Forest had plan to stop Millwall striker – but boss admits they failed to implement it fully

Steve Cooper was disappointed that Nottingham Forest failed to deal with Matt Smith – and revealed they had worked on a plan to try to stop him.

Smith headed home a Sheyi Ojo cross to initially give Millwall the lead before Max Lowe equalised in the second half.

Cooper said: “I didn’t think anyone deserved to be in front at half-time. We were disappointed that we were down.

“It was a goal that we had planned not to concede, we wanted to stop crosses because we know that’s their threat. We know they’ve got big Matt Smith, who can be a difference when balls are in the air and when the ball is in the box.

“We knew that was coming and when you plan for something, you obviously want to do a bit better.

“But you have two choices when things are going against you and you’re not winning – you either accept it and get beat or you roll your sleeves up and try and get back into it.

“We didn’t quite finish off the task by getting the three points, but we did our best and got back into the game.”