Forest Green Rovers manager Steve Cotterill was left frustrated after his side snatched an injury-time equaliser to maintain their 17 game unbeaten streak in the league.
Although he was ultimately left feeling disappointed, Cotterill was eager to highlight the positives from the game as well as the impressive unbeaten streak.
“17 games unbeaten, that’s quite an achievement, we deserve that, we’ve come away from that today and we should have won that game, but there’s nothing we can do about it now” Cotterill said.
“I thought we were the better team throughout, certainly after the first ten minutes. In the end we’re disappointed we haven’t won the game, there’s no way we think that game should’ve been a draw, we were the better team by a mile and we should have won the game.”
⏱️ 90+4' McAllister's effort is blocked but it falls for Doidge who finds the net via a deflection!
— Forest Green Rovers (@FGRFC_Official) January 25, 2025
1-1 | #WeAreFGR💚 https://t.co/5q2EsJL3b1
The streak was salvaged by Christian Doidge, a late change by Cotterill in the 94th minute, and the boss was quick to highlight how important keeping the run alive is for team morale.
“It’s really important to keep it going, what people don’t understand in football is how much a defeat impacts you, not just because you don’t get any points, but because of what it does to the team mentally.
“We don’t wanna draw games, the fact that we have just happens, we could swap them for defeats and see how everyone feels about that, but I certainly wouldn’t want to do that” he said.
One player Cotterill was quick to praise was midfielder Emmanuel Osadebe who had played mid-week in a National League Cup game for Rovers as well as the Altrincham game, and was seen limping during the match.
“At the end there we changed to 4-4-2, then when we needed to go 3-5-2 I’m surprised that Manny lasted as long as he lasted because he played 90 in mid week as well.
“I thought today the shift he put in was incredible really, he played really well today, and certainly justified his selection.
“The limp was just cramp but with the running he’s done today and midweek, he was gonna cramp today that’s for sure” he said.
Manny. 💫😀@refloofficial | #WeAreFGR💚 pic.twitter.com/Ex2wbpOzMq
— Forest Green Rovers (@FGRFC_Official) January 25, 2025
Reflecting on the game as a whole, Cotterill was critical of his side’s start and brought attention to the difficulties the pitch may have caused.
“I’m disappointed with the first ten minutes because that’s when we said they’d score a few goals, just a couple of things that we had done on a tricky heavy pitch that was just unlike us.
“Some of our throw-ins I don’t quite know what we were thinking… I said if you make a mistake, you quite often don’t get punished for ‘A’ mistake, but we made three mistakes leading up to that goal and that’s why it’s ended up in the back of our net really, when it could’ve been averted quite easily, we were disappointed with that.
“They’ve had lots of good results here, ended up with having a good record, but I definitely think we should’ve put a dent in that today” he said.
