Following an impressive 2-1 win over Eastleigh at the weekend, Forest Green Rovers boss Steve Cotterill shared his delight at the progress that his side are making this season.
That victory was not only vital in Rovers’ hunt for promotion from the National League, but it was also a historic win that saw Cotterill’s side match the club’s highest ever unbeaten run record of 19 matches.
An unfortunate own goal from Eastleigh goalkeeper Joe McDonnell and a last-minute winner from Jamie Robson handed Rovers all three points; ensuring that they matched a record which has been held for at least 50 years.
“That is good, but let’s just keep going,” Cotterill said after the win over Eastleigh. “As I have said before, when you get a run that you are on like that, the better situation you put yourself in, the harder it is to give in and they are not giving in.”
Cotterill isn’t a stranger to impressive unbeaten streaks. The Englishman oversaw an unbeaten run of 17 league games with Cheltenham Town in the 1997/98 season. Despite not winning promotion in that season, the Robins won the FA Trophy and he won the Manager of the Year award.
After matching that 1997/98 run with a draw against Altrincham at the end of last month, Cotterill said: “It is not so much surpassing it, it is about building on what we have got, this isn’t a Forest Green against Cheltenham scenario. I am a Cheltonian; I was born there and I was very proud of the job I did at Cheltenham.
“So far, I am not making a bad fist of what I am doing at Forest Green. They are two separate entities; they just happen to be in the same county. It is not a competition as to whether we can get any more or anything like that, there is no competition there for me. We are just trying to do well with the unbeaten run that we are on and to try and keep it that way because the longer we keep that going, the better it will be for us.”
Town went on to win the league the following the season, securing promotion into the Football League for the very first time in the club’s history.
When talking about Rovers and unbeaten runs, Rob Edwards’ 2021/22 side that won Sky Bet League Two must be mentioned, when they went unbeaten between the months of October and February, beginning with a 2-0 away win over Scunthorpe and ending with a 1-0 home loss to Walsall.
84 points saw Forest Green to promotion that season after a dramatic 2-2 draw with Mansfield Town. Exeter City accumulated the same number of points as Edwards’ side who fortunately won the league with a seven better goal difference than the Grecians.
That was the first time in Rovers history that they were promoted into Sky Bet League One. Unfortunately for them, it so far has been their only ever season in the English third tier after they finished bottom of the league with just 27 points, 19 away from safety.
Cotterill’s current side are without defeat since the end of September when they lost 1-0 away to Oldham Athletic and have only lost twice so far this season.
On this present run that Rovers are on, they have won 11 times and drawn eight. Edwards’ League Two-winning side had won 12 times and drawn seven.
Following the league title win, Edwards left to join Championship side Watford but was only in charge of the Hornets for 11 games. That same season, Edwards was recruited by Watford’s fierce rivals, Luton Town and won promotion to the Premier League via the playoffs, for the first time in the Hatters’ history .
The National League (then Blue Square Premier) unbeaten run record currently stands at 30 games, which is held by Steve Evans’ Crawley Town after the 2010/11 season which saw them win 31 games in the entire campaign and pick up 105 points in that season, winning the league by a massive 15 points.
Rovers have the opportunity to surpass their own record when they travel to Braintree Town next Saturday in the National League who sit three points above the relegation zone (3.00pm kick-off).
