Chris Hughton praises Nottingham Forest players for comeback win at Coventry

Posted Wednesday, February 03, 2021 by PA

Chris Hughton praised his Nottingham Forest side’s character after their comeback 2-1 win at Coventry.

Max Biamou opened the scoring in the 17th minute before Forest skipper Lewis Grabban levelled five minutes later.

And it was a horror return for Michael Rose, after his three-month injury lay-off, as his own goal allowed Forest to open up a four-point gap over the relegation places.

“I thought we showed really good character to come back and win,” reflected Hughton.

“I heard it’s been a long time since we’ve won after the other team have taken the lead and it’s nice to win like that.

“At the end we were hanging on, sometimes you can get a lot from that kind of victory. We have to defend really well and we did that. I thought Brice Samba was excellent in goal.”

The visitors had to hold on as the Sky Blues piled on the pressure in the second half and Hughton thinks his side invited the hosts to attack too much by sitting on their slender lead.

He added: “It was a good first half, but we let those levels drop in the second half. We allowed them to get too many crosses into the box for it to be as comfortable as we would like.

“When you take the lead there’s that balance between protecting that lead and maybe trying to get another one. We ended up dropping a bit too deep.

“These are a good side here at home and they don’t lose many. As much pressure as they put us under, they never really had that clear chance.”

Mark Robins saw his side suffer their first home defeat since October and he urged his under-fire players, who have won just two of their last nine games, to sharpen up in both boxes.

He stressed: “I thought the first half was poor. The only bit of football we played ended up with us scoring. The two goals were really poor, we can’t concede goals like that and the players know that. The goals were really poor goals to concede.

“Rosey was obviously coming on cold fresh from an injury. You have to get players fit through games.

“We created a lot of openings but didn’t work the goalkeeper enough. We had loads of chances to get the ball into those areas but we didn’t have the final touch.

“Some of the crosses from Julien Da Costa are out of this world and strikers should thrive on those.”

Amadou Bakayoko was stretched off after being knocked out in a clash with keeper Samba and Robins added: “He’s woken up now, he’s in an ambulance on his way to hospital. I think they’re going to keep him in overnight.

“He couldn’t clear the neck situation so we’re unsure whether there’s any damage to the neck but he was certainly out cold. Hopefully he’s going to be OK. The physio seems quite positive so fingers crossed.”