Trialist G’s speculative effort handed Forest Green Rovers their second win of pre-season, beating Everton Under-21s 1-0 at The New Lawn on Wednesday night.
Rovers' fast start to the second half saw them take the lead just a minute after the restart when Trialist G’s attempted cross deceived Zan-Luk Leban, in the Everton goal and looped into the far corner of the net.
Isaac Heath almost had the visitors ahead after 11 minutes when he met a Jason Metcalfe cross only to see his volleyed effort well saved by Trialist A.
Rovers started to grow into the half as Murphy Bennett and Fin Bell linked up well down the right to send a dangerous cross into the Toffee’s area, but Leban got down well to stop the threat.
Straight down the other end, Heath caused more problems for the Rovers defence. He wriggled into the area before cutting a cross back towards Callum Bates whose volleyed effort was diverted wide by Trialist A.
A spell of dominance graced Rovers after the half hour mark. Trialist F went closet first when his deflected effort forced Leban to tip the ball over before Zach McKenzie’s driven header was beaten away by Leban minutes later.
Rovers could have doubled their lead after 55 minutes if wasn’t for the heroics of Leban. Trialist E saw his drilled effort from 18-yards beaten into the path of Trialist G who had his short blocked by Leban before he flew to push away Bell’s driven effort from distance.
Trialist A was called into action late on to keep Rovers in the lead when Matty Apter tried his luck from an angle only for his shot to be tipped around the post.
Attention now turns to Saturday for Rovers as they travel to face Plymouth Argyle in a behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly.
Forest Green Rovers: Trialist A (GK), Trialist B, McKenzie, Trialist C, Trialist D, Bennett©, Bell, Trialist E, Carter, Trialist F, Trialist G
Subs: Blackburn (GK), Thompson, Merrett, Bonnick, Alonzi, Ismail, Raut, Sully, Aldridge, Petrynski
Everton U21s: Leban (GK), Maher, Butler, Holgate©, Moonan, Metcalfe, Beaumont-Clark, Bates, Sherif, Apter, Heath
Subs: Barrett (GK), Foster, Higgins, Vanschoor, Davis, Thomas, Samuels-Smith, Patterson, Armstrong, Finney
Referee: Sam Allison
Attendance: 698 (81 Away)
