FOREST GREEN manager Mark Cooper has been rewarded for his side’s fantastic run of form of late by being nominated for the League Two Manager of the Month award.

The New Lawn boss is joined by Port Vale’s Neil Aspin, Nathan Jones of Luton Town and Colchester United’s John McGreal in being up for the accolade, with the winner announced this Friday.

Rovers entered October on the back of a run of seven games without victory in all competitions, with the prospect of facing four of the then top seven sides in the division.

However, a win in the Checkatrade Trophy away to Cheltenham Town sparked the side into life and they went on to pick up 10 points from their five games to lift them out of the bottom two.

“If you keep working hard, which we’ve done, the players, the staff, it shows what you can do and how quickly things can turn around,” said Cooper.

“People started to panic a bit but we certainly didn’t, we knew we had the ability and the skills to come through it.

“It’s not about me being nominated, it’s about the whole group effort.”

It was a 1-1 draw away at then league leaders Notts County that showed the green shoots of recovery for the club, only denied all three points at the death.

Despite a 4-0 defeat at home to Newport County, Rovers are on a run of three wins on the bounce, started by Keanu Marsh-Brown’s goal at the Ricoh Arena.

Since that 1-0 win over Coventry City, Cooper’s side have also beaten Stevenage 2-1 away from home and Morecambe 2-0 at The New Lawn, a result that hauled them out of the drop zone in League two.

“We look back at it and we should have got two more points for certain, we deserved to win at Notts County,” added Cooper.

“That’s put us onto a decent run. The Newport game is in there which was maybe the crescendo of everything but in the grand scheme of things, that’s one bad performance in six or seven.

“It will be a nice reward for all of the staff and players, that’s for certain.”