Rovers forced to share the spoils in Blue Square Premier curtain raiser
FOREST GREEN were forced to share the spoils in a thrilling Blue Square Premier opener against Dietmar Hamann's Stockport County at the New Lawn tonight.
Rovers took a first half lead thanks to a Reece Styche header, but a hamstring injury to key defender Chris Todd after the break proved pivotal for Dave Hockaday's side after Nick Chadwick 78th minute header earned parity for the Hatters.
Earlier' Hockaday sprung a pre-match surprise by naming Matt Bulman ahead of last season's supporters' player of the season, James Bittner in goal.
The New Lawn boss dished out debuts to defender Chris Todd and midfielder James Rowe. Rovers also featured Charlie Griffin, James Norwood and Luke Graham - back at the New Lawn for their respective second spells.
Captain Jared Hodgkiss switched to left- back to negate the loss of the suspended Chris Stokes and Jamie Turley.
Rovers started brightly in a high tempo opening. Rowe's free-kick allowed the evergreen Griffin to plant a header into keeper Matt Glennon.
Stockport rallied, Chadwick fizzed a header wide from Ryan Fraughan's seventh minute cross.
Rovers hit back - Keiron Forbes, Rowe and Styche all going close inside the opening 10 minutes.
Rovers gained the ascendancy on 20 minutes. Kieron Forbes' rampaging run was ended by former Forest Green loanee Danny Hall and from Rowe's free-kick, Styche rose to plant a sumptuous downward header beyond Glennon.
Rovers were on the front-foot and came close to a second in the dying moments of the first half. Bulman's torpedo kick was chested down by Styche for Norwood who traded passes for Styche to bring off a great block by Glennon.
Stockport opened the second half with intent. Ryan Fraughan's cross-shot clipped the top of Bulman's bar. Norwood came close to making it two for Rovers on 55 minutes. Holden's mistake allowed Styche to feed his strike partner, but Glennon spared the Manchester side's blushes.
Disaster hit Rovers on 68 minutes. Todd over stretched when trying to clear and tweaked his hamstring in the process. In Todd's absence Rovers were all at sea and were duly punished on 78 minutes. Fraughaun's cross was missed by Griffin and Bulman for Chadwick to glance home.
Rovers almost snatched the points when Graham's header was superbly clawed away by the unsighted Glennon from Rowe's corner.
Rovers nerves were certainly jangling as an incredible seven minutes of added time were played out.
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