Aston Villa v Forest: Jonjo Shelvey’s inexplicable error piles more pressure on Nottingham Forest and Steve Cooper

It was another afternoon of frustration for Nottingham Forest as defeat by Aston Villa sent them into the bottom three while their West Midlands rivals are up into the European places.

What that means next in the short term for Forest is anybody’s guess after Evangelos Marinakis, the club’s owner, made his position on Steve Cooper’s status very clear in midweek. On the face of it, the statement was public backing for the Welsh manager but the wording within it showed there is no margin for error.

Coming away from Villa Park with anything against an Unai Emery side on a six-game unbeaten streak heading into this fixture was always going to be difficult. What made the task nigh on impossible was an inexplicable mistake