Forest Green's Frear hails "complete" away performance

[FF News]

Elliott Frear’s sixth goal of the season at FC Halifax on Saturday helped steer Forest Green Rovers to another three points to continue the team’s excellent start to 2016.

The former Exeter City man scored Rovers second, after Jon Parkin’s earlier strike, to complete a fine win against a Yorkshire side who were on a 13 match unbeaten run heading into the tie.

Steve Arnold also kept his seventh clean sheet since breaking into the side in November, in what Frear believed was an all round good showing.

“It was a good and a difficult pitch – we seem to be having that every week at the moment but that’s how it is,” he said.

“It was a complete performance from us. I felt that we counter-attacked them well in the first half and had a few chances.

“We got the two goals, which was great, and in the second half we did a really professional job.

“The gaffer has built a really good squad. Maybe last year we would have drawn that game. This year we’re a different team. That’s seven wins out of eight which is title winning form.”

Frear finished off an excellent team move to claim his sixth strike of the season having appeared so far in 36 games in all competitions.

Rob Sinclair’s pass into the path of Keanu Marsh-Brown saw Frear sweep home at the back post, and he was left pleased that working hard to get in the right positions saw him rewarded.

“I was trying to get in front of my right back and to be fair Keanu has put in a worldy ball. He pulled it across and all I had to do was tap it in. It bobbled up a little bit but the build up was first class,” he recalled.

“Last year I wasn’t really tracking the back post as well as I could really and the gaffer has been telling me in training that I’ve got to get in the back post. Parky [Jon Parkin] has told me I’ll get 10 goals a season in there – so there was one of them.”

The crowd at The Shay have a vociferous reputation, and Saturday’s clash was no different.

Frear and his teammates dealt with the occasion in perfect fashion, and the 25 year old, who has appeared in the Football League before with hometown club Exeter, saw the atmosphere as a typical environment that often comes with playing in front of big crowds in higher divisions.

“They were on us which made it a good experience because if we go up it’s going to be like that next year with the bigger crowds we’re going to play in front of.

“I thought the lads handled it really well and got the result and the clean sheet which was great.”

Frear’s goal on Saturday has seen him move onto 11 league goals for the club in the fifth tier – seeing him move level with the likes of Simon Clist, Conal Platt, Carl Heggs and teammate Marcus Kelly on the club’s all time scorers list at this level.

Source: www.forestgreenroversfc.com

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