A disappointing afternoon.
We were not good enough defensively today, both the back four and as a team, to make a contest of the game. We were never going to out football Forest Green, but we needed to be stubborn and stay in the game as long as possible, whereas three of their four goals were absolute gifts, as slick as some of the approach play was.
The defeat was about more than one player, but we hugely missed Davies' reading of the game at the back. As Sparky alludes to above, we also really struggled tactically with their spare man in midfield and the quality of their two wing backs. O'Connor and Spearing were not able to affect the game at all in the first half and were overrun at times; being outnumbered in the middle does not matter against Rochdale and Barrow, but it did today. However, even that aside I thought we started the game far too passively and were not aggressive enough. We needed to throw in challenges, including fouls, to disrupt them, whereas we simply allowed them to build a head of steam.
There were still some decent individual performances, with McPake and Morris both having good games and showing bravery on the ball, and O'Connor excellent again.
It is one defeat to the champions elect and pretty meaningless in the scheme of things. It is just important that we bounce back quickly and take six points from the next two winnable games.