Chris Cohen is preparing to return to his old stomping ground tomorrow night but says he has no regrets about leaving Nottingham Forest’s Under-23s set-up to take up his first senior team backroom role with Luton.
The first team coach joined the Hatters in the summer after a 13-year career as a midfielder at the City Ground, were he made more than 300 appearances, before moving into a coaching role with the Reds’ development side.
A former Yeovil room-mate of Town boss Nathan Jones, the 33-year-old was recruited by the Welshman, who also began his coaching career in the youth ranks at Charlton Athletic.
But speaking of the move to first-team football, Cohen said: “It’s always been an ambition of mine, as soon as I stopped playing. The best thing that ever happened to me was (former manager) Aitor Karanka saying to me, ‘rather than just pick up bibs, balls and cones for him, go and learn your trade with the U23s’
“So I did that for two-and-a-half years and now I get to pick up bibs, balls and cones for Nathan instead, so it was the right time to go.
“It’s what I want to be part of, first team football, and it’s been a great decision for me personally and I’ve loved every minute of it.”
The Hatters travel up the M1 on the back of a remarkable 3-2 comeback victory against struggling Sheffield Wednesday, which kept them above 16th placed Forest in the Championship table, by one point and two positions, but with a game in hand.
“It will be nice, great game for us,” said Cohen, adding: “Coming off the back of Saturday it becomes a real opportunity for us to go there and give a good account of ourselves.
“We know the qualities they’ve got in term of the threats going forward and the good players they’ve got throughout their team, but we’re on a bit of a high from Saturday.
“So, we go there with a real positive attitude, it will be nice to go back and see people, but at the end of the day my job is here now and we go there looking to pick up some points.”
Saturday weekend was the first time Town have come from behind to win in the league this season, while the three second half goals will be a timely confidence boost as they prepare to face a Forest side that have only conceded 3 times in their last eight Championship outings.
Cohen said: “If you look back through the years, at teams that have got out of the Championship, or most of the successful teams, are built on being really hard to beat, not conceding many goals and then obviously having attacking prowess that can win you tight games of football.
“That’s what Chris (Hughton, Forest manager) has got. The way he’s set up with players at Brighton, Newcastle, Norwich, he understands the league and what you need to start with. That’s a solid foundation and then, if you look at his teams, they start to score more goals and then inevitably they end up being at the top of the league once he’s been given time.
“It’s going to be tough because, when we’ve watched the games, he’s got them working so very well out of possession. You can see why they not only don’t concede many goals, but don’t concede many opportunities.
“We know we need to be at our best, like we were in the second half (against Sheffield). But, as we’ve shown, if you playing with an energy and a purpose and you go after teams at the right time, then we can cause anyone in the league a problem and hopefully we can do that tomorrow night.
“It will be a real tough test against a manager that’s proven at this level and beyond.”
Luton will face Forest without influential centre half Tom Lockyer, who is still out with an ankle injury, while skipper Sonny Bradley is a doubt after missing Saturday’s victory.
Cohen said: “I think injuries are part and parcel of what everyone is going through this season as it’s so condensed, but you look at the way that Kal (Naismith) came in on Saturday, especially second half he went into left sided centre half. He’s played there before.
“We’ve got Pottsy (Dan Pots), Martin Cranie, Matty Pearson, so if Sonny isn’t to make it, we’ve got real good options and a wealth of experience back there.
“Yes we’ve got problems, but over the course of the season, our physios and medical department have done brilliant to keep as many people fit as they have in one of the strangest seasons we’ll ever have in terms of number of games and time to fit them all in.”
