Rob Edwards hails ‘whole team performance’ from Forest Green after Tranmere win

Posted Sunday, January 30, 2022 by PA

Forest Green manager Rob Edwards was full of praise for his side’s team spirit after they thrashed Tranmere 4-0 to move 10 points clear of their second-placed opponents at the top of League Two.

Prolific strikers Matty Stevens and Jamille Matt bagged typical poachers’ goals to put the visitors 2-0 up at half-time and the win was sealed thanks to superb finishes from Jordan Moore-Taylor and Regan Hendry.

The victory extended Forest Green’s unbeaten run to 15 league matches and Edwards paid tribute to his entire squad.

“It was a whole team performance,” he said.

“Everyone, including the players that came on, the lads that were unused and the lads that weren’t named in the squad today – it’s every one of them.

“I’ve just said that to them in there – it’s every one of them because they train with us all week and they train really hard all week.

“I have to select 11 to start and can only bring three subs on but every single one of them deserved that and they’re part of this group.”

The opener came in the sixth minute when former Tranmere loanee Kane Wilson found his way in behind Calum MacDonald and crossed to Stevens, who swept the ball home for his 16th goal of the season.

Initially shaken by conceding so early, Tranmere did start to come back into the game only for Matt to convert Nicky Cadden’s cross for his 17th league goal of the campaign, doubling Forest Green’s advantage three minutes before the break.

“We knew they could change shape,” Edwards said.

“They changed shape after 23 minutes or so to match us up because we were dominant and it then became a bit more of a man-for-man game.

“We’d highlighted that and worked on both shapes throughout the week.

“It was good that we were still able to find some spaces and obviously getting the second goal was great in the first half.”

Defeat for Tranmere brought an end to their 10-match unbeaten run and they will also be extremely disappointed to have conceded four goals having come into the match with the league’s stringiest defence.

It could have been worse for Rovers but Ross Doohan managed to save substitute Josh March’s penalty with pretty much the last kick of the game.

“We would have to say on the day that we just never really got going and were deservedly beaten,” boss Micky Mellon said.

“We lost too many sort of duels all over the pitch in vital moments and never created enough or asked enough questions of them at the other side so all in all on the day we weren’t really the best version of ourselves.

“Every credit to Forest Green – I thought they were very good and I thought they were first to everything and I thought they did show us how you have to deal with duels and you have to come out on top and it’s something for us to learn.

“Listen, it’s one moment in a long season and we’ll dust ourselves down over the weekend and we’ll come back in on Monday ready to go to work again.”