'They fell really short': Steve Cooper provides withering assessment of Nottingham Forest's cup humbling at the hands of Blackpool

The Seasiders roared back to winning ways in style with an emphatic 4-1 win against their Premier League opponents in the third round of the FA Cup.

Goals from Marvin Ekpiteta, Ian Poveda, CJ Hamilton and Jerry Yates helped secure Michael Appleton’s first win since October, ending their nine-game winless run.

The Seasiders had to ride their luck at times, with their Premier League opposition squandering some gilt-edged chances in both halves, although they did add a late consolation courtesy of Ryan Yates.

But the hosts otherwise put the visitors to the sword in the second-half with an array of clinical finishing, Hamilton’s the pick of the bunch capping off an excellent individual display.

Cooper, who made 11 changes for the game, offered no excuses at his side's poor display at Bloomfield Road.

He said: “Some of my players fell short and that can happen. Yes, some of them fell really short and that’s the crux of it all really.

“It’s really disappointing. I’ve said to the players, the individual mistakes for the goals we conceded are unacceptable – equally, the missed chances.

“For me, we accepted defeat too early in the game. Even when we were 2-0 down – although it was a terrible second goal to give away – we were the team looking like we were going to score.

“There was still 25 minutes to go. It wasn’t a good situation, but we were still very much in the game. We just accepted the situation too easily and didn’t do enough about it.

“Terrible mistakes for the goals. Really poor finishing for the chances we created. Didn’t fight enough to get back into the game.

“It’s unacceptable. It’s not good enough. It’s all of those negative words that you can think around it. I’ve said exactly the same thing to the players.

“We have to accept we fell short today, in every way, shape and form. Recently, we’ve had some good examples of what it takes to play well and win. We’ve showed a good example of the complete opposite today.

“We’ve just got to make sure that never, ever happens again.”