Western Daily Press (Saturday)
DERBY CLASH IN FIGHT FOR PROMOTION
FOREST Green Rovers head coach Mark Cooper believes there are clear similarities between his side and Gloucestershire rivals Cheltenham Town.
The county neighbours meet in League Two this afternoon looking to maintain their respective pushes for promotion.
Both sides ended poor runs by winning their most recent games, leaving Rovers second in the table and the Robins in fourth.
Cooper told his pre-match press conference: “I’m sure Cheltenham feel better after the other night (2-0 win over Oldham).
“They’re in a similar situation to us where they’re probably not scoring the goals that their play deserves, and we have been similar.
“We both dominate games, but we come away frustrated sometimes that we haven’t scored the goals that we probably deserved. Whatever formation or players that we’ve used, it’s been the same, so they’ll be feeling the same as us.
“I think Michael (Duff, manager of Cheltenham) will tell you that as a coach you can get the team into certain areas of the pitch, promising areas of the pitch, but what you can’t do is put the ball in the goal.
“As long as you keep working and getting the boys in that position then you’re hoping that it comes good or that things turn.
“The squad’s been really good, in what has been a difficult season for everybody, we’re in a good position, as are both teams, Cheltenham and Forest Green, we’re both in good positions in the League with a lot of football left to play.
“We just need to keep our heads down, keep grinding, keep concentrating and hopefully we get enough good results.”
The promotion race remains wide open, with just four points separating the top eight sides in the division, and only eight points covering the entire top half of the division.
Asked if he thought the musical chairs nature of the division would be maintained until the end of the season, Cooper added: “I think so, because there’s that many games.
“Every Saturday and Tuesday the table changes. To be honest, I’ve given up trying to calculate if we win a game what happens, just because, it’s quite a boring way of looking at it, but you just have to deal with what’s in front of you and that’s the next game. That’s what I’m trying to do and that’s the message we’re trying to get across to the players.”
Seven days ago, Cheltenham almost pulled off a huge surprise when running Manchester City close in the FA Cup, and Cooper said: “I thought they were brilliant. It was a great advert for League Two, I thought they set their stall out and they were really good. They were brilliant, full credit to them.
“It’s a really sticky game, Man City, because you’re thinking, do we camp in and get everybody behind the ball, but they pitched it just right.
“I don’t buy into the argument that they’re a set-piece team. A good team can mix their tactics up and that’s what Cheltenham have the ability to do and that’s what we try to do. They’ve got good players, a really flexible way of playing and if we don’t turn up, we’ll get beat, it’s as simple as that.”