NEW Forest Green Rovers keeper James Montgomery is excited about competing for the number one jersey at the New Lawn.

The former Gateshead stopper has impressed so far this pre-season, particularly against Leeds United where he put in a man of the match performance.

Mark Cooper has three options in goal. Robert Sanchez, on loan from Brighton and former Swansea City man Lewis Thomas will be competing for a place between the sticks and Montgomery is relishing the competition but hopes he's given his manager something to think about with his performance against Leeds.

"I gave it my all," said Montgomery. "I think it went alright against Leeds, I made a couple of decent saves in the second half but it would have been nice to get a win but we've got to remember we were up against top class opposition in Leeds, a Championship team.

"Obviously I'd have liked a clean sheet but it was nice to be appreciated by the fans on my home debut, the only way it could have gone better was with a clean sheet and a win.

"It's going to be a tough battle to be number one, Sanchez is a very good keeper, coming in from Brighton and Lewis is also a good young keeper.

"It's healthy to have competition for the shirt but I'm happy with my performance other than the goals but we'll just keep fighting for the shirt, all three of us and hopefully we will push each other on."

The 24-year-old was the first player to arrive at the New Lawn this summer and has enjoyed his early weeks at the club and felt the training camp was really helpful.

He said: "I feel good, it's a good bunch of lads. I think the training camp helped, you're with each other all the time which has done good for the team spirit, I feel like every one has bedded in and we've got a good group."

Forest Green have played five games so far in pre-season, registering two wins, two draws and one defeat. Montgomery believes pre-season matches are important and wants the team to continue to learn and progress as the new campaign draws close.

"We've had lots of games for everyone to show what they can do," he said. "There's a lot of new faces so it's important for us. We're learning and we're just going to have to keep getting better and better as we go along.

"Pre-season's about learning from your mistakes. If you look at the Weston Super-Mare game when it was 6-6 we went from a very open performance where we didn't defend well as a team at all, then Leeds was a bit of an improvement against better opposition so going forward you've got to keep improving and improving and putting the work in on the training ground."

"These games are always good to get a marker of where you're at as a team and as an individual because you're testing yourself against top players so if we can take good things as a team and as individuals it gives us the realisation of what we need to do."