Football: Cooper makes amends
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sheffield Wednesday. .1
Bright 10
Nottingham Forest. . .1
Cooper 88
Attendance: 32,488
EVEN deprived of their likeliest match-winners, the form teams of the Premiership and the First Division contrived a compelling drama in which a Forest goal after 88 minutes produced an entirely just result and a replay at the City Ground a week on Wednesday that promises to be equally enthralling.
Forest, unbeaten now in 13 games, had to manage without Stan Collymore, their 19-goal leading scorer, because of injury, but found an enormous depth of spirit to accompany some precise and confident football and had Wednesday's measure for long periods. Only the lack of an end-product, due mainly to some alert goalkeeping by Kevin Pressman, suppressed the evidence that the gulf between the elite and the pretenders may not be so wide as some would have it.
Wednesday, for whom Chris Waddle, disappointingly, was absent, seldom looked capable of imposing themselves in the manner one might have predicted from a side that has lost only once in 20 matches since Manchester United won at Hillsborough in October. Their manager, the former Forest star Trevor Francis, blamed an uneven pitch as much as anything lacking in his players, but there was more to it than that.
They seemed prepared to let Forest's five-man midfield take charge, particularly in the first half, and Pressman, keeping Chris Woods on the bench these days, was repeatedly under fire. Lee Glover, not a fans' favourite at Forest but an admirable deputy for Collymore here, might have had a hat-trick on another afternoon. Pressman's agility and excellent positioning prevented that, just as his lightning reflexes kept out one stinging early drive from David Phillips.
Phillips, Lars Bohinen and Neil Webb dominated midfield. They were at the heart of Forest's most constructive moves, Phillips displaying his Norwich pedigree in the pivotal role in front of the back four. Yet it appeared that fortune was wearing a Wednesday shirt. Rare hesitation in the visiting back four allowed Mark Bright, with his sixth goal in as many games, to nod Wednesday into a 10th-minute lead, and until Forest mounted their last breathless assault, it seemed that this would remain the critical moment, even after Wednesday lost both full-backs through injury.
'I thought we had got away with it and were going to get a result we did not really deserve,' Francis confessed. Steve Stone missed dreadfully with the goal at his mercy with four minutes left but Colin Cooper, the defender at fault when Bright scored, thundered into the Wednesday area during the next attack, rose to meet Phillips' cross from the right and, despite Des Walker's attempt to deflect his header to safety, peeled away to a mobbing from his deeply relieved team-mates.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments