Forest Green Rovers head coach Mark Cooper questioned his players fight as they fell to a 3-2 defeat at Tranmere Rovers. Late goals from substitutes Elliott Whitehouse and Scott Wagstaff weren’t enough as Rovers fell to only their fifth league defeat of the campaign.
Early goals in either half from Paul Lewis and James Vaughan gave Tranmere a comfortable two-goal cushion, before Liam Feeney added a third with a rasping strike from outside the area.
Cooper said: “The one thing you have to do in a game of football is win the right, you have to fight for the right, you have to run and you have to battle. We had some big players out there and they didn’t fight, they didn’t scrap, they didn’t run. They let people run past them and that’s why we lost the game.
“It’s alright having players who can do three or four stepovers and 10 drag backs, but you’ve got to fight, run and scrap to win a game of football.
“We let Tranmere set the tone of the game. Their centre-forward Vaughan bullied our centre-backs. He set the tone with a couple of challenges. He intimidated us at the back and we struggled to cope with that.”
Cooper gave a debut to Derby County loanee Isaac Hutchinson, who started alongside Ebou Adams in the midfield. Despite the circumstances, Cooper was content with the 20-year-olds performance.
“He’s technically really good. He twists and turns and plays some really good passes. It’s unfortunate for him that we found ourselves behind in the game and we had to put some forwards on. It was difficult for him because we didn’t give him a lot of help.”
Rovers now face a tough run of fixtures, coming up against Leyton Orient (seventh), Cheltenham (sixth) and Newport (second) in their next six matches. Forest Green are without a win in their last four games, and Cooper brought in Charlton striker Josh Davison on loan on Tuesday, to help get Rovers back on the winning trail.
“One thing I know he (Davison) will do is run and fight and that’s what we need. He will scrap. Our fans will enjoy him.
“We’ve got to start to fight, now. We’re a little bit soft at the minute. You look at the goal we gave up on Saturday. That should have been three points in the bag. We have to toughen the team up.”
