Estelle Randall made only her second Forest Green Rovers appearance of the season, coming of the bench to net Rovers fifth of the day against Pucklechurch in the GFA senior Cup.
“On a personal note for me it’s nice to be back and nice to score,” said Randall.
Back to winning ways🔥 #WeAreFGR💚 pic.twitter.com/3FZ6mbuztL
— Forest Green Rovers Women (@FGRFC_Women) February 15, 2026
It was a clinical performance by Forest Green in the cup, needing to bounce back after a disappointing defeat to Frampton Rangers in the first game of the group stages.
“It was a team effort, we did everything we needed to do on the pitch, in terms of our cup run looking forward to hopefully having a few games ahead of us, a win gets us out of the group.”
Rovers will need to win their final Group B match against AEK Boco at Hartpury, to guarantee passage to the knockout stages.
“We have to do what we can, look after our own performances and not watch what is going on elsewhere too much,” Randall said.
Having made the semi-finals last year, losing to local rivals Cheltenham Town at Kayte Lane, the Stroud side will be hopeful of a repeat group stage success against all same league opposition.
Randall continued; “It would be nice to bring home the cup, but its been a few years, so it would be nice to go the whole way.”
However, winning the GFA senior cup has become a tough ask for teams such as Rovers in the Tier 5 South West Regional Women’s Football League. Their competition in Group A consists of three higher league opposition in Tier 3 Cheltenham Town, Tier 4 Bristol Rovers and Women’s Super League 2 academy side Bristol City.
Forest Green will look to build on their first win in 2026, despite having only played three games. The adverse weather has led to multiple postponements meaning the away win over Pucklechurch was their first game in four weeks.
Unfortunately due to a waterlogged pitch, our game tomorrow against Bishops Lydeard has been postponed!☔️ #WeAreFGR💚 pic.twitter.com/Um5hHjXvYa
— Forest Green Rovers Women (@FGRFC_Women) February 7, 2026
“For us its brilliant to come back and be able to use such a facility,” Randall explained, “so thank you to the team for getting it on.
“It’s been a few weeks since we last played so some rusty legs.”
Rovers will be hoping they can string together a consistent period of fixtures to keep match fit and build on their cup win.
“It’s nice to be back playing its been a little while.
“For us it’s important to get us some match fitness as we can , we are looking ahead the second half of the season.”
With 2pm kick-offs the norm across women’s football, it can be hard for team’s to find artificial pitches at late notice, with grass pitches being postponed for being waterlogged because of the current heavy rainfall across the south west of England.
“Facilities are limited across the region and unfortunately for us as women we are fighting for a pitch,” Randall explained.
“Even later kick-offs to help us find a pitch, but they’ve done brilliantly to find us this facility for today.”
