Steve Cooper salutes Forest players for sticking to game plan in Swansea win

Steve Cooper praised his Nottingham Forest players for sticking to the game plan against Swansea as they hammered his old club 5-1 to keep the pressure on Bournemouth in the race for second place in the Championship.

Swansea dominated possession – and had Forest frustrated at half-time, as a Michael Obafemi strike cancelled out a Cyrus Christie own goal, to leave the scores level at 1-1.

But a Sam Surridge hat-trick and a late goal from substitute Alex Mighten helped Forest to three points – and to give themselves a single-goal advantage on goal difference over Bournemouth, who they face on Tuesday on the south coast.

“It was obviously a brilliant win. I am very grateful to the players for sticking to the game plan,” said Cooper.

“It was a different one because we were very happy for Swansea to have the ball – because that is what they do. But they also concede a lot of chances and give away a lot of goals.

“It was always our intention to have that approach – and it should have been 5-1 at half-time, with the chances we created. I don’t say that with any disrespect. You will see when you watch the highlights. It was chance, after chance, after chance.

“It is brilliant that Sam has got his hat-trick but the mentality I want is that it could have been double (the number of goals).

“We want to be an attacking team, you have seen how many goals we have scored this year – that is our approach. I challenged them to be a better team at half-time because the chances were there – and we did that in the second half.”

Surridge signed for Forest in January, in a £2.2million move from Stoke and has now scored seven Championship goals for the club, but none more precious than these.

“We have given him an opportunity. He needed a home.