THE MARK AS STUN ROVERS
Busy midfielder Cooke opened the scoring in the 64th minute when Matty Foulds’ cross was cleared to him and he drilled in a shot from the edge of the box for his third goal of the campaign.
Central defender Udoka Godwin-Malife picked up a second yellow card in the 77th minute for a foul on Jamie Walker, and then Rovers keeper Luke McGee was caught out as they pressed for a late leveller.
McGee went up for a 95th-minute corner and City striker Andy Cook raced upfield to slot his 11th goal of the campaign into an empty net.
Rovers could have been two ahead in the first 13 minutes. In the fifth minute, Jordan Moore-Taylor nodded the ball down to central defensive partner Baily Cargill on the left side of the box, but his low shot flew just wide of the far post.
Barnsley loanee striker Jack Aitchison then cleverly lifted the ball over the City defence into the area on the left, but wing-back Nicky Cadden put his effort wide of the near post.
And Bradford defender Luke Hendrie cleared a bullet header from midfielder Dan Sweeney off his line in the 24th minute with Alex Bass beaten.
However, the keeper did well to palm over a fierce Cadden goalbound shot three minutes after the break. Forest Green are still eight points clear at the top following a winless run of six games.
Manager Rob Edwards said: “You’re always going to have spells like this, but the lads are still confident and believe in themselves.
“We’re in a bit of a bad moment, but now is the time to stick together.
“I never complain when we lose a game because there are reasons why and the reason today was because we didn’t take our chances and they defended very, very well.
“When you can’t get the ball over the line at one end, then you have to make sure you don’t let it over the line at the other end and we didn’t do that.
“I’m bitterly disappointed. We were really up for it and the lads showed that the way they started the game.
“To concede the first goal was a knock and to go down to ten men was a severe blow.
“The two bookings Udoka got were a little harsh, but there’s not much we can do about it.
“Tough people and tough characters in bad times find ways of bouncing back.
“I don’t see it as a confidence issue. There was a little quality lacking in the final third, but that’s not a confidence thing.
“We’ve got 11 huge games left and a lot of leaders.”