Nottingham Forest have been experiencing a much more positive week of football with a point taken from their clash with Brentford in the Premier League last weekend, and a giant-killing at The City Ground on Wednesday night where they knocked Tottenham Hotspur out of the Carabao Cup.

Steve Cooper will be thrilled with the confidence and resilience his team has shown more recently despite being at the bottom of the league table and will be hopeful that his team can pick up some more points on Saturday when they host Crystal Palace at home before the World Cup break.

The Welsh manager will then have the opportunity to work with his players that will remain on Trentside whilst the prestigious international tournament commences over in Qatar, which gives him almost six weeks to really iron out the issues in the team and build better connections between players to ensure Forest can comeback fighting when they return to action after Christmas.

One player who shone against Spurs on Wednesday evening was Sam Surridge, and his performance should have given Cooper a lot to think about when setting up his team against Patrick Vieira's side at the weekend.

The 24-year-old ace - who was dubbed "super" by journalist Callum Castel - delivered one assist, one key pass and had two shots on target, as well as creating one big chance and winning four deals over his 72-minute performance.

Surridge is one of the only players left from the Championship side that were victorious in the play-off finals at Wembley earlier this year and was a consistent performer in the side over last season.

During 37 league appearances, the talented centre-forward scored nine goals, delivered two assists and created two big chances, as well as taking 1.4 shots per game and completing the majority of his dribbles (52%).

Cooper hasn't been as keen to start Surridge this season after signing Taiwo Awoniyi and Emmanuel Dennis in the summer with the player only making seven Premier League appearances averaging at just 17 minutes per performance.

With that being said, after Surridge's performance and positive influence on the team a few days ago, Cooper must unleash the striker more often in the team as he could make a huge difference to the remainder of Forest's season.