Cooper: I have to prove myself

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“I’m a winner, I’m competitive, it’s not nice to get battered 9-0,” admitted Billing. “We felt hungover for a few days. But it’s a long season, it’s not worth digging yourself in a hole and getting negative.

“We rubbed ourselves down and showed the quality to bounce back. We had to keep working hard, train

STEVE COOPER admits he will spend the week soul searching in a bid to get Nottingham Forest out of their slump.

It has been a year of almost total success for the Welshman since he arrived at The City Ground 12 months ago.

But big-spending Forest have won just once this season after splashing out more than €145m on 21 players and now find themselves in the relegation zone.

They lost 6-0 at Manchester harder, but more so keep believing in yourself.

“A 9-0 defeat is tough but we can’t beat ourselves up about one game. It’s a long old season. Yeah, 9-0, get over it, we’ve shown people we can bounce back.

“There will be more defeats but we have to keep building and be positive.

Weird

“We didn’t know what to say when Scott left. We just came in and our job is to play football. But of course it’s weird after what we went through together last season with Scott.”

Forest were in total control at the break. It looked like it would be easy for the hosts after Cheikhou Kouyate’s 33rd-minute header, his first goal for the club, and Brennan Johnson’s

City in midweek and Cooper was alarmed at how they capitulated from 2-0 up to lose 3-2 against Bournemouth.

Sticky

He said: “Things have gone really well since I’ve been here but I need to show I can manage through sticky periods too. It starts with me.

“I’ll be looking at myself and aim to do better. stoppage-time penalty after a Lloyd Kelly handball.

But Billing’s superb striker, a 30-yarder on 51 minutes, turned this game on its head.

Bournemouth then levelled on 63 minutes thanks to Dominic Solanke’s superb scissor kick. And then Solanke set up Jaidon Anthony to score the winner three minutes from time.

Ex-Middlesbrough and West Ham midfielder O’Neil has been coy over

“I’m OK with that. Football management is about highs and lows.

“I can’t hide away, I need to show the supporters that I can manage after a difficult week.

“It’s easy to manage after a good week.”

Cooper (right) at least has nine days between this latest loss and next Monday’s trip to old rivals Leeds.

Changes could be considered in defence, with Loic Bade and Willy Boly pushing for places. whether he is interested in the Bournemouth job full time.

He has been on the Cherries coaching staff since February 2021 and would be a left-field choice.

Certainly Solanke would be happy if O’Neil is given the gig on a permanent basis, saying: “We’ve known Gary a long time, he’s a fantastic guy.

Motivate

“He’s shown this week what he can get out of us. He’s got a lot of experience and knows us inside out. He knows how to motivate us.

“He made a few tweaks and changed a few things at half time. So all credit to him.

“At half time he told us we were still in the game. We thought they weren’t miles ahead. We just needed to get that next goal.

“For the confidence it’s massive. We have such great belief, we know each other well and we know we can bounce back.

“It’s never nice to lose your manager. That stuff happens and I think we showed our character to put that stuff behind us. Now we look forward.”