KURTIS GUTHRIE grabbed the goal at Boreham Wood that maintained Forest Green’s 100 per cent record in the Vanarama National League – then targeted a lengthy run through the middle of the Rovers’ attack.
With last season’s top scorer Jon Parkin currently injured, ex-Welling forward Guthrie netted in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Barrow and then made it consecutive scoring games with the 77th-minute winner by nodding in Rob Sinclair’s free-kick.
With former Luton and Newport striker Aaron O’Connor in Ady Pennock’s strike force alongside him, Guthrie, 22, says he is relishing the fight for a place in the centre rather than out on the wing, where he has spent long periods of his career so far.
Guthrie told The NLP: “It’s good to have healthy competition. I want to play up front. That’s my preferred position and I feel like I need to prove myself up there.
“The gaffer has shown faith in putting me in there so I’m going to try to repay him the best I can. I like to be involved.
“Even if I’m not having the best game, like today, I’ll still try and show for the ball and do everything I can to get it.
“Playing through the middle, everything tends to go through you – especially being the bigger striker as well. The lads try to hit me so it gives me more opportunities to try and effect the game.”
Newly-promoted Wood hit the bar three times through Ricky Shakes and Jamie Lucas in the first half, and then sub Junior Morias once they had fallen behind, as they more than matched their visitors.
But while the Nailsworth side recorded a fourth successive win without conceding, it was a third loss in a row for the Hertfordshire outfit after opening day success at home to FC Halifax – and it was compounded by the late dismissal of their best player on the night, Billy Clifford, for two yellows.
Boss Ian Allinson said: “It’s difficult to take because that’s three defeats out of four, and I would say that every game we’ve been in it and had opportunities to get in front, but haven’t taken them and then been punished.
“We lost at Eastleigh in the last minute, let in two goals in the last 20 minutes at Gateshead and now again tonight, in the last 15 minutes we’ve been punished from a set piece, which is really hard to take because last night in training we spent a lot of time on defending, and we looked quite comfortable.
“But we’ve got to keep believing in ourselves. It is a learning curve for us all.”
Elsewhere, Non-League new-boys Tranmere Rovers won 1-0 at home to FC Halifax Town thanks to Andy Mangan’s 74th-minute goal to go second on ten points.
Wrexham had Manny Smith, Sean Newton and Adam Smith on target as they won 3-1 at Kidderminster to go third, heading a trio of clubs on nine points.
Woking moved up to fourth by winning with a solitary injury-time goal from Ismail Yakubu at Torquay and Gateshead, in fifth, ran out 2-1 victors at Southport with a Ryan Bowman effort and a penalty from Josh Gillies.
Elsewhere, a Liam Hearn hat-trick helped Lincoln City twice come back from a goal behind to beat Macclesfield 5-3, Altrincham got their first points of the campaign by shocking Grimsby 2-1 at Moss Lane, Danny Cowley got his first win as Braintree boss – 2-1 at Bromley – while Aldershot v Dover, Chester v Cheltenham, Welling v Eastleigh and Barrow v Guiseley finished all-square in the top-flight’s remaining fixtures.
