Forest Green pull the plug on Bath
FOREST Green chairman Dale Vince may have struggled to blow out 50 candles on his birthday cake today-but he would have certainly been blown away by his side's cakewalk at the New Lawn this afternoon.
Forest Green moved up to seventh with their first home win of the season after an eye-catching display of sublime simplicity against a still winless Bath side.
Rovers took a first half lead when the much-coveted Reece Styche fired home a virtuoso shot on the turn.
The outstanding Chris Stokes doubled the advantage with a shot, which looped over keeper Glyn Garner off Joe Burnell.
And when Garner failed to deal with a Stokes cross, Styche was on hand to head home his second after the break.
Earlier, boss David Hockaday made four changes from the side, which drew at Ebbsfleet. Goalkeeper James Bittner came in from the cold to replace Matt Bulman and James Norwood returned from suspension to replace veteran Charlie Griffin. Curtis McDonald and Wayne Turk were drafted in for Yan Klukowski and Chris Allen respectively.
Despite six bookings the clash was far from feisty in a first half were Rovers' served up some memorable free-flowing football.
Bath offered little, but Bittner's sharp decision making saw him smother at the feet of Andre Carvalho-Landell.
Rovers responded with James Norwood trying his luck from 25 yards as Rovers gained the early ascendancy.
Styche thought he had nosed Rovers ahead on 14 minutes when he stepped on the gas to fizz in from McDonald's perceptive pass, but the offside flag curtailed his celebrations.
Sixty seconds later and Styche had his goal. Rovers' hit man turned in the box to rifle past a static Garner.
City responded as Rovers lost their way somewhat. Former Forest Green defender Sekani Simpson failed to hit the target with a free header and the dangerous Lewis Hogg saw his run ended by Bittner.
Bath lost captain Gethin Jones on the half-hour with former Forest Green loanee Gary Mills replacing the veteran City defender.
Rovers regained their foothold and bagged a second on 32 minutes. A flowing move across the box saw Norwood dribble into the danger zone and despite desperate defending, Stokes prospered on the scraps to show great strength to drill the ball home via a deflection off the luckless Burnell for his first ever Forest Green goal.
The temperature rose when Stonehouse saw yellow for a foul on former team-mate McDonald and moments later the latter found himself carded for a late lunge on Stonehouse.
That man Stokes came close to a second, but Garner did well to beat away his strike following Norwood's run into the box.
The fleet-footed Norwood then stole possession from the shaven-headed Hogg and set Styche free, but the prolific striker fizzed his strike into the over-worked Garner.
Bath introduced former Bristol City legend Scott Murray after the break, but it was Rovers who remained hungry for goals.
And Hockaday's side went 3-0 up on 61 minutes. James Rowe swept the ball out to the eager Stokes and his strong run saw the former Bolton youngster float a cross over, which Garner could only glove onto the head of Styche, who rammed home his sixth goal in six games.
A flurry of yellow cards followed as Rovers took the sting out of the game.
Styche came close to a hat-trick, but could only drill into Garner following yet another fine run from Stokes.
