Steve Cooper must have wondered what kind of reception he would receive from the traveling Nottingham Forest fans, but unfortunately the Leicester manager only had to suffer a resounding defeat against their East Midlands rivals to find out. After Chris Wood delighted in some ridiculous Leicester defending to score his second goal and Forest's third, the away fans went back to an old goal. “Stevie Cooper, Stevie Cooper, he hates Leicester, he hates the derby, Forest are huge,” filled the air as Leicester’s fans sat in silence. The reality is that Forest should have made it 4-1 but home midfielder Ryan Yates, who opened the scoring, missed a goalkeeper shot from four yards.

Only Erling Haaland has scored more league goals than Wood this season, and the Forest striker's first goal, with his back to goal, was a thing of beauty. Since Nuno Espírito Santo's first game as Forest manager, only Haaland has scored more goals without a penalty than Wood. In the end, the away fans were singing about Europe and Forest had moved up to fifth place, at least for a few hours. Cooper allowed Forest, who have been beaten once this season, to finally return to the biggest stage, but Nuno appears to be pushing them to a higher level.

Nuno, serving the second part of a three-game suspension on the sidelines, admired the joyous scenes in a corner of that stadium from the back of the press box but watched Woods' first on a television in the away locker room.

At the final whistle, Anthony Elanga gave Callum Hudson-Odoi a piggyback ride, Ola Aina danced and Àlex Moreno hit the sky three times in front of the ecstatic Forest fans, just like Cooper once did. “Seeing our fans celebrating, they gave so much, and seeing them at the end of the game, that’s what we play for,” said the Forest head coach. “They should be excited, they should enjoy it and it was a beautiful day for us as a club in this special game. Let’s not forget where we come from, how hard it was, so now we have to enjoy it.”

Despite the obvious history, Cooper had tried not to talk about his time at Forest. Even in his program notes, Cooper, who still lives in Keyworth, nine miles south of Nottingham, mentioned nothing about his tenure in charge, apart from the usual welcoming message to his successor, his staff, his players and his away fans. Regardless, Forest fans will always appreciate how the Welshman brought the good times back to the City Ground. He ended Forest's 23-year absence from the top flight after completing an unthinkable rise from bottom of the Championship to a play-off final victory at Wembley in nine months.

One of Cooper's toughest days as Forest coach came the following season with a 4-0 defeat, and another was on the horizon when Yates opened the scoring after 16 minutes, scoring just his second league goal since April 2022. Yates punished a mistake by James Justin, who deflected the ball and sank a right-footed shot into the bottom corner for the first time. Cooper stood at the edge of the home technical area with his hands in his pockets as Yates flew to the turf on his knees, Elanga quickly joining him. Then came Yates' goggles celebration, a reference to the Forest fans' ditty. “If Yatesy scores, we’ll be in Trent,” they sing.

Leicester recovered and equalized seven minutes later thanks to Jamie Vardy's fourth goal of the season. Harry Winks delivered a brilliant cross towards the penalty area where Vardy slotted between Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo and converted – another cool finish.

But Leicester struggled to gain momentum and a few minutes later Mads Hermansen made an excellent save at the other end to deny Nicolás Domínguez. Murillo shot his toe into the goal from a corner, but it deflected into the path of an unmarked Domínguez. The Forest midfielder blocked a shot at goal, but the ball bounced off the right shin pad of the prone Hermansen. The goalkeeper later made some fine saves to deny Elanga and Hudson-Odoi.

Leicester could hardly have started the second half worse as Forest punished another mistake. Domínguez won the ball after Winks' botched pass and when Elliot Anderson passed to Wood, only the Forest striker knew his next move. Wood spun Caleb Okoli around, looked at Elanga to his right and, without even looking at the goal, buried the ball in the bottom corner, past the base of Hermansen's left post. A hungry Forest felt blood and their third goal came from another mistake from Leicester.

Okoli relied on centre-back partner Wout Faes to fend off a routine kick from the field by Matz Sels and Faes merely headed the ball into the air, allowing Wood, who could hardly believe his luck, to sneak in and send a header over the goal could an exposed Hermansen. In the end, Leicester got off lightly, Yates grabbed the ball and substitute Taiwo Awoniyi shot into the side netting. The home crowd quickly emptied, but nothing of the sort was the case at the away game. “You don’t want to lose a game, especially against local rivals,” Cooper said. “We can’t shy away from it. It's important that we don't get too high or too low. How we recover from setbacks will ultimately determine how we perform this year.”