A lacklustre performance. We probably deserved a draw on the balance of play, but I thought it was a hugely disappointing display given the context.
We started the game sluggishly, as we have on a few occasions recently, and our football in the first thirty minutes was laboured and lacking any real quality. FGR are clearly a much better organised side now under Cotterill and they made life awkward for us, while also arguably looking sharper in the final third. Towards the end of the half we did finally find some tempo and there were a couple of good attempts by Apter. However, as so often happens in matches where you don't really have a grip of proceedings, Forest Green promptly opened the scoring against the run of play.
I expected a big response after half time, but it never really arrived. We had lots of the ball, but the hosts sat deep and we looked fairly clueless as to how to break them down. The substitutions were peculiar and did not really help us: Jennings and Norris up front, both of whom kept coming short for the ball and did not offer any threat in behind, Saunders stuck out on the left wing, and Norris at right back who constantly came inside into traffic on his left foot, instead of overlapping and providing an option for Apter.
Not a great day for the majority of the players or the manager.
I thought McGee and the two centre halves did ok, and Apter had a good game. Without him we would have created next to nothing. Fair play to Forest Green who look much more resilient under their new manager and might well stay up.
An afternoon to forget.