An exuberant Forest Green Rovers boss Robbie Savage heaped praise on new Welsh wizard Ricardo Rees after the January signing marked his debut with a dazzling brace to haul Rovers back on track in the title race.
Savage’s side had fallen behind to Will Hugill’s first-half stoppage-time opener, but Rees, who signed from Merthyr this week, struck twice after the break to turn the contest on its head and extend his remarkable scoring record to 27 goals in 25 games.
Savage beamed afterwards: “He looked such a threat, so I’m delighted for him. And I’m even more delighted because he could have gone to the EFL – there were four or five offers from clubs. But he came to us with his heart. Our offer was really competitive. It wasn’t the biggest, but it was competitive.
“We’ve missed a goalscorer – and that’s not taking anything away from anybody in our team, because our strikers all contribute in their way – but they’re different. He’s a natural goalscorer, though he should have scored five today.”
Savage felt his side got a slice of fortune when Halifax had a goal chalked off, he said: “There’s been a bit of talk about their disallowed goal at the end. I’m hearing people say it was onside. From what I’ve seen, it was offside. Listen, I don’t know for certain -but I’m not seeing it. And if I were in that dressing room and we’d scored a goal like that and it was onside, I’d be really unhappy. But if it’s been ruled out, then for once a bit of luck has gone our way.”
Savage heaped praise on his defence: “What I do want to say is a huge well done to our defence today. The centre-halves – Kanu (Abraham) and Ryan (Inniss) won every header in the first half. The desire, the blocks at the end. Mendy and Kanu’s blocks were magnificent. We deserved that win.
“At Brackley we didn’t deserve anything. Truro probably deserved to win and we didn’t. But tonight shows what a performance does for the boys. Everybody who came on contributed, and we’re pushing. Now we’ve got Ebbsfleet away next week. You look back and think, if we’d got something at Brackley, if we’d beaten Truro, we’d be top now. That’s the fine margins. But as Dale (Vince) said, this is a journey—and we’re miles, miles ahead of where we expected to be.”
Pic: Matt Bigwood
Savage lauded sporting director Mark Bowen, who has played a significant part in restructuring the club: “Some teams have been building for two or three years- this is five months into a project where Dale said it might take three or four years. So we’re doing unbelievably well, and I’m so proud of everyone at the football club.
“Dale, who backs us. Mark Bowen—what he’s done and the way he works, like he did at Reading, goes under the radar. What a job he did there, and what a job he’s doing here.”
Savage has afforded his players a few days rest, but his mind will be firmly focussed on the next game: “I’ve given the lads off until Wednesday. I’ll be going to watch my son at Reading on Sunday, then a couple of days with my family. After that it’s Wednesday, Thursday, Friday—a three-day build-up to Ebbsfleet.
“With the flu going around, some of the lads have had it. They need time with their families, time to relax. Some might want a bit of sun—I said no problem. I won’t be doing that though. I’ll be watching Ebbsfleet, watching every game I can, doing everything I can to get the best out of my team next week.”
Before kick-off, Forest Green and Halifax observed a minute’s silence in memory of a family who tragically lost their lives in a house fire in Brimscombe on Boxing Day.
Halifax, who arrived boasting five wins and a draw from their previous six matches, were pinned back from the outset as Rovers dominated proceedings. Tom Knowles and Kyle McAllister both went close early on as Savage’s side imposed themselves.
Rees was inches away from opening his account on 19 minutes, planting a header against the base of the post from Neil Kengni’s pinpoint cross. In the ensuing scramble, Temi Babalola’s follow-up was hacked clear. Rovers remained relentless, with Babalola scuffing wide from a Knowles free-kick six minutes before the interval.
Despite Rovers’ dominance, it was the Shaymen who struck first. In the second minute of stoppage time, Jay Turner-Cooke pounced before squaring for Hugill to tap home.
Parity arrived on 67 minutes when Rees bundled the ball over the line after Sam Johnson initially scooped away Babalola’s effort. Laurent Mendy fizzed wide from the edge of the box as Rovers upped the ante, while Johnson denied Rees a second.
The Welshman was not to be denied, however, finishing from close range on 78 minutes after reacting quickest to Knowles’ cross. Halifax thought they had snatched a late equaliser when Shaun Hobson headed home with seven minutes remaining, but an offside flag curtailed their celebrations.
Livewire Rees came within a whisker of a hat-trick five minutes from time, his effort tipped onto the post by Johnson. A dramatic stoppage-time clearance off the line from Laurent Mendy, denying Jay Turner-Clarke, sealed the points and ended Rovers’ two-game winless run.
Halifax boss Adam Lakeland felt his side were denied a point by referee Ross Martin, who ruled out Hobson’s goal with seven minutes to go, he raged:” We’ve scored a legitimate goal that’s been disallowed. The officiating was awful. We should be going back up the road with a point, but instead we’re going back with nothing because a couple of officials couldn’t get basic decisions right. That’s incredibly frustrating.
“In the second half, I felt we were wasteful at times when we had opportunities to ask questions on the break. There were moments where, with a little bit more quality on the ball, we could have gone on and scored a second.
“Obviously, we’ve conceded two goals – that’s what happens when you spend a lot of money on a striker – but I didn’t feel we deserved to be behind.”
STAT ATTACK
Forest Green Rovers 2 ( Rees 67, 78 ) FC Halifax 1 (Hugill 45+2 )
Team line-ups
PLAYER ratings out of 10
Forest Green: ( 4-3-3): Isted 7; Knowles 7, Inniss 7 (Moore 76), Kanu 8, Kengni 7 (Robson 88) ; Bunker 7 ( Buyabu 64, 7) Mendy 7, Whitwell 7; McAllister 8, Babalola 7 , Rees 9 (Mitchell 88).
Subs not used: Pagel, Haughton, Clarke
FC Halifax Town (4-2-3-1): Johnson 7; Warburton 6, Smith 7, Adetoro 7 (Bray 88), Hobson 6; Hugill 8 (Hoty 88) , Johnson 7; Turner-Cooke 6, Hmami 6 ( Larry-Fairweather 38, 6 ), Capello 6 (Kawa 74,6); Harris 7
Subs not used: Ford, Mills, Tarima
Half time: Forest Green 0-1 FC Halifax Town
Referee: Ross Martin
Star man: ( Ricardo Rees, Forest Green, striker)
Attendance: 2,436
Rating: 4/5
Match statistics
FGR/ FC HALIFAX
Shots on target : 9 / 3
Shots off target: 5 / 0
Corners: 6 / 4
Offside: 2 / 2
Fouls: 9 / 13
Yellow cards: 1 / 3
Red cards: 0/0
