FOREST GREEN head coach Mark Cooper revealed Elliott Frear’s winning goal emulated a sizzling move from Manchester City’ s rich portfolio as Rovers catapulted themselves to the top of the League Two tree by landing the Gloucestershire derby day bragging rights over Cheltenham Town.

Celtic loanee Jack Aitchison grabbed his third goal in as many games with a fizzing finish on 15 minutes and Elliott Frear banked a second five minutes before the break, his first goal back at Rovers in his second spell at the New Lawn.

Cheltenham Town striker Luke Varney pulled a goal back for the Robins on 67 minutes, pouncing on a Joe Wollacott error, but Rovers stood firm to send the Robins to their first home defeat of the season.

And Cooper purred after Frear’s strike.

He said: “That’s something we’ve worked on in training. You see Manchester City scoring that goal nearly every week. Raheem Sterling, with a little diagonal ball from the midfield player (Kevin) De Bruyne. (Sterling) gets in between the centre-backs and it worked a treat.

“It’s brilliant to be top and great for the club, the fans, the players, we’ve been here a couple of times now, but the key is trying to stay there, because everyone is shooting after you, but if we play like we did today, we should be all good.”

Cooper was delighted how his team negated the threat of former Premier League striker Varney.

He added: It’s tough to single anyone out. I thought the unit was very, very good today. Farrend Rawson and Liam Kitching dealt with Luke Varney as did Joseph Mills and we gave a very good team, very little to go off.”

WATCH Mark Cooper's full-match press conference in our video below.