Forest Green Rovers and 'The Great Escape'

Forest Green Rovers: The Escapologists

As the end of a football season draws to a close and the mid-table positions inevitably pale into relative insignificance (for the neutrals at least) the collective attentions of the majority of fans become fully focused on the battle for promotion at the top and the fight for survival at the bottom. The latter, more often than not provides far more suspense and excitement. If you stop to think about it, it’s hardly surprising as there is so much more at stake for the teams involved. Year in, year out there are always one or two teams who are plotting their “Great Escape”.

Each team staring into the abyss that is relegation desperately searches for their very own Andy Dufresne. Some teams find him and their seasons end in deserved euphoria. For those teams that plot the great escape but end up doing a football equivalent of this; it is relegation. 

If there is one team in the world who have the knack of pulling off better escapes than Harry Houdini himself it is Forest Green Rovers.

For the last thirteen years, Forest Green have been plying their trade in the top flight of non-league football. More often than not, they have been one of the teams involved in the mêlée that is the scrap to avoid the dreaded drop into the regional second tier of the English non-league pyramid. 6 times in the last thirteen seasons to be exact but every time, they have managed to cling to their precious Conference National status.

Rovers’ stay in the Conference Premier hasn’t been a constantly painful experience however; they have finished in the top half twice. The first time they had the luxury to harbour hopes of sneaking into a playoff place but could only manage a very respectable 9^th place finish in what is becoming an increasingly difficult league to compete in.

The fact that the Gloucestershire side have been slowly building up a reputation as the “Harry Houdini” of the non-leagues is mostly down to the fact that on two occasions in the last 7 years they have avoided relegation despite the fact that they had finished the season in a relegation spot. Forest Green fans must surely now see the great Houdini as a complete amateur after having seen their team perform far greater feats of magic and trickery. In fact, thinking about it, that means Forest Green have come back from ‘dead’ twice......even Jesus only managed that once.

"Don't look at me....Forest Green have done it twice"

To spare you from an incredibly dull analysis of every single one of Forest Green’s seasons in the conference national I’ll stick to the two seasons where they “came back from the dead”.

The first time that Forest Green achieved the unthinkable was six years ago in the same season that saw Barnet promoted back into the Football League. Earlier on in the season Northwich Victoria had gone into administration and received a 10 point deduction which saw them enter into the relegation battle with Farnborough, Leigh Genesis and Forest Green. Northwich managed to overcome the deduction and finish 9 points ahead of Forest Green and at the same time condemning FGR to the Conference South, or so everyone thought. It wasn’t until mid June that Rovers learnt that they had been reprieved due to Northwich being unable to resolve issues with their stadium and also with their Conference membership. Cue a collective sigh of relief in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire where Forest Green play their home games. Most likely feeling slightly hard done by, Northwich Victoria took their place in the Conference North as Forest Green began to focus on and prepare for another season in the conference national.

Sadly these days it isn’t uncommon to see teams relegated due to their financial woes and other teams, who over the season were far more deserving of relegation, survive. After what must have been a difficult and nerve-wracking time for Forest Green fans, they had done it....they had managed a true footballing great escape, maybe not by merit on the pitch but they had still done it. Never again thought the fans, never again................until 2010.

Having barely had time to get over the traumatic survival of the 2004/2005 season, the fans had to go through it all again. On 24^th April 2005, Forest Green were relegated. It was all over. They fought to the very end but ultimately went down on goal difference with Gateshead surviving thanks to being three goals better off. June came around as many of the Forest Green fans began to come to terms with life in the league below and what it would bring them. The 10^th of June however was a day that will stay with those fans for a long time yet as once again Rovers were reprieved at the expense of Salisbury City. Salisbury had severe financial problems and as always in football, money talks. They were to powerless to resist the forced relegation and Forest Green had somehow kept their heads above water.

These two examples of great escapes à la Forest Green paint a picture of a club that has relied on the misfortunes of fellow clubs to avoid relegation. If you need proof that they can stay in the conference national through their on-pitch efforts then you need look no further than this season’s final table. By the skin of their teeth, yes, but they managed it and I’m sure they will again next season.

I hope for their fans sake though that never again do they have to wait until the league AGM to learn which league they will be playing football in the following season.....