Dayle Grubb feels Forest Green Rovers would have lost their game against Macclesfield Town last season.

The winger scored a beautiful free kick two minutes after he was introduced at half time to give Rovers the lead but it was cancelled out by Scott Wilson.

Grubb was disappointed with the result but pleased that the team at least came away from Moss Rose with a point despite underperforming to extend their unbeaten start to ten games.

“I don’t think you can play well in every game,” said Grubb. “It’s not an easy league and you’re not going to roll teams over and it was a difficult game.

“They say it in the Premier League, when you don’t perform you need to pick up points. We didn’t perform anywhere near our level but we picked up a point.

“It shouldn’t be underestimated that we haven’t been beaten. Maybe last year we’d have lost that game. Another point is a another point but we weren’t at our best and it was a disappointing result in the end.

Macclesfield made life difficult for Mark Cooper’s side, particularly in the first half. Grubb’s goal gave Forest Green the lead but they only held it for seven minutes.

Grubb believes it could have been a different story for Forest Green had they held on for a bit longer but portioned some of the blame onto himself for the hosts equaliser rather than criticise the defence.

“I gave the ball away up in their half of the pitch,” he explained. “Maybe it was too easy to get in on goal but I can’t criticise the defence because they’ve been magnificent this season and we’re one of the lowest conceding teams in the league. We should keep the ball better up here but I’ll take the blame for that.

“We got the goal and if we’d have kept the lead a bit longer then maybe it would have been easier to finish off the game but it wasn’t to be.”

Grubb has now scored four goals this season and was pleased to have made an impact from the bench. He’s now hoping he has helped staked a claim for a starting place.

“I’m pleased with the goal but I want to force my way into the team so I need to have an impact to make the gaffer play me,” he added.

“I want to score goals but I want the team to win so if my goals can help, that’s the main thing.”

Rovers now turn their attention to Tuesday night’s game at Cambridge.

“We just want to play as many games as we can, we want to put a better performance than that so we’re looking forward to it,” Grubb said.