Forest Green Rovers boss Steve Cotterill has revealed that the half-time team talk was the best he has had since becoming manager of the club after a last-minute winner against Yeovil Town saw them win 2-1.
Goals from Kyle McAllister and Ryan Inniss in the last 15 minutes turned the tide for Rovers as they overcame Mark Cooper’s side in the final minutes of the game.
“To be honest, today was my best half-time talk since I have been here by a mile,” Cotterill said. “It was nice and calm, which I am not always.
“I sat down on a level with them and we tweaked a couple of things which were beginning to work in the second-half.”
Rovers had a huge chance early on when Liam Sercombe released McAllister away on goal, but his effort was put wide of the Yeovil Town post.
Kofi Shaw opened the scoring for the Glovers as an effort that looked destined for goal carried a deflection into the back of Rovers’ goal.
Rovers were level after 76 minutes when Shaw was sent off for his second yellow card after a foul on Jamie Robson and gave away a penalty in which McAllister slotted to the goalkeeper’s left.
“I have just looked back and it is the first penalty we have had this season so for us to get a penalty is a novelty,” Cotterill said.
“To have a red card against us has been a novelty. We have been on the back end of a couple of red cards that we thought were soft.
“Mark (Cooper) might have an opinion on whether he thought that one was soft and that would be fair enough if he wanted to have that opinion. To be fair, up until then, I wouldn’t have said looking at that game that the referee would have given us a penalty.
“Kyle did very well to play today, he wasn’t very well yesterday. I wouldn’t say he was off-colour today, but he wasn’t his normal self. He was fantastic today, we have got a few lads that will take penalties and be cool in those situations, but it was a great penalty from him.”
Forest Green continued to apply the pressure when Adam May’s corner found Harry Cardwell in the 83rd minute, but his header drifted narrowly over the goal.
Rovers won it at the death when Inniss struck a left-footed effort past Oliver Wright in the Yeovil goal for his second of the season.
Forest Green stretch their league unbeaten run to 13 now after the win against Yeovil Town.
Having gone 99 days without a defeat in the division, Cotterill said: “It is nice to have it, I had a couple of great unbeaten runs with Cheltenham, I think we went 25 games and 22 another year.
“If we can match those achievements, it will be great, but there are going to be plenty of other obstacles in our way and we have got to try and navigate our way around those obstacles and keep pressing forward.”
Jordon Garrick came on for the final five minutes for his second debut for the club and was effective in that time.
Having got the winger that bit closer to a full return, Cotterill said: “It was nice to bring him on and nice to see him in the background. He is a great lad; we are pleased to have him back and he has only done a little bit. I just thought he has had two really heavy days, it is funny because when I put him on his first touch took him away from a player, but his second touch never got him near the ball so he is not quite sharp, he has had no pre-season so we have just got to be mindful of that.”
Yeovil also gave a good account of themselves proving to be another tough test for Forest Green.
“Everybody raises their game, they want to come here and win,” Cotterill said. “Today, was going to be a difficult game anyway with Mark, who had great success with Forest Green coming back with his team. He would have had them well-fired up for today, it was a good win for us in the end.”
The result takes Rovers back to second in the National League with 50 points with a game in hand on Barnet who are now third after dropping points against Eastleigh.
Rovers are next in action in the fourth round of the FA Trophy this Saturday against Chorley (3pm kick-off).
Forest Green Rovers: Ward; Long (Cardwell 64), Inniss, Moore-Taylor, Robson; Sercombe, May, Osadebe; McAllister, Doidge (Quigley 64), Knowles (Garrick 90+1). Subs not used. Searle, Lavinier, Tozer, Bunker.
Yeovil Town: Wright; Bernard, Williams, Wannell; Shaw, Cooper, McGavin, Sims (Smith 89), Worthington; McGurk (Cousin-Dawson 79), Jarvis. Subs not used. Gould, Howard, Borges, Nouble, Hughes.
Referee: James Oldham.
Attendance: 3,002 (703 away).