FA Trophy, Third Round
Tuesday, 15 January 7:45pm

This week's report has kindly been supplied by my brother David and his son, Emil. They live near Forest Green's ground hence the unusual amount of knowledge of FGR's players!

By Emil and David Snow

The FA Trophy ended dismally for us last night after sloppy defending and terrible luck going forward, both acted upon us in this nervous encounter at The Lawn.

After a truly promising start we opened the scoring with a typical striker's goal from Wayne Purser, toe poking the ball past the exposed Steve Perrin after only 2 minutes.

Our small band of fans stopped cheering just a minute later when Gary Owers converted an almost identical goal at the other end. The positive start turned into a negative 30 minutes as Forest Green took control of the game with some good possession football and excellent switches of play, particularly when feeding Martin Foster on the L/H side.

This dominance was rewarded on 34 minutes when veteran striker Neil Grayson diverted the ball onto both posts, the ball running agonisingly behind Rick Millard in the Barnet goal. While we continued to struggle on the field, I opted to join the queue for a half time Snickers bar.

Second Half

Both sides started the second half brightly, but the blustery conditions and soft pitch made passing increasingly difficult and I lost count of the number of orange balls sent down the hill to Nailsworth. I presume these balls are easier to see in Forest's appalling floodlights.

On 67 minutes something extraordinary happened, Perrin 'the punt upfield' threw the ball wide to Meechan on the right, his dazzling run drew defenders in, only to see the ball sent square to 'Big Dave' as they call him in these parts (Kayode Odejayi to us). He gathered the ball on the edge of the area in acres of space and slotted it past Millard just inside the R/H post.

I thought that this would finish the game off but we attempted a brave comeback and saw any number of chances fly across the goal, or into Perrins arms during the next 10 minutes.  It was following a typically athletic half save that Neil Midgley thumped the ball into the back of the net. 3-2, we were back in it... But, as you know we can't score without conceding so why not give away a penalty?

A penetrating run from 'Big Dave' ended with a lame shot, which Ricky Millard collected safely. About 3 minutes later Jason Soloman (who had started his slide tackle somewhere near the D) finally arrived with just enough momentum to brush the Big ones toe, timber!

The ref turned to see why the Earth had moved, looked at his linesman and the Forest fans for guidance and pointed at the spot. After showing the yellow card to Jason, Neil Grayson sent Millard the wrong way.

(Ed's note - according to the official site report, it was Pluck that made the tackle, and according to Steve Percy, it was Doolan that got booked. The NLP - see link at bottom of page - also says Soloman made the tackle, as does the official FGR report)

A disappointing performance and an even grimmer half-time hot chocolate made me grateful that I only had to travel 3 miles to get home!

My man of the match was Forest's Kayode Odejayi - his powerful runs split up the Barnet defence. (Ed's note - it's supposed to be a Barnet player!)

Photos - David Snow

There are some inconsistencies between David and Emil's report and the one on the official site. There are no reliable set of stats that I've been able to find on the internet by the time of writing to clarify, so I have taken the following line.

Where our report and the official one concur then I have given those details first (eg Hendon's booking). Where they differ, I have listed them separately.

Bookings

Barnet

Hendon - 80
Flynn
Heald
Gower
Doolan

Other times not known, can anyone supply?

Forest Green Rovers

No bookings

Teams

Barnet

Millard, Pluck, Hendon, Heald, Flynn, Gower, Doolan, Yakubu (Soloman 75), Midgley, Purser, Toms (Oshitola 65)

Unused Subs: Smith, Lette Jallow, Frost

Forest Green Rovers

Perrin, Jenkins, Impey, Langan, Foster, Grayson, Meechan, Owers, Richardson, Jones, Odejayi

Unused Subs: Russell, Sykes, Cleverley, Cook, Glassup

Other Reports

Official Site
FGR Official Site
Non-League Paper (Note - this is a review of the third round in general, but has a paragraph about the game.)