Forest Green Rovers manager Steve Cotterill says he wasn’t disappointed with his side’s performance, despite losing 2-0 to promotion-chasers MK Dons this weekend.
Despite not having a single attempt on target on Saturday afternoon, Rovers did start the game brightly. Max Dean and Alex Gilbey ruined any momentum the Greens had built though when they both got themselves on the scoresheet to take the visitors up to third-place in the fourth tier.
The Gloucestershire club remain three points from safety, having been somewhat helped by fellow relegation candidates Colchester United and Sutton United, who also both lost at the weekend to not leave them too far adrift.
Performances and results have improved dramatically since Cotterill took over in January. Having won just four times in 27 outings prior to his arrival, the 59-year-old has more than doubled the club’s win percentage from 14% to 33% with five victories in just 15 games. This includes a stunning 3-0 away success over promotion-chasing Crewe Alexandra earlier this month.
Despite the odds being stacked against Forest Green, the manager stuck by his players in the post-match interview on Saturday evening:
“We made a mistake and it is very important to say ‘we’,” he told Gloucestershire Live. “Everyone knows where it came from and what happened, but we made a mistake there.”
“I thought today was a decent performance by us, I thought we did lots of things right today, but we didn’t have that bit of luck. When we make a mistake it ends up in the back of our net, they made a couple of mistakes and we haven’t managed to capitalise on them.”
The former Bristol City boss continued:
“We just have to recover from the mistake, for me the second goal was more disappointing because there were two things involved in the make-up of that goal that I had mentioned to them literally five minutes earlier at half-time, so that was a disappointing couple of moments.”
“We have been very much in today’s game, I have just said to the guys there, whilst I am disappointed with the result and I am disappointed with the manner of the goals, I am not disappointed with their performance, their performance today was decent.”
Speaking about the coming mid-week matches, the experienced boss added:
“We always knew coming into this, it was going to be a tough week ahead for us, we have got to stay focused. We have got another game on Tuesday now to prepare for and another tough game next week (against Wrexham).”
“I suppose that is a slight bonus on the back of it, we all sort of make out that we don’t really want to know how the other teams have got on and all of that business.
“The bottom line is we all do and anyone who tells you any different is not quite telling you the truth. I won’t be getting pleased about other teams getting beat, I am more worried about our own situation.”
With four games remaining in their season which includes battles against high-fliers Wrexham and Mansfield Town alongside outside play-off hopefuls Morecambe, it could be argued that the Greens have one of the toughest run-ins near the bottom of the division.
Writer’s View
Poor recruitment has left Forest Green in this situation, so their position cannot be solely blamed on Cotterill’s predecessors. Aside from the three signings he has made, who have all made a big difference, he has had to make the best out of the squad he has inherited, whilst also dealing with an array of injuries.
It’s fully understandable that Cotterill has used his steady head to back his players, but the Greens will likely have a whole new squad next season, whether that be in League Two or the National League in a summer of expected upheaval.
