Nottingham Forest moved five points clear of the Premier League relegation zone with victory over Burnley
Nottingham Forest head coach Vitor Pereira watches on against Burnley(Image: Getty)
Vitor Pereira has warned Nottingham Forest can have no room for complacency in their relegation battle, despite moving five points clear of the bottom three.
Sunday’s 4-1 thumping of Burnley at the City Ground put some distance between the Reds and 18th-placed Tottenham Hotspur, who were held to a draw by Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday. Morgan Gibbs-White’s hat-trick and Igor Jesus’ late strike made it seven games unbeaten in all competitions for Pereira’s side.
With five Premier League games remaining, securing survival is in their own hands. But the Forest head coach has cautioned any thoughts the job is done could swiftly come back to bite his group.
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“If we start to think the three points (on Sunday) is enough, this is a big mistake,” Pereira said. “We need to keep the mentality to get points everywhere because I believe this season, to not be relegated, you will need more points than the last seasons.
“That is why we need to keep our spirit and the fighting and winning mentality. We need to compete until the last minute in the last game.
“The conversation with them was about the way a season that looks like being a bad season can be a fantastic season in the end. If we believe we can do it, with our supporters, everything can happen.”
Not only has Pereira overseen an upturn in league fortunes, he has also steered the Reds into the Europa League semi-finals. However, they very nearly came unstuck against the Clarets – until a half-time team-talk sparked a big second half.
The hosts had trailed at the break after a poor opening 45 minutes. Pereira used the interval to put in place some tactical tweaks and also called on his squad to show some fight.
“Half-time, everything changed,” the Portuguese said. “We had a conversation, trying to help them find the spaces and look for different spaces. We just said to them: ‘Even if we are losing 3-0, I believe with you and our supporters we can do it; we are just losing 1-0 and just need to score two goals to win.’
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“They scored four and I am very happy. The supporters deserve a lot and this win was important. But the next one is the most important because it is the next chance to get points again.
“Before, earlier in my career, maybe I went in the dressing room shouting at everybody. But I learnt a lot with experience.
“I went in there before the referee’s whistle because I wanted to go to the (white) board to explain to them we would do this attacking and this defending, and to show the positions of the players. It was to say to them: ‘I believe, me and my staff believe, we will find a way if we start to do this and play in this way.’
“The first half, we defended in a good way but attacking was not our level. We said to them: ‘This is the moment to fight, the moment to score two goals, don’t concede anything and then we will win the game.’”
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