Forest Green Rovers v Torquay United. Sunday 1st January 2017

Forest Green 5 Torquay 5

What better way to start the New Year than at the New Lawn... especially when a ten goal thriller lay in wait.

National league convention dictates that who ever you play on Boxing day, you end up playing again in the reverse fixture a few days later. Torquay had beaten Forest Green 4-3 down at Plainmoor, I thought if this game was half as entertaining as that one I'd be in for a treat. I'd been wanting to visit Forest Green's home for some time and staying near by over the holidays afforded me the golden opportunity.

Forest Green Rovers are an interesting football club for a number of reasons. Their chairman is Dale Vince, a green energy mogul and ex 'new age traveller' who has pumped a considerable amount of his fortune in to the club. Currently the longest serving members of the 5th tier, they have been knocking on the door of promotion to the football league for a number of seasons now. To date have fallen just short, most recently loosing at Wembley in the play off final to Grimsby.

Presumably at the say so of Vince, Forest Green became the UK's (perhaps the World's?) first vegan club in 2015. Red meat has been a no no for some years, but now not only are fans unable to get their hands on a meat pie at half time, they also have to accept dairy free alternatives to milk in their tea and coffee.

Forest Green are an ambitious club, although they have only been at the New Lawn for about a decade, plans are afoot to build a brand new stadium in a green technology park nearer to the M5. Although the New Lawn is big enough for the football league, locals told me that the access roads are poor and being situated on the outskirts of the small and picturesque town of Nailsworth is not ideal.

On arriving at the ground I deliberated on where to watch from. Originally I planned to watch from the narrow West terrace that stretches the length of pitch but as it was a very wet and cold day, I opted for the comfort of a seat in the main stand opposite.

Due to the excesses of the night before I didn't fancy a beer but after clocking the electric car recharging points, I popped in to the aptly named 'The Green Man' looking for a toilet, home and away fans were mingling happily in the ample bar area and their were a good selection of local ales and ciders on offer.

'The Green Man'

On entering the main stand, the first thing I noticed was the absence of any advertising boards or any other barriers between the pitch and the front row of seats. I can't think of any other ground, especially at as high a level as this where this is the case. It definitely made you feel closer to the action. It was also noticeable that the stewarding was very light touch around the main stand. The stewards I did see seemed to keep a low profile and wore black 'Safety officer' coats rather than the high slinky high vis numbers you usually see. All in all a nice set up which made for a refreshing change.

Despite the miserable weather, a bumper crowd had turned up to freeze away their NY hangovers. Behind the goals were two covered terraces, the home terrace was pretty much full and the away terrace was also packed, with 500 odd noisy Torquay fans having made the long trip up from Devon. Opposite the main stand was the aforementioned West terrace, very much open to the elements, I counted 10 hardy souls who had opted to watch from this exposed outpost.

Taking in the team news I was very disappointed to see that Nathan Blissett wasn't featuring for Torquay. The big target man had been man of the match on Boxing day and scorer of the first goal. He is also a cult hero amongst Bristol Rovers supporters following his time at the Memorial stadium.

Resigned to not seeing Blissett leading the line for the Gulls, I sat back in my seat and got ready to enjoy some football. The early exchanges made the league table look like a sound guide for the quality of the teams as 3rd place Forest Green looked dangerous and were taking the game to lower mid table Torquay.

The home side took the lead after just 4 minutes. Rob Sinclair showed a positive frame of mind when he kept the ball in play when he could have let it go out for a corner, despite having a defender closing him down, he managed to find a team mate and a couple of passes later, after a neat dummy from Adam Carter, Keanu Marsh-Brown opened up his body and put the ball in to the bottom corner past the Gulls keeper Moore.

Forest Green players celebrate the first of the games ten goals 

Forest Green continued to make chances but Torquay were level with what seemed like their first attack. Fitzpatrick played a ball in from the right which bounced across the box allowing Sparkes to convert from close range. 5 minutes later the same two combined again with the same result, sending the Torquay fans behind the goal ecstatic as they took the lead.

By this time I'd got chatting to the bloke and his daughter next to me. They talked me through their view of Forest Green's season so far. In short a great start followed by a wobble along with a lack of defending and a lot of high profile signings. It turned out the bloke behind us was a Swindon fan along for the day, he chipped in his two penneth worth about how Swindon had been great in attack but chaotic at the back when Marc Cooper (current Forest Green manager) was with them. 

On the half hour mark, the ex Barnet man Marsh-Brown scored again, converting a Dale Bennett cross to make it 2-2. The home team weren't on level terms for long though. Torquay were awarded a free kick and up stepped Fitzpatrick to deliver the cross, Verma appeared unmarked and headed in at the near post to make it 3-2 to the visitors and an impressive hat-trick of assists for Fitzpatrick.

After a breathless first half I went in search of a coffee, with dairy off the menu I added some oat 'milk' to my Americano. I was pleasantly surprised, though to be fair it was that cold that anything hot would have done the trick. Back in my seat I told my new friend that the oat milk was nicer than I'd expected, it turns out he wasn't a convert and he took out a little bottle of cow's milk from his inside pocket which he brings every week for hot drinks! It would have been interesting to speak to more home supporters of what they make of the regime at Forest Green. I read somewhere that the Q(uorn) Pies they sell are delicious. If I'd have seen someone with one I'd have asked but everyone I saw eating had opted for the chips only option.

  

A few minutes in to the second half and the goals showed no sign of drying up as Torquay scored their fourth. Forest Green again failed to deal with a low cross in from the right and the unfortunate centre back- Pinnock turned the ball in to his own net from close range.

The hosts responded by bringing on Elliot Frear who immediately looked threatening on the left. The scoring soon continued as Forest Green made it 3-4 after Christian Doidge bundled the ball home after a bit of panic in the Torquay box. By this point the home fans seemed confident they could score again but were realistic enough to know they were going to struggle to stop any more going in at the other end.

When Torquay won a free kick just outside the area. Everyone feared the worst. Up stepped Fitzpatrick with his magic right boot and promptly found the back of the net. In a game with ten goals in it should come as no surprise that the keepers and defenders didn't have the best game of their lives. For this goal, it seemed that Sam Russell was completely blind sided by his wall. The strange thing was, from where I was sat, admittedly from the side of the pitch, it seemed like he'd gone the right way and then moved his arms out the way. To use a cricketing analogy, it was like a first slip who'd gone for the ball and then pulled out at the last minute to leave it for second slip, unfortunately for Russell their was no second keeper to come to his rescue and it was now 3-5. People around me seemed shell shocked by of the game that was unfolding before them. The Torquay fans were quite rightly enjoying their day out and making a hell of a noise up the other end.

Now fearing embarrassment, Forest Green went charging forward again. Elliot Frear showed a great bit of pace and skill when he cut in from the left, he darted past two Torquay defenders before his fierce shot was parried straight in to the path for Doidge who tapped home his second and Forest Green's fourth with 83 minutes on the clock: 4-5.

To be fair to Torquay, they didn't shut up shop, perhaps realising that trying to defend a lead in this game was pure folly, they went in search of restoring their two goal cushion. But it was Forest Green who scored the tenth goal of the game. Torquay's keeper, Byron Moore jumped up to collect a skied shot that had ballooned in to the box, Forest Green's big striker Shamir Mullings went up with him and under pressure the keeper dropped the ball and fell over. The ref said no foul and in the resultant desperate scramble, Moore somehow managed to push the ball in to his own net as he tried to get their before Mullings. Pandemonium in the home end and 5-5.

With 2 minutes of normal time left plus stoppages, it seemed this game had at least another goal in it. Torquay launched long balls forward and Forest Green hearts were in mouths when Russell dropped a speculative high ball worryingly close to the goal line before gathering it safely. Up the other end, Doidge had a header come back off the bar from a corner. The final few minutes were hectic, I remember Forest Green hit another chance just over the bar and Torquay almost getting in on the break, but the final whistle came with the game stuck at 5-5. It was time to take stock and go in search of a dark room for a lie down.

This really was a crazy afternoon. Ground hopping vlogger, Adam Thurston was also at the game. His video captures some of the frenzied end to end chaos of the game and is well worth a watch: FGR v TORQUAY

I wish both clubs well for the rest of the season and thank them for serving up such entertaining fayre. On this display Torquay should continue to move up the table and if Forest Green can tighten up a bit at the back then this might yet be their year.

@goneforaburtone