Steve Cooper has ‘mixed emotions’ after Nottingham Forest draw at Chelsea

Cooper’s men made a promising start at Stamford Bridge and that was rewarded when Taiwo Awoniyi fired them in front just before the quarter-hour mark. The lead remained in place until half-time but the hosts had turned the game on its head within 15 minutes of the restart with two goals from England winger Raheem Sterling.

However, Forest were able to claw their way back into the game and they earned a point when Awoniyi made it four goals in two games by doubling his tally for the day just after hour-mark. The draw left Forest three points and two places above the Premier League relegation zone and they received a further boost on Sunday when fellow strugglers Everton fell to a 3-0 defeat against league leaders Manchester City.

Despite earning what was a deserved point, Forest boss Cooper believes his side could have claimed a more lucrative reward from their visit to West London. Speaking after the game to the Forest website, he said: “If we end up where we want to be, I think we’ll look back at today and be more than satisfied with it.

“It’s mixed feelings of working really hard to get something out of the game and being satisfied with that, but then at the same time knowing that it could have been different. The goals probably sum up what I’m saying with how hard we’ve had to work for ours through strategies and set-pieces, but although they were two good finishes from Raheem Sterling, we’ll look at it and think about how we let them in too easily.

“We don’t blame anyone, we do everything together, which has been a big strength of ours this season. You can see it on the pitch, the culture and togetherness of the group is at a maximum which we’ll need for the final two games.”

Forest return to action when they host title contenders Arsenal on Saturday evening.