Forest Green Rovers boss Steve Cotterill was in jovial spirits after he completed his 999th managerial game in a 2-1 win over Sutton United in the National League.
In a repeat of the reverse fixture, Charlie McCann and Christian Doidge grabbed the goals to see Rovers over the line at home once more.
“Wow, 999, I nearly called it a couple of times. I called it a couple of times over the last week or two,” Cotterill joked after overseeing a difficult week through illness in the squad and his final game before 1000. “That is nice, but 1000 sounds better. I will have a little think about that when the time comes, but I don’t like a lot of fuss.”
Rovers began the game slowly, much to Cotterill’s unhappiness. However, they grew back into the game scoring two goals in five minutes after McCann’s fantastic solo run and Doidge’s chested effort past the Sutton goalkeeper.
“I wasn’t really too happy probably with the first 20 to 25 minutes of the game,” Cotterill said on the start. “Then we got into it and were better, at half-time I wasn’t too pleased with the lads, but you have to keep pushing them to their limits.
“Sometimes, their limits are there, five games including Saturday in 15 days and the travelling as well, it is really hard work. We were also three bodies light as well, two of them have been in the starting lineup and tonight we just didn’t look like we had that spring in our step.
“I think the three games before it, I think that is as good as we have played in a month or six weeks. So, coming into this game it was always going to be a dangerous game, they (Sutton) are not bad. I have seen them play a few times.”
DOIDGEYYYYYY!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/6HJbD13NrT
— Forest Green Rovers (@FGRFC_Official) March 11, 2025
Cian Harries missed the game due to illness for the second time after also missing the 1-1 draw with York City at the weekend. He has been replaced by Ben Tozer for the two most recent fixtures, but needed to be substituted in the second-half with injury.
“He played on for as long as he could,” Cotterill said on the 35-year-old centre-half. “Then once half-time came he was stiffening up even more. So, I don’t think it is anything major, but he needed to come off.
“It was a really difficult situation for Harvey Bunker to go into and I thought he did really well when he went in there. Whether that is a long-term thing, I don’t know, but we certainly need this little period of games out of the way so we can all take a little bit of a breather. I might give them two days away from each other because whoever has these coughs and colds and feeling bad, all we are doing is passing it backwards and forwards to each other. I just think they need a little bit of a refresh.”
Game number 1000 for Rovers’ boss is this Saturday as they host playoff-chasing Southend United in the National League.
