By Sam Wiles

Forest Green bounced back from Tuesday’s disheartening loss as they narrowly edged past league strugglers Grimsby Town 2-1 on Saturday afternoon.

After 19 minutes, Jamille Matt opened the scoring in the contest after he won a penalty which he then subsequently slotted away to bag his fifteenth of the season.

However, a rare mistake from Udoka Godwin-Malife on 38 minutes enabled James Hanson to net his first league goal of the campaign and level the contest.

After 66 minutes and nearly a year to the day since his last goal, Ebou Adams’ sublime volley from the edge of the Mariners box proved to be decisive in claiming a much needed three points for the Gloucestershire side.

As well as the game being a must win anyway, it marked a milestone in Mark Cooper’s career – his one hundredth victory as Rovers manager.

Despite the accomplishment, the Forest Green boss insisted he wasn’t hung up on the impressive feat.

As he spoke to BBC Radio Gloucestershire, he said: “I’ve not even thought about that stat if I’m honest, I’m still trying to digest the game.

“It’s just three points, I’m not bothered about anything else, it’s just about getting points at this stage of the season.”

As well as Cooper being able to reflect on personal accomplishments, the match winner Adams was also able to revel in netting his first goal of the campaign.

Cooper was quick to add that he hopes this can be the platform for his midfielder to build from for the rest of the season.

“I think that’s his first shot on target for a year as well so yeah, he needs to add more goals to his game,” he said. “As a midfield player you need to be scoring between five and ten a season and hopefully that’s the first of many.”

Despite the jubilance of scoring the winner Adams was brought off during the dying embers of the contest and Cooper was able to shine some light on the decision.

“He twisted his ankle by the looks of it,” he confirmed. “He’s a quick healer but he’ll have to be very quick for Tuesday.”

Forest Green’s squad had been decimated by injuries in recent weeks but the return of Chris Stokes was surely a huge relief for Rovers fans, let alone his boss.

He said: “He had to play because we would have had the smallest back four in the football league if he hadn’t of played. When you’re playing against Hanson and Lenell John-Lewis it’s difficult, so we were pleased that Stokesy played and I thought he was very good.”

On Tuesday, Rovers next host fourth placed Morecambe and Cooper insisted he is well aware of the threat they pose.

“They’ve definitely been on our radar because we know they’re a good team,” he said. “It’s another challenge, another game, tired legs but we need fresh minds and we need to go into that on a real positive and a real high because we’ve got another three points.