David Horseman was full of praise for joint Grimsby Town caretakers Ben Davies and Shaun Pearson. Horseman believed his injury stricken FGR can recover from their 3-0 defeat to Tranmere.
Horseman who has just one available striker for the home fixture found the humour in the fact that Grimsby have a plethora of attacking options available to his services.
”Their front three are really good, all naturally nines, they are fortunate to have a lot of them at the moment!”
The 39-year-old revealed the keys to success and what will be necessary to ensure they win on Saturday. Currently Forest Green are four points behind their opponents in the fourth tier, and with a win they can move out of the drop zone.
“If we defend well, stop crosses and shots so we are going to have to do well. I think they cross the ball the most in the league. stopping, defending and blocking crosses.
”We think there are a couple areas where they are wide open in transition and we need to try to exploit those spaces.”
Forest Green will be without talismanic veteran Troy Deeney after he picked up five yellow cards and will serve a one game ban. The onus will be on their only remaining attacker Tyrese Omotoye. The Belgium born forward has scored just the once in 15 league appearances, though his records in the cups has been much better.
This was further reinforced when he netted FGR’s fifth in their triumphant 5-2 victory against Scarborough in the FA Cup replay on Tuesday night.
Horseman hopes that Omotoye can pick up the baton and do himself and Forest Green a service by firing them to their fifth victory of the season.
“He brings lots of qualities, he runs the side, he presses well, he brings lots of energy. He needs lots more goals, we need lots more goals in the teams. He’s played lots of minutes. He needs to continue showing everyone that he can score goals. When he gets a chance he needs to be clinical with it.”
The former Southampton B team manager was full of priase for the former Watford and Birmingham forward Deeney but believed his other options will be able to defeat the Mariners.
”On Saturday we will be a lot smaller particularly in the front line but all over the pitch. We will have ball carriers, have a lot of people who can run and bring their qualities. We know Troy is not just a physical presence but an incredibly intelligent footballer.
“He brings so many more qualities than that. We brought in some players and had some already who had that mobility bit, that won’t be lacking that’s for sure!”
Looking beyond the Grimsby fixture, Horseman should have three first team players back for their away fixture against Walsall.
Horseman admitted they have no fresh new injury concerns to add to their current 12 long list.
”Ryan’s healing nicely, he’s doing a bit of jogging, all being well he will be on the bench against Walsall. Jordan Garrick trained yesterday morning, he’s training today. Hopefully, not many minutes but hopefully Walsall we may see some involvement if all goes well.
“We will have Troy Deeney back as well. The squad will be two or three players more experienced. That was good news this week!”
