Well, we’ve just about recovered from the amazing come back win at Rochdale and it’s off to Nailsworth in Gloucestershire to face the vegans of Forest Green Rovers.
Steve Cotterill’s side finished the regular season in third place, 15 points ahead of blues and 9 ahead of 4th place Rochdale. They’ve therefore had a very good season back at this level and deservedly secured this home play off semi-final some time ago. Despite being so far ahead of the chasing pack their current form at the end of the regular season was not that great, with a draw at Hartlepool on the last day of the season, a couple of home wins before that (Oldham and Tamworth), and these followed a draw at Yeovil and defeats at home to Gateshead and away at Wealdstone. They’re good, but they’re not unbeatable.
(The form table is for the regular season only, so doesn’t include our win at Rochdale)
We’ve had a couple of 2-2 draws against them in the regular season, with Ralph and Coker scoring at Roots Hall in November (when they were top and had won 8 games in a row), and Bonne and GSM earning a share of the spoils at The New Lawn in March.
They have a couple of ex-Shrimpers in their squad (3 if you include Emmuel Osadebe, although he never actually played for us!) - former loanee Ryan Inniss is a regular in Central Defence (but went off injured after 13 minutes of their last game) and then they have that striker who left us at the beginning of this season… tall, good-looking chap with nice hair(!). Both will need watching closely, especially from set pieces. Unlike Rochdale, FGR do have a squad of players with options on the bench that could affect the game.
Kev made one change on Thursday night, with Walker coming in for Kendall. Whether he chooses to mix it up again will be interesting. The defence, which had previously looked so solid and had kept 4 consecutive clean sheets, looked all at sea at times against Rochdale. Bridge was largely ineffective in attack and about as useful as a chocolate teapot in defence, Husin and Coker didn’t have their best games either at Spotland. Maybe that says more about our opponents, but it is also the end of a long season and there could be some tired legs in the camp - especially after a gruelling 120+ minutes only 6 days before this match.
Forest Green have enjoyed a long break between 5th May and this game and it remains to be seen if the rest has done them good, or if they will lack match sharpness.
So, who would you choose to start on what is hopefully the penultimate game of the season, and what do you predict the result will be?
Steve Cotterill’s side finished the regular season in third place, 15 points ahead of blues and 9 ahead of 4th place Rochdale. They’ve therefore had a very good season back at this level and deservedly secured this home play off semi-final some time ago. Despite being so far ahead of the chasing pack their current form at the end of the regular season was not that great, with a draw at Hartlepool on the last day of the season, a couple of home wins before that (Oldham and Tamworth), and these followed a draw at Yeovil and defeats at home to Gateshead and away at Wealdstone. They’re good, but they’re not unbeatable.
(The form table is for the regular season only, so doesn’t include our win at Rochdale)
We’ve had a couple of 2-2 draws against them in the regular season, with Ralph and Coker scoring at Roots Hall in November (when they were top and had won 8 games in a row), and Bonne and GSM earning a share of the spoils at The New Lawn in March.
They have a couple of ex-Shrimpers in their squad (3 if you include Emmuel Osadebe, although he never actually played for us!) - former loanee Ryan Inniss is a regular in Central Defence (but went off injured after 13 minutes of their last game) and then they have that striker who left us at the beginning of this season… tall, good-looking chap with nice hair(!). Both will need watching closely, especially from set pieces. Unlike Rochdale, FGR do have a squad of players with options on the bench that could affect the game.
Kev made one change on Thursday night, with Walker coming in for Kendall. Whether he chooses to mix it up again will be interesting. The defence, which had previously looked so solid and had kept 4 consecutive clean sheets, looked all at sea at times against Rochdale. Bridge was largely ineffective in attack and about as useful as a chocolate teapot in defence, Husin and Coker didn’t have their best games either at Spotland. Maybe that says more about our opponents, but it is also the end of a long season and there could be some tired legs in the camp - especially after a gruelling 120+ minutes only 6 days before this match.
Forest Green have enjoyed a long break between 5th May and this game and it remains to be seen if the rest has done them good, or if they will lack match sharpness.
So, who would you choose to start on what is hopefully the penultimate game of the season, and what do you predict the result will be?
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