Jonathan Gould is planning to take the Forest Green Rovers players out for a coffee in Nailsworth during their 10-day break from football.
Gould, who has been sharing managerial duties with Yan Klukowski and Josh Bowen following Robbie Savage’s pending departure, revealed his plans after Rovers’ 1-1 draw with Wealdstone at The New Lawn.
Forest Green Rovers said on Tuesday that Savage had been offered the Peterborough United job, although the League One club has not yet confirmed the appointment.
Wealdstone opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark when Fejiri Okenabirhie struck at the far post from Joe Newton’s flick-on.
Rovers levelled seven minutes before half-time through Tate Campbell’s first goal of the season, converting Sean Etaluku’s cross, while captain Kyle McAllister smashed a shot against a post and Nick Haughton was denied at the death.
With Rovers due for a welcome break, Gould revealed plans for a touch of team bonding in Nailsworth, he said: “This is a great little place. I go for a cup of tea down in Nailsworth and I think we might do a little bit of connection over the next 10 days and take the boys down for a coffee in the village – this is just a lovely little place to be honest.”
Gould was pleased with how Rovers responded after a difficult opening 20 minutes against Wealdstone.
“I thought after the first 20 or 25 minutes, I don’t think we settled well into the game. I don’t think we got hold of it in any way.
“Then we made a little bit of a switch. We put Macca deeper, we put the two original sixes on and that made a big difference to us.
“Macca (Kyle McAllister) started getting on the ball, started giving us a little bit of width with his delivery and scored a fabulous goal again.
“We probably could have been a couple up at half-time. I was really pleased with that and then we didn’t want to make too many adjustments at half-time.
“Obviously we had a couple go down in the second half, but the lads that came on did really well for us.”
Gould, Klukowski and Bowen tweaked the formation and Rovers found their feet, with Gould adding: “There was a change and we saw it on the bench. Macca is very, very good in possession of football. We like to get him further forward.
“Addie, (Ade Gbadehan) it was his first game and he was blowing a little bit, but when you consider he got off a plane from Nigeria yesterday, he did a fabulous job alongside Tate (Campbell).”
Gould was frustrated by the manner of Wealdstone’s equaliser.
“The disappointment was the goal. We knew that was one of their strengths. It was a ball up and we didn’t deal with it.
“I think that’s an area that we have got to work on. We’ve just got to be a little bit more assured in those moments and deal with a bouncing, bobbling ball better.
“It was a good finish, to be fair. Both teams could have won it towards the end.”
Goalkeeper Ethan Ross pulled off an outstanding reaction save, which drew praise from Gould.
“I think he was a little bit nervous himself after the last game because he came in and apologised for his mistake.
“He made a massive save for us and that’s a sign of a goalkeeper who’s concentrating and knows the state of the game – I’m pleased for him tonight.”
The mercurial Nick Haughton made a major impact as a second-half substitute and was denied by a superb save late on as Rovers had to settle for a point.
“We have a chat with Nick before the game because I think he would have been a little bit disappointed.
“But to be fair to Nick, in the dressing room he’s one of the diamonds. He keeps the group together. His character is excellent.
“I think we worked out he scored 103 goals in 267 games prior to coming here. We’ve got to get him into those places where he unleashes because he has got a ferocious shot, and he did a great job for us when he came on.”
Gould has settled into the limelight after stepping into the dugout, but refused to be drawn on whether he would like the job on a full-time basis.
“I don’t think I enjoyed the build-up to it, but I think the game, you almost become a player again.
“It’s all about adrenaline and, yeah, I can see why we get ourselves into trouble as coaches.
“I’m probably going to lose a little bit of weight if I have to do that too many times.”
Despite the disruption surrounding the club, Gould believes the performance against Wealdstone demonstrated the character within the squad.
“I think the performance outweighs all of those problems that we have and it shows what a good group have been brought to this football club.”
Rovers now have a 10-day gap before their next fixture, with the players set to enjoy some time away from football.
“We just said to them in there, we kind of planned it before the end of the game anyway, that we’re going to bring them in Thursday, they’ll do their recovery.
“Friday we’ll make it a little bit more fun and we’ll get them away early and they can have a weekend off because it’s probably few and far between weekends that the whole club gets.
“I know we’re only a short time into the season, but we know we’ve got FA Cup, we’ve got FA Trophy, we’ve got some football to rearrange.
“So there’s a lot to think about when it comes to preparing the team for the next game.”
