NATIONAL LEAGUE

FOREST GREEN 2

TRANMERE 2

JAMES NORWOOD has a liking for goals against his old club and the former Forest Green hero stepped off the Tranmere Rovers bench to grab a point in a high-octane New Lawn thriller.

Norwood, back on his old stamping ground, bagged 67th-minute parity with a neat finish beyond his old housemate Sam Russell.

Wounded against Lincoln, boss Mark Cooper got the first-half reaction he wanted as league leaders Forest Green turned on the style in a pulsating first-half.

Earlier, Forest Green got off to a flyer – Liam Noble opened up Tranmere with a sumptuous pass for in-form Doidge to touch the ball past Scott Davies with just four minutes on the clock for his third goal in as many games.

It was hold your breath time as Tranmere responded two minutes later – Louis Maynard nodding in from Liam Ridehalgh cross.

You just couldn’t take your eyes off this game – Darren Carter fizzing into Davies after a Dale Bennett cross. The game flowed and flowed - Doidge and Keanu Marsh-Brown testing Davies.

Forest Green’s Dan Wishart thumped the post and then Marsh-Brown demanded a gloved response from Davies – and all this in the most action-packed 15 minutes seen at The New Lawn this season.

Noble, berated by his manager on Saturday, delivered the perfect riposte on the half-hour mark - playing at the tip of the diamond, the tenacious skipper thumped in a delightful 29th-minute second as he wrapped his left-foot around the ball to plant a sumptuous curler past the flailing Davies.

Noble was bossing it and he went close again – fizzing over from the edge of the box.

The second-half started with gusto. Tranmere threatened and Charlie Clough did well to block a Ben Tollitt close range smash.

Tranmere boss Micky Mellon probably burnt the paint off the changing room walls at the break.

And he had seen enough and ushered on Norwood from the bench on 58 minutes.

The inevitable happened, Marsh-Brown lost possession to allow Forest Green old boys Mangan and Norwood combined for that man Norwood to plant a neat finish beyond his former housemate Russell on 67 minutes.

A minute later and Forest Green should have regained the lead, but Marsh-Brown contrived to hit the post when scoring would have been easier from Wishart’s run and Carter’s cushioned pass.

Doidge was agonisingly close, but got his legs in a tangle from an arrowed in Marsh-Brown cross at the back post.

As the game meandered to a close, Clough got a decent block on a Mangan skidder and Russell turned a Norwood strike wide, but the game almost took a stoppage-time twist with Mangan picking up a Tollitt pass and demanding an excellent glove over the bar.

Forest Green: (4-4-2) Russell; Bennett, Wishart, Pinnock, Clough; Traore, Carter, Sinclair, Noble; Doidge (Tubbs, 77), Marsh-Brown (Murphy, 85). Subs not used: Kelly, Racine, Frear.

Attendance:2,040

Away fans: 349

Star Man: Ethan Pinnock