Steve Cooper criticizes Nottingham Forest for ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ collapse at West Ham, which saw the hosts score FOUR in the last 20 minutes to put the visitors back into danger
By Dan Matthews for The Mail On Sunday
21:38 February 25, 2023, updated 21:38 February 25, 2023
- West Ham scored four in 15 minutes to record a crucial home win
- Steve Cooper criticized his players, saying it was an ‘unacceptable’ collapse
- The result moves West Ham to 16th place, just two points behind Nottingham Forest
Steve Cooper admitted he was struggling to understand Nottingham Forest’s ‘unacceptable’ collapse against West Ham, which saw him concede four goals in 15 second-half minutes at London Stadium.
The game was goalless and well balanced with 20 minutes to go, but by the time the final whistle was blown Forest was on the wrong end of a 4–0 thrashing.
“It’s really disappointing,” Cooper said. “I know West Ham had a lot of set pieces, but we never felt in great danger of conceding a goal.
‘Actually, I think we started the second half well and gained momentum. You could feel the tension in the stadium.
“Then we went down 1-0 down to a disappointing goal, but what happened between the first and the third goal was difficult to comprehend and unacceptable.”
West Ham scored their goals between 70 and 85 minutes. Danny Ings scored twice in three minutes to put West Ham on track to victory, before Declan Rice added a brilliant third and Michail Antonio came off the bench to add a fourth.
“The game was taken from us and we have no one to blame but ourselves,” said Cooper, who vowed to conduct an investigation among his squad.
“For sure we have to go back to the training ground and have an adult conversation with the players about what happened,” he said.