Forest Green Rovers will host mid-table Hartlepool United tomorrow afternoon at the Fully Charged New Lawn Stadium in their hopes to move closer to an automatic promotion.
The League leaders are seven points clear of second-placed Exeter City and go into the game on the back of three 1-0 consecutive wins.
This is just the second meeting between the two sides with their first meeting taking place back in November when Rovers managed to put three past a 10-man Hartlepool at Victoria Park.
Since then, Hartlepool have appointed new manager, Graeme Lee who has slowly improved results but as of late his side have had a mixed bag of results with just one win in their last five league games.
Rovers boss, Rob Edwards has praised the new head coach of the North-East side: “They’ve got some good players and a good way about them. Since Graeme has come in you can see they’ve got a clear identity.
“We’ve been looking at them in more depth over the last couple of days and I think they’re a good team.”
Rovers top scorer Matthew Stevens will still be out with an anterior cruciate ligament injury while Edwards is positive that midfielder, Ben Stevenson will be given the go ahead after he hobbled off in their 1-0 win against Mansfield Town earlier this week.
Rovers will have to take advantage of the absence of United’s top scorer (12) Luke Molyneux who is set to miss this one out due to an injury he sustained in their 2-2 draw with Mansfield.
Despite their superb recent form, Edwards insists that his side cannot sit back against Hartlepool: “We’ll be doing the exact same thing as we do for any other game and preparing the same way.
“We’ve got to make sure we turn up because if you don’t in this league then you’ll get punished.”
A win tomorrow for Rovers will almost certainly secure them automatic promotion, which will be a historic feat for the club having never reached League One before.
