Head coach Steve Cooper has admitted that he was left unimpressed when learning about a social media post from Nottingham Forest ahead of Saturday's fixture with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
On the morning of the game at Molineux, a post showing Emmanuel Dennis tickling three cubs at Molineux with the caption of 'playtime' appeared on Forest's official Twitter account.
After Wolves had posted a 1-0 victory courtesy of Ruben Neves's second-half penalty, Wolves' counterparts responded with a post of their own, an axe being aimed into a log in reference to Forest's nickname 'The Tricky Trees'.
Their reply was accompanied with the caption of 'playtime's over', and caretaker boss Steve Davis revealed after the win that the Wolves squad had quickly been made aware of Forest's error of judgement before it was deleted.
In the immediate aftermath of Forest's seventh defeat in 10 Premier League matches this season, Cooper stated that he had not been made aware of the developments.
How it Started: How it's going: pic.twitter.com/PgUf7b8Juo
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However, when quizzed on the matter on Monday ahead of the upcoming fixture with Brighton & Hove Albion, the Welshman was critical of the post.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Cooper said: "I wasn't aware of it but was later notified what happened. It wasn't a good thing by the club but is being dealt with. It's important to learn from it.
"It didn't impact on the performance and result, I'm not going to use it as an excuse. Professional players don't need social media posts to be motivated.
"It wasn't a good moment but we need to draw a line and move on from it. I wasn't helpful but it's done now. It won't happen again."
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Forest make the trip to face the Seagulls sitting at the bottom of the Premier League table after going eight matches without a win.
However, Cooper says that he has no worries about the attitude within his squad, adding: "Our attitude is fine. We went 1-0 down at weekend but you didn't see a group of lads not doing their best to try and get back into game.
"We didn't have best of luck with our penalty and then the couple of chances after that. They really wanted to get something out of game. There's no problem with attitude or commitment, I see everyday a real desire to try and succeed."
Forest are four points adrift of safety and they play Brighton for the first time in a league fixture since March 2017.
Darren Plant
