As one Nottingham Forest team battles relegation, one eyes promotion

KATHRYN BATTE: As one Nottingham Forest team battles to avoid relegation, another eyes promotion… but Women’s boss Andy Cook admits Championship play-off final feels ‘bittersweet’

  • Nottingham Forest won the National League Northern Premier Division in May
  • The Women team will face Watford  for a place in the Championship next season
  • Cook hopes for a reunion one day with former player and Euros star Beth Mead 

While one Nottingham Forest team has been battling to avoid relegation this season, another is aiming to seal promotion this weekend.

Andy Cook’s women’s team won the National League Northern Premier Division earlier this month and will now play Watford, the winners of the Southern equivalent, for a place in the Championship.

The play-off fixture has been in place since 2014-2015 but last month the FA announced it will be scrapped from next season, with the two league winners automatically promoted.

‘Having the announcement just before the end of our league season was a little bit bittersweet, because we were on the verge of winning the league and we knew that if this was in 12 months, we would have been promoted,’ Cook tells Mail Sport.

‘I think the timing could have been a little better but I’m not in control of that, it is what it is. We’ve got to play this match and ultimately I get to work with this group of players for another three weeks, which has been fantastic.’

Nottingham Forest Women are vying for promotion after winning the National League Northern Premier Division earlier this month

Andy Cook (fourth from right) has been head coach at Nottingham Forest since July 2019

Cook’s side will now play Watford, winners of the Southern equivalent, for a place in the Championship next season

Forest’s title race went all the way to the final day, with a victory over Stoke seeing them crowned champions on goal difference. Cook was tasked with achieving promotion when he joined the club in 2019 but endured two seasons of stop-start football caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. There are ambitious plans to eventually reach the Women’s Super League but Cook says his team, which is still part-time, must get the job done first before they can look beyond this season.

‘We’ve got people doing lots of different jobs, teachers, surveyors, people working in our community and then university students as well. We’ve got lots of different people from different backgrounds that come together three times a week and then play on a weekend.

‘We’re on the edge of what we want to try and achieve and ultimately we can’t really put into process any of those three, four, five-year plans until we get into the Championship.

‘The club has ambitions to get into the WSL but we’ve got to do our job as coaches and players first. If we can win, then we can start to look at those plans and see how far we can take this club on this project and this journey.’

Part of the club’s vision has been to integrate the women’s team with the men’s set-up, with Cook’s team having played multiple games at the City Ground in the last two seasons.

Cook also revealed that the club have trained at the men’s base in preparation for their play-off final at Stadium MK on Saturday.

‘We’ve moved our whole training, we don’t normally train at the men’s training ground but we’ve trained on the grass pitches at the men’s training ground for the last three weeks and everyone’s been accommodating.

‘We know that the Milton Keynes pitch is a big pitch and all the other little things that aren’t massive but do make a difference.

Forest, pictured here against Man City, won their league title on the final day of the season

They also prevailed in the League Cup final earlier this year after getting the better of Watford

‘The club has backed us in everything we’ve done and that’s probably a sign of where we are as a football club as a whole that it’s not a problem that the women’s side is coming to train here because we all want Nottingham Forest to be successful.’

Cook is hopeful that promotion to the second tier may eventually lead to a reunion with Arsenal forward Beth Mead, who he coached during her time at Middlesbrough’s Centre of Excellence.

Mead referenced Cook in the acknowledgements of her autobiography and has spoken highly of the impact he had on her career.

‘She’s always had the quality and she showed it at the Euros.

‘As she says in the book, she was a shy young girl from the North East, she did need to be pushed.

‘I was fortunate enough to work with her and see that ability. I always knew that she’d outgrow anything that we were doing at the Centre of Excellence very quickly because she was a fantastic talent, she needed to move on.

‘I always knew that she would hit these heights. I played a small part in her journey and it was humbling to be mentioned in her book.’

Cook previously coached England star Beth Mead as a youth player, and is hoping for a reunion with the forward in the WSL

Forest recently beat Watford in the National League Cup final in April, with Cook’s team winning 3-2 after extra-time. The Forest boss is expecting another close encounter but said the feeling is one of excitement, rather than nerves.

‘I’ve never been more excited for a football match as I have for this one.

‘For me it’s just a real pleasure to be able to work with the players and ultimately finish on the best stage possible on Saturday in front of live television cameras.’

Nottingham Forest play Watford in the National League play-off final live on BBC iPlayer at 1pm.

Source: Read Full Article