scenario to last year, when his Swansea City side lost to Brentford in the final, having fallen at the semi-final stage the season before.

“I promise you I will work even harder than I have already worked to get this,” he said, after the Reds beat Sheffield United in the semi-finals. “No days off.

“I will be the first one at the training ground. We will be ready.

“My experiences before are irrelevant. Those things make you stronger. They are good for you.

“It doesn’t feel like that at the time, but if it happens, they make you better and make you stronger. You’ve got to be there to win them, and you’ve got to be there to lose them. I’d much rather be there to have a go.

“The two things are not joined up. This is different.

“I’m not the only who has had that kind of experience. Without sounding negative, Brennan (Johnson) was at Wembley last year (when Lincoln City were beaten in the League One play-offs final during his loan spell).

“Other people have had good and bad moments in the play-offs. But that’s what brings us together and makes us the team we are.

“Don’t come into something and not aim to be the best, or aim to finish first. Go for what’s possible. This football club deserves the best.”