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Steve Cotterill on attempting to continue Forest Green Rovers’ unbeaten run against Dagenham and Redbridge – “We’re very proud of it”

On their 17-game unbeaten league run, Forest Green Rovers currently sit third in the National League and travel to Dagenham and Redbridge Tuesday night; hoping to keep their impressive run going. 

Rovers haven’t lost a league game since September 24th when they lost 1-0 against Oldham Athletic, manager Steve Cotterill is keen to continue to work hard: “It’s not easy and we’re very proud of it, and we want to fight really, really hard to keep it.”

This isn’t the first time Cotterill has achieved something of this feat, as a Cheltenham player in the Football Conference 1997/98 season they went 17 games unbeaten, but he isn’t striving to beat that accomplishment once again: “It’s not so much about surpassing it. It’s about building on what we’ve got. This isn’t a Forest Green against Cheltenham scenario. I’m a Cheltonian. I was born there. I was very proud of the job I did at Cheltenham.

“They’re two separate entities, they just happen to be in the same county. So it’s not a competition about, ‘Can we get any more?’, or anything like that. There is no competition there for me. We’re just trying to do well with the unbeaten run that we’re on and to try and keep it that way and keep going. Because the longer we keep that going, the better it’ll be for us.”

FGR’s last meeting with the Daggers on January 8th ended in a 1-1 draw with goals from Josh Rees and Ryan Inniss but looking forward to Tuesday, Cotterill was hesitant to provide a definitive outcome: “You never know how the game’s going to pan out. You can do as much work as you want on the training ground and you can be in total control of a game. I only have to look at Saturday, when you’re totally in control of a game, and all of a sudden there’s one clearance, one corner, and it can end up in the back of your net.

“We’re normally pretty good at that, set plays and all, that’s not been an issue for us. We’ve been very, very good throughout the season. Maybe because there were a few changes, certainly in our little set-up really, defensively, that caused us a problem, and if you lose a marker, it can end up in the back of your net. Then, all of a sudden, it becomes a different game. So we just have to play the game that we know we can play. If we do that, then we’ll be fine.”

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