Notts County travel to The New Lawn to face 18th placed Forest Green Rovers. Despite being in the bottom half of the league, Forest Green have won every home game this year except their 2-1 loss to Wycombe Wanderers on 1st January. They’ve also scored 11 goals in their last 5 games, winning 3 of those, so can County upset Forest Green’s run in good form?
Forest Green Rovers haven’t lost a game since January and Mark Cooper seems to have given his team some momentum in their bid to stay in League Two after getting promoted to the league last season. Their 3-3 draw with Newport County on Tuesday saw them go five games undefeated and has made their strike power undeniable.
Discussing Tuesday’s game, Cooper said ‘we didn’t defend well and we haven’t carried out what we wanted to. It’s another point on the board and this is a tough place to come but we need to defend better’. Although they are 6 points clear of the relegation zone, Rovers will need all the points they can accrue in their final 10 games and will be wanting to capitalise on County’s away record. They will be disappointed they didn’t take away all three points from Meadow Lane and will be wanting to make up for losing the maximum points in the 96th minute.
Notts County believed they should have come away from Tuesday’s game against Cheltenham with all three points, but manager Kevin Nolan did say he wasn’t disappointed with the 1-1 draw and that County made fantastic chances but they need to be more ruthless in front of goal. The draw sees the Magpies move to third place in the table and back into the automatic promotion places. Nolan has said that County have had a fantastic season so far and the team need to embrace and enjoy the position they are in.
“Nolan said that Forest Green has been one of the best teams to come to Meadow Lane”
Looking forward to Saturday’s game, Nolan said that Forest Green has been one of the best teams to come to Meadow Lane and the game this weekend is going to be tough. He acknowledged that Forest Green are a strong side who are drilled and have two fantastic strikers. County have a game plan that they are taking to The New Lawn but Nolan highlighted that when the team gets quality chances they’ve got to get the finish if they want to get to where they want in the league. Nolan also nodded to the fact that Cooper will be facing his old team, but said that this doesn’t affect the game in his eyes and said that Cooper has done a fantastic job with Rovers.
Kevin Nolan has said that people should not assume that County will win this game even though Forest Green are towards the bottom of the league, but he is hopeful that County will return with all three points. However, the Magpies haven’t won an away game in 630 minutes of football and Forest Green will be wanting to continue their recent flurry of goals and get enough points to ensure their safety in the league as soon as they can.
Zoe Burgess
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