Forest vs Spurs | Ange's preview | 'Coops', Cloughie and what to expect at the City Ground

Ange Postecoglou has revealed how he met Forest boss Steve Cooper by chance on holiday - and spoke about how his opposite number tonight has made 'an undeniable impact' at the City Ground.

Forest were bottom of the Championship when Cooper took over in September, 2021. Incredibly, he lifted them up to the play-offs and then beat Huddersfield in the final at Wembley to take this famous club back into the Premier League for the first time since 1999.

It wasn't long after that magnificent achievement in May, 2022, that Ange, then boss at Celtic, met Cooper on his summer break in Athens.

Asked about Cooper in his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Ange said: "I really like Coops. A couple of summers ago, the year they got promoted, we actually stayed at the same hotel in Athens, he with his family and me with mine. Just by coincidence we were there. I spent a bit of time with him and have a lot of time for him. Even before I met him, he was so well regarded and respected within the coaching fraternity.

"It can't be dismissed what an achievement it was for him to get Forest into the Premier League and keep them up. All of us want to make impact at football clubs, he's made an undeniable impact. He is a top manager and I'm sure he will work his way through this one as well."

We travel to the red side of the River Trent for Friday Night Football (8pm UK) to face a Forest side going through somewhat of a sticky patch with one win in their last 12 in the Premier League.

However, they've still lost just twice at home this term, that one win of late was against in-form Villa and Ange is well aware that home form is key to Forest - last season they beat Arsenal, Liverpool, Brighton and West Ham and drew against Manchester City and Chelsea on their way to survival in 16th.

Ange added: “I think it's fair to say that any team going to play at Forest knows it's going to be a difficult game, irrespective of where they're at in terms of their own trajectory. Even this year, I know the results haven't been great, but at home they're still very hard to beat. All the games are close, so you know it's going to be tough. No-one was going through a worse trot than we were a week ago and we ended up winning 4-1. You always kind of balance these things up.

“You can fall into a trap of thinking, ‘oh, they’re not going well, they’re under pressure or somehow going to be less than at their best’, but you can’t assume that. You’ve got to assume they are going to be at their best and at home they are going to be hard to beat.”