Forest Green Rovers beat Oldham Athletic 4-3 in a chaotic game at The innocent New Lawn on Tuesday night. It was the seventh 4-3 match that Mark Cooper has been involved in during his time in Gloucestershire.
Here’s a look at five of the craziest games the Rovers manager has seen during his time in charge:
Forest Green Rovers 5-5 Torquay United – January 1, 2017
Just six days after losing 4-3 in a Boxing Day cracker at Plainmoor, Forest Green welcomed Torquay to The New Lawn for the second part of their festive doubleheader.
This game was even more thrilling than the first. The visitors were 3-2 up at half-time and then 5-3 ahead with just seven minutes to play. A strike from Christian Doidge and an own-goal from Brendan Moore salvaged a point for Rovers, who even had chances to make it 6-5 deep into stoppage-time. The two sides haven’t played eachother since this cracker.
Forest Green Rovers 4-3 Yeovil Town – August 19, 2017
Yeovil travelled to Nailsworth to play guests in what was only Forest Green’s third ever game in the Football League. They were still searching for their first EFL win having picked up only a solitary point from their opening two matches.
It looked as though Rovers were going to have to wait longer for that win, finding themselves 3-1 down to the Somerset side after just 35 minutes. However, a Reece Brown free-kick just before half-time acted as the catalyst for the comeback, as Charlie Cooper and substitute Omar Bugiel struck in the second-half to give Forest Green a famous victory over a fellow West Country side.
Mansfield Town 3-4 Forest Green Rovers – January 11, 2020
Forest Green travelled to Mansfield having only won one of their previous eight league games.
That wait for a win looked like it was going to go on even longer with Rovers 2-0 down after 40 minutes. Three goals in 15 minutes saw Forest Green go ahead, before they were pegged back in injury-time after a goal from Nicky Maynard.
Cooper’s side weren’t content with taking a point back to Gloucestershire, as Aaron Collins popped up in the 96th minute to complete the scoring in a bizarre game at Field Mill.
Crewe Alexandra 4-3 Forest Green Rovers – April 27. 2019
Time for 4-3 game that Forest Green were on the wrong end of. Rovers made the trip to Gresty Road on the penultimate day of the season with an outside shot of automatic promotion.
Embed from Getty ImagesThat outside shot soon became a real possibility when they found themselves 3-2 up on Crewe with just four minutes left to play, and with results elsewhere going their way.
However, two goals from Charlie Kirk broke Rovers fans hearts as the Railwaymen came away with a 4-3 victory, and Forest Green had to settle for the lottery of the League Two play-offs.
Forest Green Rovers 3-3 Exeter City – December 2, 2017
Onto an FA Cup tie, with Rovers meeting Exeter in the second round, knowing that a win for would see them meet Premier League West Brom in the next round.
Doidge put Forest Green ahead, before a quickfire double from current Rovers defender Jordan Moore-Taylor and Jayden Stockley had the Grecians in front.
Scott Laird scored an 88th minute equaliser, but the scoring didn’t stop there. Doidge scored another on the counter-attack in injury-time to spark jubilant scenes at The New Lawn, but the celebrations were cut short when Stockley’s goal salvaged a replay two minutes later.