Forest Green Rovers 1 Northwich Victoria 3

Last updated : 23 October 2004 By Footymad Previewer

In a six-pointer Forest Green Rovers slumped to defeat to bottom of the Conference side Northwich Victoria.

It was Northwich who came close after just six minutes when a wayward pass fell to Mark Quayle and he fired the ball just over.

Rovers almost broke the deadlock when Stuart Roberts cut in from the right wing only to slot the ball wide of the right-hand post from a difficult angle.

The visitors edged in front after 14 minutes when a cross from Jon McCarthy was well controlled by Quayle and he drilled the ball beneath Dean Williams and into the net.

Their lead was increased just before the half-hour when a harmless cross into the Rovers penalty area was miscontrolled by Adam Garner and centre-half Mark Foran blasted the ball in from close range.

The match was over ten minutes later. Richie Appleby lost possession in the centre of the field and McCarthy fed the ball to Greg Young and he made no mistake in increasing Northwich's lead.

Rovers only replied 17 minutes into the second half when Ben Cleverley found Roberts on the left wing and his pinpoint cross was headed in by Jefferson Louis.