Steve Cooper issues sobering Nottingham Forest message following Blackburn Rovers victory

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper believes his side climbing into the play-offs doesn’t mean anything at this moment in time because they are yet to fully secure their place there, as he spoke Nottinghamshire Live following their 2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers.

James Garner was the man to open the scoring for yesterday’s visitors at Ewood Park, benefitting from some wonderful individual work from Keinan Davis to calmly slot the ball home.

Their task of holding on to the three points was arguably made easier in the 53rd minute when Darragh Lenihan was sent off for a second bookable offence after a rash challenge on Jack Colback, leaving Rovers with a man down and without their skipper.

Forest finally made that man advantage count when Sam Surridge was brought down in the box by Jan Paul van Hecke, giving Brennan Johnson the chance to seal the game from 12 yards which he did with no issues.

This latest result was not only a statement of intent to other teams in the division with Tony Mowbray’s men sitting in the automatic promotion zone prior to last night’s round of Championship fixtures, but it also enabled them to climb up to sixth spot, a remarkable achievement considering they were rock bottom in the early stages of the campaign.

But Cooper, who guided former club Swansea City to consecutive play-off finishes during his time in South Wales, isn’t getting carried away and made that very clear in his post-match press conference in Lancashire.

Speaking yesterday evening after climbing into the top six, the Welshman said: “It doesn’t really mean anything at this stage. There’s no prizes for that now.

“We just want to get ready for Stoke on Saturday. I watched them play last night and thought they were excellent, and