Message #445994

[GrangeParkCobbler]

So here we are again, our second visit to The Fully Charged New Lawn to face Forest Green Rovers.

It will be only eleven days since two second string teams battled to a 1-1 draw before The Cobblers prevailed on penalties in the Papa Johns Trophy. This game has three league points at stake, and three league points is the gap between the two teams in the fledgling League 2 table....FGR with 13 points from five games and us with 10 from four.
Rovers made eight changes from the starting 11 we faced when they played Exeter City in their last league game, that ended in a goalless draw. Rovers are now four games without a win in all competitions but have only lost once in the league, a 0-2 reverse to Port Vale in their last home game.

Head to head wise, well the record books will show our PJT games as a draw, which still means that the Greens have only beaten us once, that was the only league encounter on their patch to date back on New Years Day 2019when goals in the first and last minutes led them to a 2-1 win.

Present and past connections probably end at Joseph Mills.....the former FGR skipper made 75 appearances for the club between 2018 and 2020 before making the switch to Sixfields. He won't appear on the pitch for the Cobblers on Saturday due to the injury he picked up at Crawley....he is however scheduled to be Forest Greens VIP guest in their hospitality suite where apparently he will be fielding questions from the fans and sharing stories about his two year spell at the club.

Scott Oldham will be the man in the middle, he's been on the league list since 2017. We have seen him a few times over the past few years most recently for our 2-0 home defeat to Burton in February this year. A week later he took charge of Forest Greens 2-0 win at Newport.  So far this season he has issued 16 yellow and one red card in his seven games, Only 70 yellows and no reds in 33 games last season puts him low down the list when it comes to handing out bookings.