Cooper’s Rovers stick in the Craw
BATTLING Forest Green halted the Crawley express and secured a crucial three points in their fight for League Two survival.
Strike patners Reuben Reid and Christian Doidge were on target in the first half as the Gloucestershire outfit defeated the division’s form team and made it five successive wins at New Lawn.
Victory saw Rovers move up to 19th place and Mark Cooper’s men remain six points clear of the relegation zone.
“It was really important to win given the set of freak results elsewhere in the division,” said Cooper.
“We’re dragging other sides into it but we have to keep picking up points.
“My only complaint is that we didn’t score a third goal and kill the game off.
“But I thought the boys at the back looked solid and we executed the game plan to perfection.
“Crawley are the form side and I was worried about this game, but we contained them really well.”
Crawley arrived at the New Lawn boasting eight wins in ten outings and with their sights set on the playoffs, only to be outplayed during an opening 45 minutes in which they were made to pay for a series of unforced errors.
Rovers forged a tenthminute lead when Reid forced his way in front of Mark Connolly to turn in Dale Bennett’s searching cross.
Jimmy Smith squandered a great opportunity to equalise soon afterwards and must have regretted his failure to beat keeper Brad Collins in a oneon-one situation when the home side doubled their lead on 24 minutes.
Combative midfielder Isaiah Osbourne proved the architect when dispossessing Josh Payne in the centre circle and feeding Dayle Grubb, turning defence into attack in an instant.
Grubb directed his shot beyond Glenn Morris and inside the far post, but was denied his moment of glory by the predatory Doidge, who applied a final touch to claim his 21st goal of the season.
Despite Crawley manager Harry Kewell delivering the hairdryer treatment at half-time, there was little improvement in his team’s performance.
Still in the ascendancy, Rovers twice went close to increasing their lead, Grubb and then Reid seeing efforts come back off the post.
Kewell said: “Forest Green were full-on deserved winners. They were smart, organised and have two great strikers up front.
“They won the game in the first ten minutes. We didn’t look like scoring.”