FRANK TALK

There are two types of Wembley hangovers. The euphoric ones and the thoroughly miserable ones. Sadly, everyone connected with Forest Green Rovers is waking up to the latter.

Much will be said, much will be written but the bottom line is that the club has missed out on a place in the Football League by the smallest of margins.

That was the difference on the day, small margins. Fault should not be attributed to anyone, everyone did their best to make it happen but sadly it was not to be.

I know the supporters will be feeling down but believe me the players will be feeling it every bit as badly if not more.

They will be inconsolable, no matter what they had achieved before in their career or what they will go onto achieve in the future they will never, ever forget that game.

I thought the players application was superb and their resolve having received the double body blow just before half-time showed real character.

It would have been easy to wilt having conceded two goals in such a brief space of time but they came out full of fight and pushed Grimsby all the way.

Congratulations to Grimsby, at one stage they really were on the back foot and looking likely to concede an equaliser but they managed to get some ball retention and take away the momentum from Rovers.

There is a huge difference between when the club lost the Trophy Final back in my day and the present.

At the time everything that could have been done, had been done to give us the very best chance of winning.

The chairman and board could not have done anymore, but we all knew, we were punching way above our weight and had just taken a massive blow from which it would be hard to recover.

That’s definitely not the case now. The club is in magnificent shape and will jump right back up off the canvass. They will never have the supporter base because of the amount of chimney pots that is its target market but with the financial backing of the chairman the journey is only just beginning.

I always liken football clubs to sharks, they have to keep moving to survive and Forest Green will continue to do that.

I think the appointment of Mark Cooper is brilliant, so much so that he is the first manager that I have taken the trouble to write a congratulatory email to on his appointment despite having had a couple of very good footballing friends take the reins in Nailsworth since my departure.

He’s the perfect fit for the job. Experienced at a higher level, a former player at the club with a wealth of contacts and a father who knows everything there is to know about football.

In tandem with an ambitious chairman, a brilliant academy set up (which I hasten to add I had a long hard fight to establish) the only way really is onward and upward.

The club has been waiting since October 1889 to become a Football League club and I think we can all agree it is a case of when and not if it is going to happen. My money is on next April or May!