Forest Green Rovers head coach Duncan Ferguson and owner Dale Vince were in attendance at The Bolt New Lawn last night for the club’s second Fans Forum of the season.
The pair were met by roughly 150 Rovers fans in the Carole Embrey Suite for what was the first event of the sort since Ferguson’s appointment back in late January.
The biggest news of the night was that the club have finished their pursuit of a new CEO, a process which has taken nearly two months.
Rovers have been looking to fill the void left by the departure of Henry Staelens, who stepped down from the position after more than four years at the club in January.
Whilst the name of the new Chief Executive Officer was not mentioned, Vince expressed his happiness in being able to find their new man for the job.
He said: “The search is now complete. We signed contracts with the guy a week or two ago. He’ll be with us in May I think it is.
“It’s a guy from New Zealand, he’s not coming on a boat that’s not why he’ll be here in May,” joked Vince.
“He looks like a really good guy. We had around 600 applicants for the job in the end which is incredible. But this guy looks really good and we’re all very excited about it.”
One of the questions posed to boss Ferguson on the night involved Rovers midfielder Reece Brown who re-joined the club from Huddersfield Town ahead of the 2022/23 season.
After a positive start to the campaign, Brown picked up a long term injury in the 4-1 defeat to Peterborough United back in October. That was the last time he featured in an FGR shirt.
But having fully recovered, many have wondered why Brown hasn’t been playing. However, Ferguson put any doubts to bed when he admitted the 27 year old hasn’t done enough to get into his squad.
“Reece is in training, I’ve seen him in training and I’ll tell you straight at the moment he’s not doing it for me,” stated Ferguson.
“There’s other people ahead of him that in my opinion are showing more fire and more commitment so at the moment he’s down the line a bit.
“But the door is always open, so if he can improve the training and do something that I like, then he’ll be back involved.”
Rovers have struggled to adjust to League One this term, a fact that was on show once again on Saturday as they surrendered an early lead to lose 3-1 to rivals Bristol Rovers.
Ferguson had his say on a number of on-field issues during the evening, but still believes the side’s performances have improved since he replaced Ian Burchnall at the club.
“I think we have had a manager bounce to be honest with you,” claimed Ferguson.
“Certainly with the performance, we just haven’t got over the line with the points. I would say in most of the games we’ve been the better team or certainly equal, other than the Ipswich game.
“Overall with the performance we’ve been doing well, but we really need to turn that into wins.”
FGR Head Coach Duncan Ferguson
A running joke of the club’s Fans Forums surrounded the progress of Eco Park and questions were put to owner Vince involving the projects development.
The 61-year-old was able to provide a positive update for fans and gave an insight into when work on the site might begin.
“We should start work on the first two training pitches within a month,” said Vince.
“We do have to make some modifications before we can bring the training ground into operation, but it’s good news. We’ve started looking at the foundations and we will be starting on the first two pitches in a few weeks time.”
Rovers are next in action on the field this Saturday as they face a tough test against promotion chasing Plymouth Argyle at Home Park.
