Nottingham Forest owner promises to spend after securing promotion to Premier League

Evangelos Marinakis said he will give the club ‘all the ammunition’ needed

Evangelos Marinakis plans to invest after securing promotion (Getty Images)

Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis promised to give the club “all the ammunition” needed after victory in the Championship play-off final on Sunday.

A 1-0 victory over Huddersfield at Wembley finally brought Forest’s 23-year Premier League exile to an end after Levi Colwill’s own goal settled a cagey and controversial encounter in which the Terriers were denied two penalties.

Marinakis, who took over the club in 2017, hailed the team’s remarkable progress under Steve Cooper and insisted he would do everything possible to ensure they avoid relegation next season.

“It’s a magical night, not only for me but for the thousands and even millions of supporters within the United Kingdom and all over the world,” Marinakis told Sky Sports.

“As I said nearly five years ago, we have to bring Nottingham Forest back where it belongs. Now we want more. Now we’re back in the Premier League, so we want to be as high as possible.

“We need to give all the ammunition to the team with good players.”

Cooper, who had twice fallen short in the play-offs before with Swansea, took charge of the club seven games into the season when Forest were bottom of the table having failed to win a single game.

Their resurgence under the former England U17 manager has been outstanding and he praised the squad’s “sense of belief”.

“Every time we’ve had an average performance or a loss we’ve recovered,” Cooper said. “There is only once we’ve lost two games on the run and ironically what that was against Huddersfield but we bounced back.

“It’s a magical football club and we’ve just reminded the world of that.”