Football VAVEL

Cheltenham Town 3-1 Forest Green Rovers: May and Keena the stars of the show

The result ensures League One football next season as Robins run rampant in electric first-half against a poor Rovers side

Cheltenham Town 3-1 Forest Green Rovers: May and Keena the stars of the show
The Completely-Suzuki Stadium - a stadium which will continue to host EFL League One football next season. Photo Credit: Getty Images - Andrew Kearns/CameraSport
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By Ryan Sheppard

Alfie May and Aidan Keena were the stars of the show, as Cheltenham Town ruthlessly dispatched Forest Green Rovers at the Completely-Suzuki Stadium.

A double from top-scorer May and a goal from club-record signing Keena gave the Robins bragging rights, and it was a win which ensured the club will be playing League One football next season.

Despite a consolation goal from Jordan Garrick, Duncan Ferguson's side never really got going, as they begin to prepare for life back in the fourth tier of English football.

  • STORY OF THE MATCH

Wade Elliott made two changes to the Robins team that salvaged a point against MK Dons, with Lewis Freestone coming in for Tom Bradbury on the left of the back three, with experienced midfielder Liam Sercombe returning from injury to replace James Olayinka, who was stretchered off last weekend and is likely to miss the rest of the season.

Duncan Ferguson meanwhile made only the one change from their 0-0 draw with Fleetwood Town last week, with Corey O'Keeffe coming in for Tyreece Omotoye, who dropped down to the bench, which allowed Brentford loanee Myles Peart-Harris to start up top with Charlie Savage, the son of former Derby and Birmingham City midfielder Robbie Savage.

As soon as the game got underway, it was Cheltenham who demonstrated how important this derby was to them and the fans, with Wade's side showing more purpose of attacking intent, with Forest Green struggling to get hold off the ball, with the Robins showing determination and energy to win it back, and move further up the pitch.

 May was seen as the key man that Forest Green had to stop if they had any chance of winning this game - and it took just 14 minutes for him to open the scoring - latching onto a pass from his strike partner Keena which split open the Rovers backline and May confidently finished past Ross Doohan with ease and celebrated in front of the travelling faithful, much to the delight of Cheltenham fans around the stadium.

If that wasn't the start Duncan wanted, things were about to get a lot worse for his side - a misplaced pass caused by Cheltenham pressing the backline, allowed Keena to control and finish into the same corner past Doohan to further rub salt into the wounds for Forest Green fans - who felt it would be a long afternoon if this performance kept up.

And it did - only six minutes later, a fantastic cross from Will Ferry caught Doohan in no man's land and the ball fell kindly to the in-form May, who steered into the back off the net - his ninth goal in ten games for the Robins and his 20th goal in all competitions this season - with 18 of those coming in League One football.

After the third goal went in, Charlie Savage's afternoon was over - he was hooked after 41 minutes to be replaced by defender Dominic Bernard - with the centre-back pairing of Oliver Casey and Brandon Cooper getting run-ragged by the strike partnership of May and Keena for the entirety of the first-half. 

The second-half started well for Forest Green however. A corner was not dealt with properly by the Cheltenham defence, and Bernard's shot was prodded in past Luke Southwood by January signing Jordan Garrick, with chants of "We've scored a goal" ringing round the stadium from the travelling Rovers faithful.

But in truth, that was the only real chance of the second-half, with both Cheltenham taking their foot off the gas knowing the damage had been done in the first-half, whilst Forest Green could not get any momentum going, with the Cheltenham back-line of Ryan Jackson, Sean Long, Caleb Taylor, Lewis Freestone and Will Ferry being resolute and fending off everything that came towards them.

At full-time, there was jubilant celebrations - Cheltenham fans had finally seen their side beat Forest Green in a league fixture - with the previous win in the derby behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns - but more to the point knowing that results had gone their way and that mathematically - Cheltenham Town could not be relegated from League One this season.

Meanwhile chants of "What a waste of money" was directed by gleeful Robins supporters at the departing Rovers players off the pitch - rubbing further salt into the wound at owner Dale Vince - who said it would be easy getting to the Championship - who saw his side get outplayed by their local rivals for 90 minutes having spent less money to do so.

  • PLAYER OF THE MATCH

Cheltenham Town - Alfie May

Who else but May? Cheltenham Town's saviour on many occasions - but yesterday showed his ability as a top striker at this level - caused Forest Green's defence all kinds of problems alongside Aidan Keena and took both goals well - up to 18 league goals for the season with three games to go to be able to hit 20 League One goals for the second campaign in a row.