Forest Green suffered a second successive defeat as they were humbled 4-1 by Bradford City on Friday afternoon.

A fine first half strike from Elliot Watts and a barrage of second half goals from the Bantams took the game out of Rovers’ reach.

However, Forest Green’s Jake Young was able to net his sixth league goal of the season in the dying embers of the game.

Despite the loss, Mark Cooper was still able to take some positives from his side’s performance, as he spoke to the club’s media: “Football-wise we were really good, dominated the ball and we were in the control of the game.

“The overriding factor is that we’ve not scored from our chances again.

“We have to dust ourselves down and be ready for Monday.”

Although he remained defiant after the game, Cooper was able to concede that he was disappointed in the officiating of the game.

He said: “At 0-0 we had a clear penalty and at 1-1 we had a clear penalty, then at the end we have a karate kick that takes Kane Wilsons head off – clear penalty – and the first goal is a goal kick, not a corner.

“I’m not going to use that as an excuse – the score line gets the referee off the hook, the fact it was 4-1 gets him off the hook.

“It was not an acceptable performance from the referee today but that wasn’t the reason we lost.”

A fine curling Young strike was certainly the most positive aspect to take from a Forest Green point of view and the Rovers manager was singing the 19-year-old’s praises after the match.  

“He did very well, I would have just preferred if he scored early on to get us in front,” said Cooper. “I’ve got no issues with his ability and his conversion rate, it’s just today is what he’s about; he worked, he ran, his desire was top draw and he has to do that nearly every game.”

The result leaves Forest Green sitting in fifth spot in the League Two rankings as they next welcome 11th placed Salford City to the innocent New Lawn on Monday afternoon (kick off 15:00).