Rob Edwards has insisted his Forest Green Rovers side are not panicking after losing a first game in 20 matches last Saturday.
Rovers fell 1-0 to Walsall at The Fully Charged New Lawn losing in the league for the first time since October 2021, when they were beaten 2-0 by Swindon Town.
But Edwards’ side are still 10 points clear at the top of League Two and he certainly isn’t pushing any panic buttons.
“We lost a game, there’s a lot of worse things going on at the moment than Forest Green losing a football match.
“But it was a bit of a reality check, obviously the first loss in 20, It’s been a good run and we want to try and kick back on.
“The message was on Saturday we bounce into training on Monday and we go again.”
The loss obviously came as a shock to many as the Saddlers came to Nailsworth with a new manager and took all three points.
But Rovers are no strangers to bouncing back from defeats having done incredibly well after their only other two league losses this campaign.
And Edwards has said he’s tried to instil that same mindset into his players again.
“That was great and we want to try and do the same, we spoke about that with the lads. I think the reason why they’ve bounced back well is we’ve not made a big thing of it.
“Losing football matches is natural but we’ve had a look at the reasons why, we’ve tried to learn from it and we’ve kept a consistent message.
“We can’t guarantee a result but we can guarantee we’re going to go and work and commit to playing our game.”
🟢⚫️Online reporter @JamesWill_Sport takes a look at @FGRFC_Official and their trip to Crawley Town tomorrow.
— Park Life Sport (@ParkLife_Sport) February 25, 2022
We’ll have more from Rob Edwards and his press conference later on today.#fgr pic.twitter.com/ybxpv6gF3Z
The opponent in Rovers’ way this weekend is John Yems’ Crawley Town who have been in good form recently, albeit losing their last outing to Hartlepool United.
Forest Green ran out 6-3 winners in the thrilling reverse fixture back in August and both sets of fans will be hoping for a similar hectic event come tomorrow afternoon.
Edwards is aware of the threats the Red Devils possess and is expecting a tough test in Sussex.
“They’re a team that can beat anyone on their day and they’ve got some key weapons I think that can hurt teams, going forward Nichols, Nadesan and others.
“They’ve got a real distinct way of playing, it remains the same and it can be very effective, which we saw in the game earlier this season.
“I think they’ve had a good season and at times have been very good and had some good wins, so we have to make sure we’re at it.”
One player who hasn’t featured all too much for Forest Green recently is youthful attacker Jake Young.
The 20-year-old has three league goals this season including the sixth and final Rovers goal in that reverse fixture back in August.
Yet despite not being involved in the last couple of squads, Edwards has insisted it isn’t down to his performance and more the depth in the squad.
“It has been, we had a good chat with Youngy we really like him and he’s a very talented player but we’ve just got a lot of competition for places.
“There’s just a few areas and aspects of his game we want to keep working on with him but he’s working really hard and he’s really close.
“We know the talent that he’s got, he’s just got to keep fighting at the moment.”
