Cooper baffled by Forest Green display despite win

Posted Sunday, September 08, 2019 by PA

Manager Mark Cooper felt Forest Green could have played much better despite their 1-0 victory at Cambridge.

Debutant Jack Aitchison secured victory 12 minutes from time to mark his arrival on loan from Celtic in style.

That came after Rovers keeper Lewis Thomas had saved Marc Richards’ penalty in the 66th minute as Cambridge failed to take their chances – the U’s now having not scored in three games.

Cooper said: “I’m delighted with the result; I’m flabbergasted by the performance.

“Sometimes you have to win and take the win. It’s not what we’re about really. I’m pleased with the determination, the desire and the commitment. They’ve tried their socks off. Some of our decision making was really poor and we got away with it really.

“We thank our keeper for a great save and Jack Aitchison for being absolutely out of this world on his debut when he came on. He looked really sharp. It was just getting the timing right with putting him on and he won us the game.”

On the penalty, Cooper added: “I’ve watched it. There’s nothing. If you give a penalty for that you would give 20 in every game. It just looked as though they were trying to invent something up. I don’t want to comment on it because it was that bad a decision.

“At the end of the day the result is important for us and there was a lot to forget about the day.”

Cambridge boss Colin Calderwood bemoaned his side’s inability to take chances as they fell to defeat.

He said: “I’m pretty frustrated. In the moment of the game where they score it’s probably our game at that time, we were having enough influence and we were lessening their threat which was big at the start of the game.

“Lessons are that in a moment where it’s a set play or a restart from a throw-in we’ve allowed a shot at goal which hit the target.

“Where we weren’t really effective and clinical are the times that we have a break and don’t create the big chance. We end up having shots from the edge of the box – 18 shots, three on target, that probably tells the tale.

“There’s definitely a pass for us and we have to be a little bit more clinical. I think we can still be more creative with the extra pass.

“We’ve had the best chance of the game with the penalty and when we missed that it doesn’t really influence it, we haven’t seen the game out.

“We’ve probably been punished for an alright display but there’s bits and pieces where we have to be a lot better, a lot more switched on.”