SAVING STRIKER RYAN
Goal hero Bowman: Boss right to stick with me
EXETER CITY 1
Bowman 11
FOREST GREEN 0
RYAN BOWMAN was thrilled to repay manager Matt Taylor’s faith by firing the winner.
Exeter boss Taylor admitted he agonised over Bowman’s selection before deciding to stick with him.
And he was pleased he had done after the striker’s 11th-minute winner, and a fine late save from keeper Jonny Maxted, saw off Mark Cooper’s men, who had started the day top of the League Two table.
Bowman (right) said: “The boys on the bench, Alex Fisher and Ben Seymour, have been biting at the bit to get the start.
“They have been fantastic in training, and that ups your game a bit.
“You’ve got to be on your toes, working even harder every day, and it’s nice to have started and got the goal, nice to show the manager what I can do.
“It’s another goal for me, five for the season, and I just want to get as many as I can.”
Boss Taylor said: “I was a centre-half and, when Ryan plays like that, you would not want to play against him because he can outrun, outfight, outscrap and outplay you.
“He’s mobile and that’s a real attribute for such a big player, for such a dominant player in terms of physicality.
“He can finish, that’s five for the season now, so it’s a really good goal return, but we still want more and I’m sure he will get more.
“He has to base his game on exactly what he did this time.”
Exeter started the weekend second only to Rovers and just two points behind them, but Crewe’s 4-2 win at Carlisle, one of Bowman’s old clubs, meant they leapt to the top on goals scored.
Bowman added: “There’s maybe a little bit of frustration we haven’t gone top.
“We knew it was always going to be a tough game, they were top of the league, and we thought if we’d won we’d be top.
“But it’s not to be and we’re still in a very good position. We’ll worry more about being top in March or April, that’s when you want to be there.”
Rovers manager Cooper said: “There’s no point crying about it. We’ve not played particularly well, but we’ve got to get back to training and make sure we perform on Saturday against Mansfield. The players have to recognise they’re not going to come to places where they are fighting to be top of the league and have teams make it easy for them.
“They’re going to ask questions and we have to combat that, we have to go on the front foot.”
EXETER CITY: Maxted 7, Sweeney 6, A Martin 7, Parkes 7, Sparkes 6, Taylor 6, Collins 6 (Atangana 71), Williams 6, Law 7, L Martin 6 (Fisher 78, 5), Bowman 7
FOREST GREEN: Thomas 6 (Wollacott 46, 6), Bernard 6, Godwin-Malife 7 (Mondal 70, 6), Kitching 7, Rawson 6, Mills 6, Winchester 6, Adams 6, Aitchison 6 (Morton 6, 64), Stevens 6,
Collins 6
MOTM AARON MARTIN (EXETER CITY)