Forest Green Rovers assistant manager Scott Lindsey says the players need to be braver after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Wycombe Wanderers on New Year's Day.

Despite a good start from FGR, Scott Laird seeing a header being cleared off the line, Matt Bloomfield struck just before the half-hour mark to give the visitors the lead.

Craig Mackail-Smith doubled their advantage just prior to the break and despite a fight back from the hosts in the second half, with substitute Jack Fitzwater scoring from outside the box, it proved in vain.

“We’re bottom of the league so the players are edgy at times,” he said.

“We’re trying to get them to have confidence, we’re trying to instil that confidence in them because we have gone a lot of games where we have lost points but we’ve actually played well, we’re a good footballing team.

“We try and give them the confidence to go and play and not worry about where we are because we can only get out of it by playing the way we play and being dominant.

“When you’re bottom of the league it’s difficult to have that confidence and we’re kind of cagey in the early encounters of the game and we’ve got to be braver and be men out there.

“We were pleased with the effort they put in in the second half but it’s not enough to win a game and we’ve got to perform for 90 minutes, we’ve got to have the want, will and determination to beat your man and get something from it.”

FGR midfielder Charlie Cooper saw red in between the two Wycombe goals for a foul on Luke O’Nien close to the touchline, before manager Mark Cooper was also sent to the stands for his reaction in the wake of the incident.

While Lindsey said there was no defending the foul, he admitted that the flack that Charlie receives is unwarranted.

“We’re disappointed with it however, Charlie gets dogs abuse,” he added.

“One thing he does is charges around, he works extremely hard and he’s been good for us.

“He did let us down today and we’ll deal with that but we need everybody on side.”

Rovers will have new signings Alex Whittle and Dayle Grubb available for Saturday’s home game with Port Vale, with more activity anticipated in the transfer window between now and then.

“We’ve got targets that we’re working on,” Lindsey explained.

“It’s going to be a number of players coming in and hopefully strengthen and then we can start working with these players as soon as we get them through the door and get them into the team.

“Hopefully, we will look a lot stronger than we do at the moment and start picking up points and getting up the table where we should be.”

Watch Scott Lindsey give his post-match verdict to BBC Radio Gloucestershire's and Green Devils Live commentator Bob Hunt.