Shephard believes Forest Green should be top of the league

The 24-year-old feels Forest Green have gifted teams too many points by not taking their chances in a handful of games this season.

Shephard has played a key role in their promotion push but feels the team should be doing better given the high expectations they have of themselves.

"I think we've given our games away so if we hadn't have done that we should be top of the league really I believe," said Shephard.

"We're a young group, a lot of us are still learning but I think once we reach that point when we're putting our chances away and killing teams off early in the first half there's no reason why we can't do great things.

"Our standards are so high we always expect to do better than the last game, the last training session. No one is happy with where we are right now, we want to go on and do better things."

Rovers lost 2-1 at home to second place Bury at the weekend. They took the lead in the first half but were beaten courtesy of second half goals from Jay O'Shea and Nicky Maynard.

Shephard was still licking his wounds over the defeat given how well Rovers played in the first half but he insists the team have now put it behind them.

"It was hard to take because we played really good football," he commented.

"They're second in the league but the way we played it was like we were second because we were so confident in our play so to concede two sloppy goals from ourselves which we don't really do is a kick on the teeth.

"I dwell on things after a loss or draw. I dwell on it for the rest of the night but after that it's a learning curve and look ahead to the next game because otherwise you dwell on it too much and you take it into the next match so we need to forget about that.

"We know what we need to do and we've got to do it."

Forest Green have a tough end to January with a run of four games in 10 days.

They take on Grimsby Town at the New Lawn tonight before they go to Stevenage which is followed by the visit of high-flying Mansfield Town and a tricky trip to resurgent Swindon Town.

Forest Green recorded a memorable 4-1 win on against the Mariners on the opening day of the season.

Shephard stressed the importance of winning games in hand so he is hoping for a repeat of August's result tonight.

"Hopefully we can do the same again, that's the aim because we need to be putting teams away if we want to do things this year," Shephard said.

"This is our game in hand and if we want to do things this season we need to win this especially with Stevenage coming up on Saturday who are right behind us so it's a great chance to put ourselves ahead and cement our place in the play-offs.

"With the ability we've got in the team it would be a shame if we don't achieve anything this season."