Steve Cooper not thinking about losing his job as Nottingham Forest owner’s reaction to Fulham thrashing says it all for Steve Cooper as he makes a bold statement about his reputation.

Steve Cooper now understands how turkeys feel as they prepare to meet Bernard Matthews later this month.

Cooper’s players served up unacceptably half-baked dross in this humiliating defeat to Fulham, and two-goal Raul Jimenez administered the stuffing. Despite the fantastic support of 2,800 Trent Bridge fans who chanted Cooper’s name, Forest’s fifth defeat in six games told its own grim story.

Cooper wore the resigned expression of a condemned man as owner Evangelos Marinakis looked down with a thunderous face. Fulham, who are both classy and clinical, will not get an easier three points all season.

Despite being top of the league, Marinakis has fired three coaches at his other club, Olympiakos, this season after Paulo Bento walked the plank in Greece on Monday. And, even if he still had an itchy trigger finger from taking care of business in Athens 48 hours earlier, there was nothing in this bankrupt Forest performance that would convince him to keep his pistol in the holster.

“It was a painful night,” Cooper said. I didn’t deserve it (applause), it was humiliating. I heard it and am grateful, but I must accept responsibility for that performance.

“I deserve all the criticism. I deserve the blame. It’s on me. It was not baffling tonight, it was clear what happened.”

Asked if he was still the right man to lead Forest out of their slump, Cooper replied: “I don’t worry about my reputation. What’s right for the football club is right for me.”

After Divock Origi fired an early sighter just wide, the optimism soon faded like a holiday tan. Forest had already survived Andreas Pereira’s free-kick against a post when the roof caved in after half an hour – tiles, joists, felt, the lot.

Alex Iwobi scored his third goal of the season with a calm finish to Willian’s low centre, before Jimenez struck four minutes later. Pereira was the provider this time, slipping a perfectly weighted pass for the Mexico striker to fire high past Forest keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos for his second Premier League goal since March 2022.

Nobody in football begrudges Jimenez a moment of happiness three years after the terrible head injury he suffered at Arsenal almost to the day – and nobody in football enjoys a decent man like Cooper floundering in quicksand.

Forest’s night had gone from bad to embarrassing by the time Jimenez made it 3-0 nine minutes after the break, brushing aside Ola Aina’s feeble challenge, sidestepping Vlachodimos, and back-heeling the ball into an empty net.

Iwobi added his second with a swaggering finish from sub Harry Wilson’s cross, and Fulham skipper Tom Cairney completed the rout four minutes from time, astonishingly unaccompanied as he broke through the middle.

Cooper acknowledged the away fans with a hands-up gesture that smacked of apology while loating Fulham fans recited the anthem of the damned, You’re Getting Sacked In The Morning.