Forest Green Rovers head coach Mark Cooper is expecting a “feisty” battle as his promotion-chasing side travel to Tranmere Rovers this evening (7pm).
Despite being fourth in the table, Forest Green have won just one of their last five games, and they will be keen to get back to winning ways against a side who they have formed something of a rivalry with over the last four years.
In the 2017 National League play-off final, Forest Green beat Tranmere 3-1 at Wembley to secure their place into the Football League for the following season for the first time ever.
Two years later, they met again in a play-off scenario, this time in the League Two play-offs. Tranmere beat Forest Green 2-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals, and the Whites eventually won promotion to League One, beating Newport County 1-0 at Wembley a fortnight later.
Rovers were given a red card in each of the play-off semi-final games, and Cooper admits that those decisions still sting to this day.
“The play-off that we lost was still pretty unfair in my opinion. It always seems to be a feisty affair.”
Tranmere currently have three ex-Forest Green players who started in the 2017 National League play-off final in their ranks. Kaiyne Woolery, who was on loan from Wigan, scored twice for Forest Green that day, Manny Monthe and Mark Ellis are all currently plying their trade in Birkenhead, but Cooper believes that coming up against former players won’t add any extra spice to the game.
“Kaiyne helped get us promoted and we were desperate to keep him. We’d agreed a deal with his club and it was a bit unsavoury the way it happened, but no axe to grind with that one.
“Manny and Mark Ellis were solid at the back along with Ethan Pinnock. I enjoyed managing all of them. They were really good for us.”
Having been relegated from League One last season, Tranmere are currently 15th in League Two, and are managed by ex-Cheltenham Town defender Keith Hill.
Despite having only won one of their last seven games in all competitions, Cooper says that Tranmere’s quality cannot be underestimated.
“He (Keith Hill) did a brilliant job at Rochdale and he had some brilliant young players come through, they had a way of playing which was brilliant to watch and I think eventually he’ll try and implement that on Tranmere. As Keith will tell you, it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to have time to be able to implement what you want to try and implement. They’ve got some really good players. James Vaughan up front, really good player. Kaiyne Woolery, Manny Monthe, some really good players. I’m sure once Keith gets his feet under the table; they’ll be a real force to be reckoned with.”
Forest Green could give a debut to Isaac Hutchinson, who was signed earlier in the month from Derby County on loan until the end of the season. The midfielder was an unused substitute in Rovers’ 1-1 draw with Port Vale at the weekend, and Cooper admitted post-match that he should have brought the new signing on from the bench.
Forest Green’s newest addition Josh Davison, who signed on loan from Charlton, will not be available for the fixture. The 21-year-old striker was not signed in time for the trip to Prenton Park, and will therefore need to wait until Saturday’s visit to Leyton Orient for his first appearance in a Rovers shirt.
