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“I feel let down by them today” – Forest Green Rovers boss Steve Cotterill after FA Trophy exit to Oxford City

Steve Cotterill
-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited


Forest Green Rovers boss Steve Cotterill was disappointed in the squad’s performance after a 1-0 defeat against Oxford City in the FA Trophy fifth round.

An early goal from Josh Parker sealed a place in the quarter-finals for the National League North side as Rovers exit the competition.

“I feel disappointed today, I don’t think they deliberately meant to let me down, but that is how I feel right now,” Cotterill said.

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“We had enough opportunities there where we can either pick a better pass or pick a better cross or have a better finish on the end of it.

"We had enough opportunities there to win two games, if you don’t pick the right pass and you don’t hit the target when you have the opportunities, you are not going to win.

"Good luck to them (Oxford City), they fought really hard today for their football club, good luck to them in the next round.”

Parker forced the first real opportunity of the game after a great passing move from Oxford found the forward to push Jed Ward into making an early save for a corner.

Parker scored from the resulting corner 16 minutes in after a fine header into the bottom-right corner.

Emmanuel Osadebe had a chance to level the game after 25 minutes when he was released away on goal, but his effort was blasted over the crossbar.

Kai McKenzie-Lyle made a brilliant save after 33 minutes when Adam May found Tom Knowles with an excellent long ball, but the eventual effort was well-stopped.

Joe Quigley could’ve had Rovers level with just over 10 minutes to go when May launched an in-swinging cross into the box, but the header was put narrowly wide of the post.

Parker should have had his second after 80 minutes when an effort from outside of the box rattled the crossbar and bounced back into play away from the goal.

With the defeat, Cotterill said on what he was disappointed with from his players: “Our decision making I felt was really poor today, we got ourselves into some great opportunities.
"We didn’t make enough of those moments when we did open them up, we had probably more in the first-half than we had in the second-half. I am struggling to find this season where the boys have let me down, but I do feel let down by them today.”

Charlie McCann made his first appearance since being ruled out after the 1-1 draw at home against Aldershot Town before Christmas.

“Unfortunately, what happens is, after having the time out that he has had, he was one of our better players today,” Cotterill said.

“I thought he tired a little bit at the end, but that was going to happen. I thought him and Ryan Inniss were outstanding today.

"The only thing is, after that, I am searching a little bit for our good performances there and unfortunately, when you can pick two players out of your starting XI that you think have played well or even the substitutes, that isn’t enough to win a game.”

The last time Forest Green were knocked out of the FA Trophy at this stage of the competition was back in the 2001/02 season when they 3-2 away to Stevenage Borough.

With the focus now going back to the league after Rovers’ runs in cup competitions comes to a close, Cotterill said: “We knew that coming into the game though, we could have focussed on the league anyway when it would have been coming around to the league games.”

Despite not being in league action today, Rovers also drop to third in the table before their next league game after York City won late against Dagenham & Redbridge

Rovers are next in action on Tuesday night when they travel to Dagenham in the National League (7.45pm kick-off).

On what can be done between now and the league game coming up in a few days, Cotterill said: “What is the point of getting them in tomorrow? I am not a schoolteacher, I am not going to bring them in like they are children and punish them, I haven’t done that so far so what is the point of doing that now?

"You might feel as though you want to do it, you might feel as though it makes you better if you bring them in, what are you going to get out of it? I don’t see the point of that.”

Oxford City: McKenzie-Lyle: Drewe, Burley, Jones, Ezennolim (Kpekawa 89), Coyle (Willcox 84); Ashby, Potter, Scott; Parker, Andrews (Roddy 90+3). Subs not used: McEachran, Croker, Harvey.

Forest Green Rovers: Ward; Osadebe (Long 82), Inniss, Tozer, Robson; McCormick (McAllister 61), May, McCann; Knowles (Sercombe 76), Doidge (Cardwell 69), Garrick (Quigley 61). Subs not used: Searle, Bunker.

Referee: Greg Rollason.

Attendance: 661.