Forest Green Rovers got their EFL Trophy campaign up and running with a first home win under David Horseman, defeating Shrewsbury Town 3-0 at The New Lawn.
Rovers started the game on the backfoot and could have been behind when Taylor Perry unleashed a fierce effort from just inside the area, but Searle flew superbly to turn it over the bar.
After a long lull in the action, Perry was at it again on 29 minutes when his low distance effort bounced back off the post.
But despite Salop’s dominance it was Rovers who broke the deadlock on 36 minutes. Dylan Kadji beat the offside trap before bringing down a Robson long ball to coolly place an effort low past the goalkeeper.
Rovers had a valuable lead at the break, but improvement was needed. In the opening minutes of the second period Jenks fed through Matty Stevens whose driven effort tested the Salop goalkeeper, an early sign their intents.
Tyrese Omotoye made the second half dominance count, doubling Rovers lead on 61 minutes, when he was fed through by Kadji before cutting back onto his right to drill a low effort into the bottom left corner.
This goal rattled the visitors and just five minutes later Stevens got himself on the scoresheet, with a contender for goal of the round, curling a beautiful effort into top right corner from outside of the area.
Searle was in inspired form for Rovers which was shown again when he acrobatically tipped a Tom Bayliss effort over the bar on 65 minutes.
As if that wasn’t enough, on 86 minutes, Searle made sure of a first clean sheet in a Rovers shirt denying Ryan Bowman from the penalty spot getting down well to his left.
To round off a perfect evening for Rovers, Horseman gave 15-year-old Isaac Hughes his professional debut, making himself the second youngest player to wear the Rovers shirt.
Horseman and his side will look to build on this performance as they welcome Crewe Alexandra to The New Lawn on Saturday.
Forest Green- Searle (GK), Johnson, Jenks, Stevens©, Bendle, Kadji, Robson, Welch, Omotoye, Bunker, Carter
Subs- Pagel (GK), Sully, Sanniola, McKenzie, M. Bennett, Mason, Hughes
Shrewsbury- Burgoyne (GK), Sraha, Finnigan, Udoh, Perry, Sobowale, E. Bennett, Dunkley©, Fleming, Mata, Flanagan
Subs- Marosi (GK), Benning, Anderson, Winchester, Bowman, Phillips, Bayliss
Referee- Farai Hallam
