Phil Yelland take a look through the archive to reveal how The Bluebirds have fared during previous trips to Forest Green Rovers.
Tuesday night will see us make our 10th visit to the village of Nailsworth to play Forest Green Rovers, with eight of the previous meetings coming in the National League.
Last season we went into the game still looking for points to secure League Two status. We had lost our three previous games without scoring a goal. However, on the night, with Connor Brown back in the ranks, we won 2-0 thanks to a Scott Quigley penalty and a first and only goal from Burnley loanee Bobby Thomas.
Our only previous win came in a game in March 2011 as we were involved in a relegation battle in the National League. We went into the game without an away win all season and we triumphed 3-2, with goals from Mike Pearson, Richie Baker and Wayne Curtis. By the following Saturday night, we had three away wins to our name after following up the victory at Rovers with successes at Southport and Eastbourne Borough.
Our first visit to Rovers was in April 1999 and was pivotal to our survival in the Nationwide Conference. Ian Foster’s early goal helped us to secure a 1-1 draw and that was followed by wins at Stevenage and, two weeks later, at Kidderminster which kept us out of the bottom three.
Our heaviest defeat at Rovers came one week into the 2015/16 season and our return to the National League when we lost 4-0. Our cause was not helped by the sending-off of Danny Livesey and Steve Williams, although frustratingly Livesey’s red card - which had seemed very harsh at the time - was rescinded on appeal.
Our last visit in October 2016 ended with us taking a point in a game without a goal. Rovers won the return game at Holker Street 3-2 on their way to finishing second in the National league and winning promotion through the play-offs.
So, let’s hope on Tuesday we can win for the third time at The New Lawn.