Nuno Espirito Santo insists he is not focusing on the Premier League table, but rather on his team’s mistakes after Nottingham Forest’s 2-0 defeat to Brentford.
Forest missed the chance to move up to third in the standings after goals in either half from Kevin Schade and Yoane Wissa sealed the win for Thomas Frank’s team.
Their defeat leaves them sixth in the table, with the top five securing Champions League football for next season.
Nuno acknowledged that his players were second best against the Bees, but was still optimistic that they could bounce back from their latest setback.
“It’s a bad night and a bad game,” Nuno told Sky Sports. “I’m not really worried about the table, I’m more worried about the mistakes we are making and how to correct them.
“Credit to Brentford but [their goals were] situations we should solve normally with better defending. We are disappointed, but it’s about reacting and going for the next one.
“I don’t say it was because of the semi-final [FA Cup defeat to Manchester City]. It was highly demanding in a fitness aspect, but we should have defended better.
“We didn’t create too much, Brentford defended well. We have to compete much better to achieve what we want. The way we did it in this game is not normal for where we are.
“There are still four games to go, a lot of football to be played. We have to focus on ourselves and play better football.”
Thursday’s result capped a miserable few days for Forest, who were beaten 2-0 in their FA Cup semi-final clash with Manchester City at Wembley Stadium.
Nuno’s side have now lost three of their last four Premier League games (W1), as many as their previous 16 beforehand (W11 D2 L3) at a crucial part of their campaign.
They have also lost back-to-back home matches without scoring in the league for the first time since December 2023 under Steve Cooper.
And Anthony Elanga urged his team-mates to put their Wembley defeat in their review mirror and put full focus into turning their losing run around quickly.
“We’ve been really solid in defence this year. We lost in the semi-final the other day and we’ve lost today. We need to regroup for Monday,” Elanga told BBC Match of the Day.
“We forgot about the game at Wembley [Stadium] and wanted to start strong today. The goals we conceded today weren’t like us.
“We have to go game-by-game, and we need to start winning and put ourselves in the best position possible. That starts with Palace.”
Opta’s supercomputer still ranks Forest’s chances of finishing in the top five highly, at 58.7%, but the pressure is on.
