Forest Green striker Ricardo Rees is brimming with confidence and eyeing a hat-trick at struggling Gateshead on Saturday.
Gateshead played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with fellow relegation strugglers Morecambe in midweek, as strikers Billy Chadwick and Chris Popov each netted hat-tricks and Rees is smelling goals.
Rees said: “It’s going to be a lot of goals, I think, but this week we’ve been working on formation and how we’re going to press and how we’re going to work, which we’re brilliant at doing. So we take that into Gateshead and nice if I get a hat-trick hopefully. But as long as we win, which I know we’re more than capable of doing, I think we’ll just get the three points now and just take on this 11 cup finals now. We’ve really got to push on. The fans have been brilliant with us and we’ve just got to stick together.”
Rees heaped praise on boss Robbie Savage and his team-mates, he said: “The group is tight, and the gaffer is brilliant with us and we want to fight for him. He’s passionate and emotional about the project and looks after us really well. We all want to fight for him.”
Rees insists Rovers have been unfortunate in recent matches, but individual errors have proved to be pivotal: “I think we’ve been quite unlucky in a few games – a few individual errors – but the togetherness in the team is still there.
“It just feels like every shot we’ve conceded has ended up in the back of the net, and that’s not something you see very often.
“If we can start cutting out those errors, we’ll start winning games because we always score. We score every game. The problem at the moment is that we feel like we have to score two or three to win. If we keep a clean sheet, we know we’ll win. So it’s about tightening up at the back and cutting out those individual mistakes.”
Rees has enjoyed playing in a two with fellow Welshman Christian Doidge: It’s good playing with Doidgey. He’s experienced and speaks well with me. We just got to keep playing together and get that experience together and see where it takes us.
“Sometimes playing up top on your own can be difficult, but whether there’s a second striker or not, we’ve got players behind who can create chances. We’ve got a very good team -honestly, the squad is a joke. We’re just a bit unlucky at the moment.”
Rees hopes he can find his scoring boots again after such a blistering start to his career at Rovers: “The chances maybe haven’t come as much as I’d like, but I’ve got six goal contributions in nine games, which is pretty good going. If I’m not scoring or assisting, it’s important I keep fighting for the team -pressing, running, chasing everything.
“You’re not going to score every game. I’ve realised that. But if you’re giving everything and everyone’s doing their bit, like you saw at Boreham Wood — even when we were down to ten men – they couldn’t break us down because we were fighting together. As long as I’m contributing and doing my part, I’m happy.”
The 26-year-old turned down Bristol Rovers, Swindon, Gillingham and Crawley to join the Nailsworth outfit from Merthyr Town in January and feels he’s adapted well: “It’s been a big learning curve. There were a lot of emotions leaving Merthyr, but you can see the step up in level here -the coaching, the training, the professionalism. Everything is sharper. I’m really enjoying it and learning a lot about how you’ve got to carry yourself around the club.”
