Steve Cotterill was "shocked" by Nottingham Forest sacking

Bristol City manager Steve Cotterill has admitted that he was "shocked" to have been sacked by Nottingham Forest back in 2012.

Cotterill spent nine months at the City Ground after joining from Portsmouth in October 2011, narrowly keeping the Reds in the Championship before being dismissed by Fawaz Al Hasawi soon after he took over the club.

Cotterill has guided Bristol to promotion from League One this season, and the 50-year-old believes that his experience at Forest made him a better manager.

"What my Nottingham Forest experience taught me was that I could handle a big club, the demands, the pressure, 100%," he told the Daily Mail.

"I didn't speak to anyone outside of family and friends for about two months after I was sacked by Forest because I was so shocked. I knew the job I was doing was a good one yet the public didn't because of how it was ended."

Cotterill returned to management when he took charge of Bristol in December 2013.