Forest Green Rovers manager Robbie Savage will put out a “very strong team” for tomorrow’s National League Cup final group stage fixture against Nottingham Forest Under21s at The New Lawn.
Rovers go into Tuesday’s game sat top of Group B with seven points from a possible nine, and they know a win tomorrow will secure their place in the quarter-finals of the competition.
“It’s a competition we want to win, it’s a competition we want to get into the quarter-finals and it’s a competition we’ve enjoyed,” Savage said.
“It’s more important to get promoted, but it’s a competition that when I got the job, it was that we want to do well in the competition and we want to win.
“We want to win the game tomorrow and it’s a first team game in my eyes.”
Savage said the team he puts out tomorrow would be strong enough to compete in the National League at the weekend.
“Tomorrow will be a very, very strong team; Luke (McNicholas) in goal, he needs minutes, Knowlesy will start and be brought off after a couple of minutes and Tre (Pemberton) will play for 88 minutes,” Savage said.
Hear from Forest Green Rovers manager ahead of their National League Cup game against Nottingham Forest U21s on Tuesday night
— Park Life Sport (@ParkLife_Sport) November 24, 2025
📷 @Rhys_Anderson5 pic.twitter.com/bzP0Q5LG3e
“Ryan Inniss, Jordan (Moore-Taylor) and Kengni, it’ll be Bunks or Isaac in the six, Nick Haughton will play 45, either Bunks or Isaac will also play 45.
“Doidgey, Dausch will play on the left, but Jili (Buyabu) will probably start and come off, on the right I’m not sure yet, up front Temi (Babalola) will start and come off, Cards will probably feature.
“Max Robson will feature, Adam May might feature, it’ll give us an opportunity for Thomas (Conteh) to come on as well, and another young player.”
Savage credited the competition for the chance it has afforded him to give academy players first team minutes and the chance to scout for loan moves.
“I spoke to Sean Dyche yesterday, this competition is great for young players, it’s also great for us to give minutes to players who need them,” Savage said.
“After my conversation with Dychey, this competition we’ve highlighted players from the opposition who’ve come to us on loan and I believe Nottingham Forest will have some very good young players.
“The conversation with Sean yesterday was if we identified a couple it’s an opportunity to take some and he knows how we treat young players and how they develop.”
The Welshman went into detail about how data driven he, and the club is when looking for opportunities to improve.
“We’re religious with our stats, our centre forward position gets 22% of our goals, that’s spread out over four players.
“The main percentage of our goals come from the left – 36%.
Updated xG Diff – 23rd Nov🚨
— Tom Carter (@TomCarter009) November 23, 2025
Top 5 Leagues in the UK⚽
🏅@YorkCityFC – 1.37🔥
🥈@FGRFC_official – 1.21👏
🥉@Coventry_City – 0.97💪
New leaders in York, who've accumulated 17.45xG in their last 6 outings & overtake FGR👆
Coventry continue to improve👏#YCFC #WeAreFGR#PUSB
“We’ve scored the fourth most goals in the league, we’ve got the fifth best defensive record, we’re fourth in the form table, fourth in the league and a point of top, so we’re doing brilliantly well.”
Jose Marquez, who is currently out on loan from Rovers to Dorking Wanderers is unavailable for tomorrow’s National League Cup game due to a hamstring injury.
“Jose’s injured, we found out yesterday, it came very late, he didn’t play at the weekend and we found out he was injured.
“Sean (Etaluku) is two weeks away, Kairo (Mitchell) is three weeks away, so we’re in a brilliant position.”
Forest Green and Ecotricity chairman Dale Vince called Savage “the best manager we’ve ever had” on talkSPORT last month, and Savage had high praise for Vince.
“My owner is incredible, we have conversations every day, our communication is brilliant,” Savage said.
“He’s so engaged, he wants us, me, our staff to do well and he’s determined to give us the best opportunity to be successful, he messaged yesterday ‘do we need anymore players because we want to push on’.
“I can’t think of an owner with this level of ambition, communication and desire for his manager to succeed, it’s a privilege and a pleasure to be the manager at this football club and I really mean that.”
Forest Green were held to a 1-1 draw away at Wealdstone on Saturday afternoon.
“I’ve said that last year we drew too many games, I think there was ‘if you can’t win it, don’t lose it’ the lads were saying.
“We’ve gone from first to fourth with a draw, so at 0-0, 1-1, we will try and win games of football and if we get beat, we get beat.
“The football we’re playing is probably one of the best brands of football this club has ever seen.”
