National League
Aldershot Town 3 Forest Green 3
Rightly billed as one of the promotion favourites, Forest Green returned to non-league football with a dramatic point at Aldershot Town.
Rovers hit the self-destruct button after falling to 2-0 down inside 11 minutes after a quick-fire brace from Hady Ghandour to stage a monumental fightback to lead 3-2 through a sumptuous Ryan Inniss strike on 22 minutes and goals after the break from Kyle McAllister and Christian Doidge before James Henry snatched a point for Aldershot 10 minutes from the end.
Gaffer tapes – Steve Cotterill
Forest Green boss Steve Cotterill delivered his post-match synopsis to BBC Radio Gloucestershire’s Billy Hunt.
Cotterill said: “We had to work hard for our goals, I am not sure they had to work too hard for theirs. Overall a draw was a fair result, but we have had the better chances to win the game and that will be the disappointment with the amount of chances we’ve had and not scored another goal.
“We needed to get another goal when we were 3-2 up, at 3-2 if we score another goal that probably breaks them then, but we needed to get that next goal.
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“I wouldn’t expect us to give away the goals as easy as we have given them up, that is the disappointing part of it.
“For the first goal we were in control of the ball, we had three or four passes, we were in control if it, we didn’t have any pressure on it. We have spoke about breaking that line in the week and worked on it and sometimes the lads are going to make a mistake and if they do, it is about how they react after it.”
Stat Attack
Aldershot Town: Dewhurst; Jones, Maghoma, Jenkins, Harfield; Frost, Widdrington (Tetek 81), Hargreaves; Barrett (Barham 65), Corbett (Henry 58), Ghandour.
Forest Green Rovers: Ward; Long, Inniss, Tozer, Bunker (Knowles 46), Robson; McCann, May (Jenks 82), Osadebe (Sercombe 70); McAllister, Doidge (Omotoye 82).
Attendance: 2,564
FGR fans: 241
Referee: Scott Simpson.
