Steve Cooper gives glimpse inside 'excited' Nottingham Forest camp ahead of Bournemouth showdown

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper says there is an “excitement” among his group of players as they prepare for Tuesday night’s showdown with Bournemouth.

The Reds make the trip for the rearranged clash at the Vitality Stadium (7pm kick-off) knowing anything other than victory for the hosts will take the race for automatic promotion down to the final game. Three points for the Cherries, on the other hand, would secure them second spot.

Forest, though, have thrived on the big occasions plenty of times already this season amid their charge up the Championship table. And on the back of Saturday’s 5-1 rout over Swansea City, Cooper says the squad are itching to get going on the south coast.

“I see a real good focus. I see a real good engagement. I see a real calm, but excited feeling amongst the guys,” he said.

“But it’s been like that for a while. The good thing about this group is it doesn’t seem like they let complacency creep in. That’s very important to me, because I think you can have all the best ideas and strategies, but if you don’t have the right attitude and right work ethic, then a lot of the other stuff becomes irrelevant. We have that at the moment, and we’ve got to work hard to keep it going.

“Elite sport is about moments and games like this. We need to thrive on these opportunities.

“We’re excited. We’re really looking forward to the game.

“We were back in training this morning. It was a very lively and vibrant training ground. We’re looking forward to getting on the bus and getting down to Bournemouth.

“It doesn’t matter who we play, we want to play our way. We want to aim to be the best team. We want to aim to do it our way. It doesn’t always work. We’ve had some lows as well. But the intent never changes.