MARK COOPER blasted the Forest Green boo-boys who vented their frustration towards player/coach Matt Mills.

A section of fans voiced their disdain following the second-half introduction of Mills as a makeshift striker during the 1-1 draw against Crawley Town. However, he came close to silencing his critics  with a late header that was spectacularly saved by Glenn Morris.

However, an irked Cooper told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: “We stuck the big fella up front. Our fans were delighted, I could tell with their response when I put him on. I was just hoping that one would’ve gone in the top corner to shut a few up.”

“We put Matt Mills down the middle to try and get us something to feed off- and it was nearly a fairy tale, top corner, but the keeper makes a great save.

“It’s not ideally how we play. But like I’ve said, we’ve tried every combination of forwards, and it’s not like these combinations have only played just the one game. They’ve all had lots and lots of minutes on the pitch, but we’re struggling to find the right combination.

Cooper revealed he turned the hairdryer on his players at the break with his side trailing 1-0.

He added: “First-half we were passive and I got into the players at half-time. I said a lot. Not a lot of it would be very nice to be aired, to be honest. I said what needed to be said.”

Rovers rallied after the break but lacked the final polish to defeat Crawley despite an eye-catching debut from Jevani Brown.

“We turned it into an end-to-end game, and we should win the game in the second-half.”