They maybe going for promotion via the play-offs next week, but today marks 20 years since Forest Green Rovers lost to Canvey Island in the 2001 FA Trophy Final, a memory that still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of Alex Meechan. He speaks about his disappointment and regret from that day.
They may have only been in the Conference back then, but Rovers were in a higher division than their Essex opponents who were playing in the Rymans League at the time. Meechan spoke about the difference from going from Conference grounds, to a final at Villa Park and the difference that made in preparation.
“I think we stayed at the Forest of Arden Hotel which abnormal, and looking back, I never criticized the management duo, but I feel we should have just gone about our business as normal. We never really stayed overnight before games, to spend two or three nights in the Forest of Arden Hotel, we just built it up too much for ourselves, I think. If we’d stayed just the night before rather than two or three nights, we might have turned up and been a little bit more of a proposition in the final.”
In a horrible piece of timing for Forest Green and Meechan, the game could not be played at Wembley and the players involved that day missed out on playing at the home of English football.
“The old Wembley was getting refurbished, even though Villa Park was a great place to play football, looking back now it’s one of my biggest regrets.”
Meechan admits that it was his own performance that left him most disappointed on that day, rather than the result itself. Meechan had the worst preparation you could ever have before a cup final and even now is disappointed that he was not fully fit for the clash.
“I pulled my hamstring, probably the worst it had ever been, in one of the game’s leading up to the final. I didn’t play or train in the three or four weeks leading up to it, didn’t do anything. Dave Norton and Nigel Spink said ‘that’s it, your season is done until the final’, it was just a case of resting and rehabilitation, but I didn’t even kick a ball leading up to that cup final, because I just needed it to be right. I remember in the first 15 minutes at Villa Park, running for a ball and feeling my hamstring go again. That was my final over, psychologically. I just never performed and it was such a sad day because it was a great day for the football club. All my schoolmates had come, family, friends and I just felt so deflated after knowing that I hadn’t performed. If I’d been on my game, maybe I could have helped us achieve what we all wanted to achieve.”
So while Meechan has many regrets over that fateful day at Villa Park he concludes that he loved his time in Gloucestershire with Forest Green and has many fond memories from his time at the club.
“It was just fabulous, great experience, great memories. I’ll be honest, we had loads of characters, we had a bit of everything in there. We had experience, top pedigree experience, young lads like myself who were aspiring to be as good as they can. The old heads were fabulous to us, they knew what to say at the right times, and that’s when I was at my best, when we had that. We’ve still got a Forest Green reunion group chat, we’re all on it and that tells you all you need to know.”
