'It was a job well done': Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper on his side's emphatic win against Blackpool

The Seasiders were given a harsh lesson by Cooper’s promotion-chasing men, who eased to a 4-1 win in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

Forest were in clinical form in the first-half, scoring all three of their shots on target - two coming from the excellent Brennan Johnson.

The home side responded at the start of the second-half but they were unable to get a goal back, before Forest eventually added a fourth late on.

Substitute Callum Connolly bagged a late consolation for the Seasiders but by then the damage had already been done.

Cooper singled out Johnson for special praise in his post-match interview, telling Nottingham Live: “I didn’t say anything to Brennan, but when he’s come back from international duty in recent times, he’s took a little bit to get going again.

“And he hadn’t played in those camps. In this one, he did. So it was interesting to see how he played.

“He was excellent. He is excellent, isn’t he?

“His whole approach to playing for the team and the contribution he makes is always a good one. It was good.

“The most pleasing thing today is that everyone is obviously really happy with the result. But as soon as we’d said thanks and congratulations to everybody, the attitude was, ‘right, let’s get on to the next one’. I really like that.

“In terms of the game plan, it was job well done from the boys.

“As well as it going to be a really tough game in terms of how Blackpool play and their home form, the challenge was to try to pick up where we left off. Fortunately, we did.

“We were going really well before the international break. We had some players not come back in the building until the last 48 hours, which adds to the challenge.

“They test you, Blackpool, with the way they play. Fortunately, we showed enough clinical play to make the most of the space they gave us.”