CALMNESS personified, Forest Green boss Mark Cooper is keeping his feet firmly on the ground as the National League title race hots-up.

Hot-shot Christian Doidge’s 18th of the season, a second-half strike from captain Liam Noble and a first-ever goal from Carlisle United loanee defender Mark Ellis helped propel Rovers up to second.

And with 12 games to go, Mark Cooper’s side are on the coat tails of leaders Lincoln City, who drew at Aldershot and with in-form Gateshead beating title rivals Dagenham and Redbridge, who Rovers travel to on Saturday, the National League season is entering a thrilling final furlong.

“We just keep trying to win games and not worry too much about what happens around us” Mark Cooper “We tick another one off today, and that’s all we can do,” claimed Cooper. “There will be twists and turns to come and when the other teams slip up, we have to make sure we take advantage - and we have done that today.”

With back-to-back wins, Cooper was delighted with his side’s performance, but reserved high praise for on-loan Wigan Athletic striker Kaiyne Woolery, who looked very able with his electric pace.

Cooper said: “Kaiyne has got incredible pace and we felt it would be a game for him today, because Macclesfield keep a little bit of a high line and there was a lot of space in behind and you saw his pace at times, and his pace for the second goal was immense.

“ Everyone is going to have a part to play and when they do get their chance like Kaiyne did today,they have to take it.

“ Everybody contributed today and I was really pleased that we kept a clean sheet in a commanding performance. A lot of it was what we worked on – intensity and control and I thought we showed all of that today.The players are happy and we keep chipping away.”