Forest Green Rovers travel to League One side Luton Town on Saturday, 7th November in the FA Cup first round for the second year in a row.
Last year’s tie was a hard-fought win, with Luton winning 4-3 on Friday, 31st October 2025. Nahki Wells scored twice, while Forest Green hit back through Tom Knowles, a Kyle McAllister penalty and Aidan Dausch.
This time, the difference is on the touchline. Robbie Savage left Forest Green on 2nd October to take over at Peterborough United, and chairman Dale Vince chose not to replace him. He told BBC Radio Gloucestershire that “we won’t miss the manager, but let’s see.” The first team has since been run by interim coaches Jonathan Gould, Yan Klukowski and Josh Bowen.
The first result under that arrangement set the tone. Forest Green lost 4-2 at home to Hartlepool United, which stretched their winless run to five matches. They drew 0-0 at Chesham United in the fourth qualifying round, then went through with a 5-0 replay win at The New Lawn. It was the trio’s first victory, spread across five scorers.
The next league game, at Barrow on Saturday, 24th October, never reached half-time. It was abandoned after 14 minutes because of a waterlogged pitch, with Barrow leading 1-0 through a goal after 14 seconds. Klukowski criticised referee Stuart Morland for starting the game at all.
The league win came midweek. Forest Green beat Eastleigh 2-0 on Wednesday, 28th October, with a debut goal from Will Grigg and a second-half strike from Filozofe Mabete bringing about the trio’s first three league points. It lifted them to 15th, eight points outside the play-off places.
Grigg, 35, is the Northern Irish striker whose goals for Wigan Athletic inspired the “Will Griggs’ on fire” chant. He joined the Green Devils on a free transfer from Chesterfield on 23rd October, on a deal until June 2028, and has scored 192 career goals and made more than 500 EFL appearances. That goal record includes when Wigan knocked Manchester City out of the FA Cup in 2018. He’s clearly a useful man to have on the pitch at Kenilworth Road; at Chesterfield, he scored 42 goals in 118 appearances and helped win the National League title in 2024.
On Saturday, Forest Green drew 2-2 at home with Harrogate Town, who were second in the table. Neil Kengni and Kyle Kelly put Forest Green 2-0 up by half-time, but Harrogate pulled level within five minutes of the restart. The goals came from Lewis Payne on the 52nd minute and Ellis Taylor on the 56th. The draw left Forest Green unbeaten in the four completed games since the Hartlepool defeat with two wins and two draws, but ended a run of three clean sheets. The Green Army are currently sat on 19 points from their opening 14 league games.
So, the picture before Kenilworth Road is better than it was a month ago. The trio have two wins and two draws since Hartlepool, and the Eastleigh and Harrogate games showed they can score. However, the experiment Vince has described is also being judged by a simpler question: what happens to a club with no single voice when it faces a League One side with a manager and a plan?
Keep up to date with all the sports news as it comes in from across Gloucestershire using our live blog: https://uogjsport.co.uk/parklife-sport-live-blog-2
