Forest Green - Home
Season 5 (H) 13/10/03 LDV1 - 2-0 ~ Knight, Robinson
Brighton were top of div2 table and Steve Coppell had not long left us. A couple of single goal reversals on the road interrupted what otherwise was a string of half decent results. In fact Albion had netted three on five occasions in thirteen fixtures. With this healthy record, all but 4000 queued to get into Withdean for a third home game in ten days. Dick Knight was looking for a new manager and was being thorough because he'd got thru four already since bringing our club back to Brighton er, four years ago. Bob Booker said, 'thanks for a fantastic reception on Saturday. It gave us all a great lift to know fans are one hundred percent behind us. I believe the Conference is a very difficult and competitive division to play in. You only need to look at how promoted teams compete in the third division to realise that standard has become very high with a lot of teams becoming full time professional. The prospect of playing in a final at the Millennium Stadium would undoubtedly whet the appetite. It would also provide the club with an opportunity to make financial gain.'
Forest Green undoubtedly arrived at Withdean, of all possible days on a Monday evening, as underdogs and supposedly round 1 fodder and an easy bye for Brighton. Our record in this modern-day FL trophy competition altogether was not brilliant. In the Withdean Era we had not been beyond round 3 - see Millwall, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Brentford, Swansea, Wycombe, Cambridge and QPR for starters. Very young Jake Robinson was no.1 talking-point on the night. He replaced Knight around the hour mark and looked useful. In some respects it was by reputation as a multi-scoring marksman in kids football but you could see he had potential. Knight previously forged a partnership of sorts with McPhee and netted our 35 min opener from his centre. It was a pity the combination didn't flourish later as pressure built up for a big target-man up front in short-listed Mark McGhee's eventual play-off push ambitions. Robbo tapped in at the death but subsequently was kept in mothballs, as other young players emerged from youth on the long and often winding road to Cardiff.
Kuipers, Watson, Pethick, Butters, Mayo, Hart, Carpenter, Rehman, Jones (Harding), Knight (Robinson), McPhee.