ROVERS NEW BOY GETS HIS WISH!
FGR are at a ‘different level’
DAN WISHART reckons his new Forest Green Rovers team-mates are playing football fit for the Championship at the minute – now he’s just got to learn their names!
The 24-year-old completed his dream move into fulltime football from Sutton United on Monday and was thrust straight into the action 24 hours later, helping Rovers go top of the National League table with an impressive 4-0 victory at Aldershot Town.
And the left-sider, who picked up an England C cap against Slovakia in June, believes ambitious Rovers have what it takes to put last season’s play-off defeat behind them and finally fulfil the club’s dream of playing in the Football League.
“The way they play, the way they keep the ball, you just don’t see football like that in this league,” Wishart told The NLP. “It’s almost like Championship football.
“We’ve got such a strong squad and people coming off the bench to add something different. There’s diversity and ability in abundance.
“The impact that players have in this squad, compared to others I have played in, is at another level. I won a promotion [with Sutton] last year, to get another one this year… I’ll be buzzing.”
First, though, Wishart – snapped up from Gander Green Lane for a “substantial fee” according to former boss Paul Doswell – has a job getting acquainted with his new team-mates after being thrown straight into the starting line-up by Rovers chief Mark Cooper having only met the team a few hours earlier.
Ambition
“This was the first time I met them today, I didn’t even know any of the boys’ names,” Wishart chuckled. “We had a little training session in the morning to go through a few tactics, but other than that I only knew one player!
“It was difficult to settle into a team playing as well as this, but I think I found my feet in the second half. Playing against ten men, we just kept the ball and that suited me down to the ground.
“My hopes now are to keep playing regularly and help this team push on and win the league. Full-time football and the ambition to play in the Football League was the lure for me and my old gaffer at Sutton [Doswell] wanted me to do the same, so it was a win-win for me personally and for Sutton financially.”
Indeed, Wishart believes that his old club have what it takes to join them in a promotion battle come April if they can recapture the form which won them the National League South title last season.
“They will definitely stay up,” he added. “They want to aim for a play-off spot and they’ve got players more than good enough to do that. They just need to pick up their form.”