Forest Green Rovers boss Steve Cotterill has looked at the positives from his sides’ performances over the last few weeks despite losing to bottom side Sutton United last Saturday.
He’ll be looking for a response at the first time of asking as the Green look to climb out of the relegation zone at the expense of Colchester United. His side do however have somewhat of a tricky task on their hands as they travel to a resurgent Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.
Rovers have lost just one of their last nine games and their position in the table currently does not represent the improvements that have been seen over the last couple of months. Sat in 18th on 46 points, Grant McCann’s side are all but safe and will now be looking to further climb the table in order to have something to build on next season.
Speaking of resurgent sides, since Cotterill took the helm, Forest Green have undergone vast improvements. Although they may still sit in the relegation zone, that is only by goal difference and between them and Colchester in 22nd, it is the Green who have the stronger recent form.
The loss to Sutton last Saturday perhaps overshadows some of the recent achievements which has seen them beat the likes of Barrow, Tranmere, Walsall and Forest Green in the seven games prior to that loss last weekend.
Rather than dwelling on last weekend’s performance, Cotterill has chosen to look at the positives from the performances in the prior games. Speaking to Gloucestershire Live, the manager was in an upbeat mood ahead of the trip to Doncaster.
“If you would have said to me at the beginning of that week ‘you are going to get six out of nine’, there would have been me and along with every other person that is associated with Forest Green: supporter, owner, chairman, vice chairman, whatever.
“We would have all taken six out of nine, 100 per cent. The thing is, the six out of nine does not always come how you would expect to come.
“What happened last week, everybody would have been expecting us to beat Sutton if you looked at that at the beginning of the week, they probably would have been expecting us to get beat at Bradford and they would have been hoping that we would have beat Walsall, that is probably the brutal honesty of all of those facts there.”
Writer’s View
Given the improvements under Cotterill, the loss to Sutton last weekend was certainly a surprise but a disappointing loss was perhaps due at some point. If able to bounce straight back from that and win on Saturday, then they’re survival chances will greatly increase.
The manager has gone about it the right way by choosing to look at the positives of the recent run rather than dwelling on the negatives and Forest Green do look to be a club who are going in the right direction currently. It’s no easy task travelling to Doncaster at the minute but taking the performance at Sutton away, they certainly have a chance to put some points on the board.
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