Football Season Guide

Dale Vince is certainly a unique character and he stood alone again this summer as the only League 2 owner to vote to continue the 2019-20 season. The other 23 clubs voted to decide the final table using the PPG method and it left Forest Green Rovers in 10th place, nine points adrift of the play-offs. 2020 won’t be fondly remembered by many due to the Covid-19 pandemic and that is certainly true for the Green Devils, who recorded just the two victories. Mark Cooper’s position appears secure despite another disappointing run of the results and he has lost a trio of influential players over the summer in wing-backs Joseph Mills and Liam Shephard and versatile defender Nathan McGinley. With Vince’s financial support and ambition, Rovers are one of the clubs best placed to survive the consequences of Covid-19 and will be moving to a new 5,000-seat wooden eco-stadium in the next two to three years. Cooper meanwhile has made several additions to his squad during the close season, with the capture of central defender Jordan Moore-Taylor something of a coup. He will hope Luke McGee’s arrival solves his goalkeeping problems whilst he still needs to find an answer to their poor home form.