The Green Room: We need to take chances and put games to bed (From Gazette Series)

Football column by Forest Green Rovers manager Dave Hockaday

10:07am Tuesday 24th August 2010 in Sport

MONDAY morning saw a tough self-analysis of our poor showing away to Mansfield in the de-brief.

The message was to go out and work very hard as a team to close down the opposition and stop them playing. Wrexham were to be our next opponents and with their very strong squad we knew we had to get in their faces and prevent their midfield three from creating chances for their strikers. I decided to take a gamble and introduce Mike Fowler into midfield to settle us down, and Ian Herring at right back to give my defence a better balance.

With a big crowd and an excellent atmosphere the game plan to cancel out their midfield worked really well and the team as a whole worked tirelessly to press their opponents at every opportunity. A great run and cross saw Smith provide the first goal for Styche and we went in 1-0 to the good at half time having dominated proceedings. The second period saw Wrexham come out and have much the better of the possession without really causing us any concerns at the back and a fine headed goal by Jones from a Lee Fowler corner took the game away from Wrexham.

Yan Klukowski deflected a Lee Fowler shot into the goal to wrap up a tremendous performance on a memorable night for my team.

The preparation for Saturday`s game at home to Gateshead went well with a few players being nursed through training with minor knocks and niggles. We knew that this would be a different game entirely with our northern visitors in good form and very good in possession. With the same starting eleven the idea was again to press high up the field and this brought great reward with a number of good chances before Styche finally netted in 10 minutes. We then continued to dominate and yet failed to turn a number of golden opportunities into goals.

These misses were to be regretted in the second period in which our play lacked fluency and Gateshead came more and more into the game. However, there was very little threat to our goal until a cross from the right saw a deflected header steer into our goal. It was then game on as both teams threatened in a contest that could have gone either way. We seemed to get the necessary break when Styche was bundled over in the area but Herring was unable to put the spot kick away. Styche was again thrown to the floor in the final minutes but his appeals were not heeded by the referee as the match ended 1-1.

The lesson is that we need to take our chances early on and put these sort of games to bed. We had a number of chances to kill the match which we failed to take and we let the opposition back into a game they should have been out of.

Frustrating to feel that we dropped three points and yet we got a draw and my goalkeeper was rarely tested. Mike Fowler came through another full game and Bartlett and Dyer are much closer to recovery. Hodgkiss will be about three weeks from fitness.

There is good competition for places as the games come thick and fast.

Hayes and Yeading away is our next challenge tonight and we must be ready and prepared for a team that have just beaten Grimsby Town. This is a tough and relentless opening campaign where we will strive to get as many points on the board as possible.

This Saturday sees our local Derby with Bath City for the Bank Holiday. Bath have a number of ex-Forest Green players in their ranks, so it promises to be a cracker.

Don't forget its only £2 for under-16s for every league game this season and it would be great to see another bumper crowd getting behind my players.

Spread the word to your family and friends and your kid's friends.

We must look to improve in all areas in every game. I have got a great group of players who will give their all for Forest Green Rovers Football Club. We march on.