Forest Green Rovers 2 Northwich Vics 0

Nationwide Conference

Saturday, April 20

THINGS always tend to go against Northwich at The Lawn, where they have lost all four of their previous games, and it was no different on Saturday.

It took two penalties, both confidently converted by captain and fans' Player of the Year Mark Cooper, to ensure this record was maintained. He struck early on and again towards the end, but in between these spot kicks Vics did more than enough to deserve at least their first ever point at Forest Green.

Already without the suspended Denny Ingram, Vics were dealt a further blow when John Grant went down with flu and the bad luck continued nine minutes in when Paul Gibson raced from his line and brought down Alex Meecham. Cooper gave Gibson, who was booked for his trouble, no chance with his penalty.

Playing down the slope and with a strong wind behind them, Vics pressed forward and Richard Norris' cross was just beyond Jimmy Quinn before Norris had a header deflected inches wide of the post with keeper Steve Perrin wrong-footed.

Blundell's rising shot whistled narrowly ove the bar then Vics failed to convert two further chances before the break as Perrin blocked Andy Porter's shot and Quinn was denied by Jamie Impey.

Six minutes after the break another Vics chance went begging when Mark Devlin could only use time and space inside the penalty area to shoot over when a better option may have been to have squared to either Quinn or Blundell, who were both unmarked.

A powerful Blundell header from a neat Chris Royle chip then flashed narrowly wide as Vics seemed to do everything but force an equalizer.

Then Forest Green broke quickly and Matthew Coupe ran in between Gary Burke and Gary Talbot before falling to the ground and Rovers were awarded their second penalty of the afternoon with just four minutes remaining.

Cooper secured an unlikely victory for the home side, who otherwise had barely troubled Gibson, and to add insult to injury Vics ought to have been awarded a penalty of their own deep into injury-time when Steve Garvey was scythed down in front of goal. However, the referee, who also angered Vics on the opening day of the season for sending off Blundell, ignored the claims.

Vics: Gibson, Royle, Barnard, Owen, Burke, Talbot, Norris, Porter (Garvey 59), Blundell, Quinn, Devlin. Subs not used: Sedgemore, Knowles, Walsh, Mullock. Attendance: 871. Star man: Mark Barnard.