Duncan Ferguson believes Forest Green can still stay up after first win as boss

Posted Monday, March 27, 2023 by PA

Duncan Ferguson believes Forest Green can still beat the drop from Sky Bet League One after he claimed his first win as boss with a shock 1-0 victory over promotion-chasing Sheffield Wednesday.

Jordon Garrick poked home a low cross from the right in the 35th minute to give Ferguson’s last-placed side the lead after a dominant first-half performance.

Wednesday, who would have gone top with a win, came close to equalising in the 67th minute but Lee Gregory was denied by the combined efforts of Ross Doohan and Udoka Godwin-Malife.

Rovers manager Ferguson, who replaced Ian Burchnall in late January, has to bridge an 11-point gap to safety, but he told Sky Sports: “It shows that we are capable of getting results.

“We deserve more than we have got, today you could see how good the shape was, how hard the players have been working.

“Anything is possible, there are games to play and win and if we can play like that in every game then why can’t we win them all?

“I think everybody deserved that today, the boys put in an incredible shift and it was a proud moment for myself and the fans to topple one of the big boys in the league.

“You’ve got to be perfect for most of the game and I thought we were perfect for most of the game. They never created any chances, they played long balls in the box and we defended well.

“We created the more chances, the better chances, we should have been two or three up but the boys were absolutely fantastic today.”

Wednesday boss Darren Moore could make no complaints about the result following a lacklustre display by his Owls.

He told the Sheffield Star: “Today’s game was a tough one to take but I have to give Forest Green credit, I don’t think we deserved (anything).

“I thought they closed us down well, I thought they had a wonderful shape to them and were very difficult to break down and they came up with the all-important goal and managed to see the game out.

“From our perspective you can have no complaints about the result because we didn’t do enough.

“I don’t think we executed passes in certain parts of the pitch well enough and I don’t think we put the ball into dangerous zones enough to threaten them enough. Therefore, when you don’t do that, how can you win the game?”