Steve Cooper revealed that some training ground mentoring was behind Keinan Davis scoring Nottingham Forest’s fastest goal in 22 years, as his side hammered Reading 4-0.
The on-loan Aston Villa forward scored the first two goals as Paul Ince’s Royals were swept aside at the City Ground.
The first came after only 17 seconds and was the fastest Forest goal since Jack Laster scored after just 14 seconds against Norwich in March 2000 – the Reds’ fastest ever.
Davis added a spectacular second in the 62nd minute before Ryan Yates converted from range with 15 minutes remaining and substitute Sam Surridge finished a fine team goal 10 minutes from the end.
The result left Forest sitting two points off the play-off places with 11 Sky Bet Championship games left to play.
“It was a brilliant start to the game, not just because we scored but because of how we scored. We fell short in the rest of the first half when it came to our performance levels,” said Forest boss Cooper.
“We needed half-time and I was ready to gee the lads up, shall we say…but I read the mood in the dressing room and they were already doing that amongst themselves, in the way that they were talking to each other. They did it themselves.
“But they needed a reminder of the team we want to be – and we were that team in the second half. The game was played in the Reading half. We were brave, we moved the ball a lot quicker, we played more as a team, and I always felt the second goal was coming.
“It was a brilliant second goal from Keinan – and the third and fourth were equally good. We got into good positions and, when we do that, we know we have the technical ability to score.
“The first goal was the most pleasing, however, because we have been doing a lot of work with Keinan about his positioning; about his movement in the box, and he was in the right place to score in the first few seconds of the game. It all paid off for him.”
Ince, unsurprisingly, was less impressed with the early goal, but the Reading manager was even more annoyed by his team’s second-half display after seeing them more than hold their own in the first half following Davis’s opener.
“To lose a goal that quickly was just unacceptable. We dug in after that in the first half and had two very good chances to equalise. Michael Morrison might have scored and Josh Laurent should have, although he was excellent today,” said Ince.
“But when the second goal went in, for some reason, we just capitulated. We have a soft belly and you can see why this team has conceded goals in the past.
“They need to dig in and they are not digging in. That is disappointing, because it is us going back to old habits.
“We are in a dogfight and teams like Barnsley, Peterborough and Derby – they are fighting and scrapping. We have to scrap as well and we didn’t do that today.
“I told the players in no uncertain terms that I’m not going to put up with that. That second half was embarrassing.
“This is a team that has been playing nice football for two years. Now we have a fight on our hands and we need to change our mentality. We have Bournemouth away on Tuesday and we have to go there with a different mentality.”
