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The Lawn, now without stands next door to The New Lawn |
Defeat to Newport County ended hopes of promotion in a season in which Jamille Matt starred. Rob Edwards was appointed as manager, as Matty Stevens weighed in with the goals as Rovers won the League Two title. Edwards headed off to Watford to be replaced by Ian Burchnall.
He lasted until January 2023 when Duncan Ferguson was appointed, with Forest Green’s League One spell lasting just one season. David Horseman was put in charge of the team prior to being succeeded by Troy Deeney in December 2023, as the team found itself in the drop zone.
The experienced Steve Cotterill was given the manager's job within a matter of weeks, and although form improved, the team was relegated to the National League. The 2024-25 campaign saw Rovers reach the playoffs, where dreams of a League return were ended by Southend United in the semifinal tie. Robbie Savage was appointed as manager in July 2025.
My visits
Forest Green Rovers 0 Scarborough 0 (Saturday 19th October 2002) Football Conference (att: 751)
This visit to Gloucestershire goes down in the books as one of my most haphazard away trips. I met my friend Liz at Paddington for the journey west. Normally, it would have been a relatively straightforward trip on the train with just a change required at Swindon.
However, owing to the dreaded weekend rail replacement bus service being in operation, we had to alight at Reading to take a bus to Swindon. Fortunately, the trains would be through running on the way back. This was as well as QPR were playing at Cheltenham Town the same day, and were expected to take a large following.
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My drawing of the original Lawn plus Rovers team kits and an old club crest. Click on the image for an enlarged version. |
We met Steve, who had caught a bus from his home in Oxford to Swindon to take the connection to Stroud. Now I have been to some strange towns in my time, but Stroud was about to become one of the strangest. We had to get a taxi from the station through undulating countryside to the ground some five miles away.
There were some of the usual Boro fans in the clubhouse when we entered. Butch and his gang had travelled in a car, as had Bunner, Filey John, Jimmy, Carl and Meatloaf. The clubhouse was friendly enough and had an indoor skittle alley, but we forsook the delights of that local game.
Rovers had former Boro star Matthew Russell on loan from Exeter City, where his dad was now chairman, before he was found guilty of fraud and was sent to prison. Matty was injured at the time, so he was unable to play. I suggested that his dad’s mate, Uri Geller, should have forewarned him of such an accident and kept him fit and well.
We went out into the arena to find a rather quirky but decent stadium. We got in down the side next to the raised Trevor Horsley Stand. This was a large seating deck with steep open terracing on either side. Behind the goal to the left was the clubhouse with thin standing areas to the front of it, and then a covered area towards the corner flag.
The far side was made up of flat open standing, and then the covered Barnfield Terrace with the dugouts in front. This seemed to be built over the drop in the land on that side. Finally, the far end was covered with a low basic roof in several sections to fit the natural slope of the pitch.
It was a very frustrating game that was there for the taking for Boro. We had most of the procession without creating anything too much. It all got too much for forward Neil Campbell, who managed to get himself sent off, much to the disdain of the following Seadogs. The game petered out to a draw. That is when the excitement started in earnest.
Butch had won the half time draw which turned out to be a bottle of whisky. Butch didn’t like whisky but he offered to give it to me in exchange for a couple of pints of Stella after the game. Deal done! We had a couple of pints before Liz ordered a taxi back into Stroud. She was meeting her mates who were staying over in the town.
Steve and I had a beer with them before we set out trying to find somewhere to buy a lottery ticket. Not one shop selling them was open. Instead, we embarked on a mini pub crawl, having found the taste by now. The pubs were incredibly rough with the only customers being young chavs. We went back to meet Liz and await the thankfully direct train back to London.
It pulled into the platform and we got on, only for it to be packed full of QPR fans who were generally pretty well imbibed.
We ended up drinking with a good gang near the buffet. They shared out their cans and we reciprocated. Before long after many sales, the buffet ran out of beer. We bought anything we could before it was pointed out by the ever-helpful Mr Walker that I had a bottle of whisky! Well, I didn’t for much longer.
The Rangers fans were all in a happy mood and were singing all their traditional songs, including a favourite about the day they beat Chelsea 6-0. I bumped into Doug, a bloke I watched Middlesex with and had shared several evenings with in the good old days of the Lord’s Tavern.
I was due to go to Loftus Road the following week against Oldham, and they gave me details of which pub they drank in. If only I’d written it down! It then dawned on me that Steve had meant to get out in Reading but had missed his stop.
Forest Green Rovers 0 Scarborough 1 (Saturday 2nd October 2004) Football Conference (att: 686)

I went to this game with Simon on the train, which was not without incident. I had a heavy Friday night, so I wasn’t feeling in perfect condition. This was not enhanced when we got as far as Swindon to find that our connecting train had been cancelled with no reason.
We had wanted to get to the ground in good time that day as the occasion commemorated the 125th anniversary of Scarborough FC, and there were to be celebrations and a decent away following expected. It would be a good chance to catch up with our old pals. Instead we were sat in a crappy pub next to Swindon station for an hour and I had a hangover from hell.
We eventually got to The Lawn via a taxi ride, where I bought an anniversary scarf. The rarity of a full-sized supporters' coach had been booked, although it was only just over half full. Bunner, Keith and Gordon had made use of it, so we settled down to chew the fat before the match.
The match was not dissimilar to my previous visit, with Boro having lots of the play without having a shot at goal. The match looked like it was heading to a stalemate when Keith Gilroy was played through in the last minute, making no mistake.
1 comment:
It was Smallboy who won the whiskey but as he was only 8 years old i swopped it for a glass of coke...
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