Michael Dawson told Sky Sports that Steve Cooper showed a different kind of emotion as Nottingham Forest roared into contention for automatic promotion.
The Reds capitalised on some woeful defending from already promotion Fulham. Philip Zinckernagel’s goal gifted Forest the lead and essentially, he scored the winner in a 1-0 win.
Cooper’s men were bang up for the clash. They raced out of the blocks at Craven Cottage and Marco Silva’s defence couldn’t get to grips with the high pressing from the Forest forwards.
Dawson never managed to be part of a Forest side that won promotion. Still, he remains a popular figure and he believes he saw a different side to Cooper during the Fulham clash.
He told Sky Sports: “Steve Cooper has shown his emotion. We don’t often see that. We’ve seen him fist-pumping with the fans after when they’ve won but that was different. That emotion was special.”
Forest kept up the pressure on Bournemouth with the 1-0 victory. The Cherries came from 3-0 down to draw with Swansea with the point potentially proving huge.
The two sides meet at the Vitality Stadium next Tuesday in what could prove to be a massive clash in the quest for automatic promotion.
Dawson is right, Cooper already has a special place in Forest hearts
Cooper can do no wrong. This win was totally unexpected against a side who are literally already assured to be wearing Premier League badges on their sleeves next season.
Forest still have to fight for that right. They didn’t really put on a show at Fulham but three points at this stage of the season are frankly all that matters right now.
Dawson clearly still loves Forest. He uttered words like ‘we’ and ‘us’ throughout the live coverage and he’d be buzzing to see the club back in the Premier League.
Under Cooper, those dreams might just become reality in the next couple of weeks.