THE goalscorer, Kurtis Guthrie, described Forest Green’s win at Boreham Wood as “ugly”, and his manager, Ady Pennock, joked afterwards that his centre-halves were too good looking and “need a few cuts” on their faces for his full seal of approval.
A fourth straight win without conceding – three by the same 1-0 scoreline – made it Rovers’ best start to any of their 18 Conference seasons, and both experienced boss and young striker were right.
As spectacles go, the performance fell from the top of the ugly tree and bounced off every branch as it made its way down to the Meadow Park pitch.
The 77th-minute winning header by Guthrie was their first chance of the game, fired in with Alan Sugar-style ruthlessness.
Dynamic
In the past – when Rovers were picking up the ‘moneybags’ tag that Pennock and owner Dale Vince are trying to throw off, with the £1.7m playing budget of 2013-14 slashed in half in the past two years as lengthy contracts have expired and players have left – their tiki-taka would have come undone at newly-promoted clubs like Wood.
But Forest Green are a different beast under Pennock. They have good footballers who can string passes together across the pitch.
David Pipe, James Jennings, Sam Wedgbury and Rob Sinclair can all deal with the ball at their feet, not to forget Elliott Frear and Marcus Kelly, when he’s back fit, down the left.
But they now know when to throw it forward and never refuse a cross in the final third in the same way that John Still‘s Luton could mix it up two years ago, Martin Allen’s Barnet did last term and the likes of Steve Evans’ Crawley and Graham Westley’s Stevenage have too in recent campaign.
Under former manager David Hockaday, Rovers were pretty on the eye and played in nice triangles through the centre of the pitch. But they didn’t have the steel that they now have as Pennock heads towards his second anniversary of taking charge looking to go one better than last season’s highest-ever fifth-placed finish, but ultimate play-off disappointment.
The manager highlights the crucial pace he’s added to the side this year with Aaron O’Connor and Keanu Marsh-Brown complementing Guthrie.
Of course, when last season’s top scorer Jon Parkin – the man appropriately nicknamed ‘Beast’ who scored the opening day winner at Altrincham – is fit, that dynamic changes.
But Rovers are emerging as title favourites just as quickly as most of their forwards run.
“This is a difficult place to come,” 44-year-old Pennock said. “Boreham Wood are on a roll after getting promoted last year. They are used to winning games and no-one is going to lie on their back and let us tickle their tummies.
“But it’s a nice feeling to win with another clean sheet. We’d all like to win three, four or five-nil and have 50 passes here and there; we’ve done that in the last three games…not 50 passes, mind you!
“But tonight was another side of us where we’ve shown we can roll up our sleeves and battle and grind the result out.”
Pennock has turned the village side into a team as tough as a gang of downtowners, as you’d expect from someone who spent much of his career working under Tony Pulis as a player and, most recently, first-team coach at Stoke City in the Premier League.
He is a stickler for manners, however, and while central defenders Dale Bennett and Aaran Racine – two players Hockaday took to the New Lawn, it should be pointed out – were lampposts the Wood forwards kept running straight into in the early stages, they were fair.
“They are a group of good young men, as importantly as anything,” adds Pennock. “Manners cost nothing, and when we’re in hotels or out on community work, I tell the lads to do the right thing and hold doors open for people; represent the club well.
Battles
“On the pitch, in any league you’re in, whether it’s lower down or right up to the Premiership, you’ve got to win your battles in the first 20-25 minutes and let people know they’re in a game, as Dale and Aaran – who’s going to be a top player by the way – did tonight.
“But they are such honest lads. Those two have been here a long time and although they’ve got the shirt at the moment they know there is competition, with Darren Jones nearing a return from the injury he picked up in pre-season.
“They can play, we know that. But I do like ugly centre-halves and they are both good looking lads. They need a few cuts!”
The little club on the hill have always been the friendly face of Non-League‘s top division en route to becoming its longest serving members.
That’s no bad thing, but Pennock knows that aesthetically challenged victories like this will be the difference if they want to prove a cut above the rest and finally land that Football League place his owner’s grand green designs demand.
*This article first appeared in the Non-League Paper on Sunday, August 23
