The green team

Look at Forest Green Rovers MIKE FENTON takes an in-depth on and off the pitch – the village team making a name

The energy of Forest Green Rovers

THE county of Gloucestershire has long been something of a footballing backwater. Until the more recent emergence of Cheltenham Town, sporting prowess was mostly associated with Gloucester’s rugby team and occasionally with county cricket.

However, in recent years, a success story has unfolded in the Cotswold town of Nailsworth, with the emergence of Forest Green Rovers as the only village-based club playing at a national level. Indeed, there is a chance that Rovers could win promotion to the Football League this term via the play-offs.

It’s a remarkable phenomenon by any standards and worthy of a closer look, particularly in view of the fact that their location does raise some issues for their immediate environs and further because of their totally green approach in line with new owners, Ecotricity.

Incredibly, another successful local club , Shortwood United, who hosted Port Vale in the FA Cup last season, exist within the Green’s shadow, with each ground visible from the other!

The only other comparable example of a village club playing at the top of the NonLeague Pyramid in recent years was the Cambridgeshire village of Histon, who managed just three seasons at this level.

Nailsworth is located astride the A46 between Stroud and Bath, a small town of 6,000 people, where the club was founded in 1889 as Nailsworth & Forest Green Rovers FC.

After spending much of their existence in local leagues, they were founder members of the Gloucestershire County League in 1968, but their surge of the modern era really began when they won the FA Vase at Wembley in 1982, beating Nottinghamshire club Rainworth Miners Welfare 3-0 in the final.

They ended that season with the Hellenic League championship and stepped up to the Southern League for the first time.

A major change occurred for the 1988-89 season when the club name was altered to Stroud FC, in a misguided and very unpopular attempt to extend their fanbase to the 13,000 population there.

The change was a complete disaster, especially happening the year before the club’s centenary. Sanity returned with the club becoming Forest Green Rovers once again for the 1992-93 season.

Rovers took the league title in the Southern League’s Southern Division at the end of the 1996-97 season and took their place for the first time in the Southern Premier.

Just the one season at that level was required to gain promotion to the Conference, and