FOREST Green Rovers will be without 20-goal top scorer Andy Mangan for tonight’s crucial home clash against fellow Blue Square Premier strugglers York City.

Mangan was sent off for swearing during first-half stoppage time in Rovers’ 3-0 defeat at Mansfield on Saturday, leaving him suspended against the Minstermen.

The former Bury and Accrington Stanley striker, who has netted six times in his last six matches including a hat-trick against Torquay, is now likely to be replaced by Adriano Rigoglioso in the starting line-up.

Mangan’s enforced absence is the latest blow for Rovers boss Jim Harvey, who has lost centre-back John Hardiker as well, after the former Morecambe defender asked to be released from his contract.

Defender Hardiker, who moved to Stockport for a then £150,000 record Conference transfer fee, had previously been suspended by the club for a non-football related matter.

Assistant player-manager Jerry Gill is also currently sidelined with a fractured cheekbone and winger Les Afful is out for the season with knee ligament damage.

Fifth-bottom Forest Green have failed to win any of their last seven matches although that sequence did include five successive draws before the Mansfield defeat.

The Gloucester club’s last win was a 3-0 home triumph against second-bottom Northwich on February 18 but that represents their only victory in 12 league fixtures since the turn of the year.

Nevertheless, Harvey’s men are unbeaten in their last five home matches with league draws against Histon (2-2), Grays (1-1) and Oxford (3-3), as well as the Northwich win and a 1-0 FA Trophy triumph over Hednesford.

The New Lawn also normally guarantees goals with 62 having gone in at both ends during 18 league fixtures, although Mangan’s ban may have a bearing on the home side’s fire-power tonight.

Only Weymouth’s Wessex Stadium has witnessed more goals with 63 but that figure was swollen by the Terras’ recent 9-0 reverse against Rushden.

Forest Green have failed to score in just two of their 25 home games with Stevenage and Kettering the two teams to enjoy clean sheets there.

Harvey’s men are also the leading scorers in the bottom half of the table with 50 goals but only bottom two Northwich (64) and Lewes (74) and crisis club Weymouth (64) have conceded more than Forest Green’s 63.

Lewes (15) are the only side to have lost more home games than Forest Green’s nine as well.


Match facts

YORK City have an excellent record at the New Lawn - unbeaten in their four previous visits and winners on the last three trips.

On their first visit they drew 1-1 in 2004/5. The following season they won 2-1, with James Dudgeon and Mark Convery on the scoresheet.

In 2006/7, Clayton Donaldson scored the only goal of the game and in the corresponding fixture last term City won 2-1 with Nicky Wroe and Mark Robinson the marksmen.

The line-up almost exactly 12 months ago (March 18, 2008) was: Evans, Parslow, Kelly, McGurk, Purkiss, Wroe, Rusk (Sodje), Elliott, Robinson (Lloyd), Brodie (Fortune-West), Woolford.

It happened on March 17

1951: A 5-2 defeat at Bradford City with Ron Spence and Gordon Brown scoring the consolation goals. City were in the bottom half of Division Three North.

1973: A 3-1 home win over Scunthorpe United with Brian Pollard, Pat Lally and Richard Taylor the scorers. City were just below mid-table in Division Three (League One) and the crowd was 2,848.

1985: A crowd of 10,442, the last five-figure attendance to watch a League match at Bootham Crescent, saw City lose 2-1 at home to Third Division (League One) leaders Bradford City. Ian Butler was the scorer and City were in 11th position.

2001: A 0-0 draw at home to Lincoln City and City, seven games unbeaten, were 18th in Division Three (League Two). The crowd was 3,506.

2007: City were held to a 0-0 draw at home by St Albans City watched by 2,927. They were third in the Conference.

Compiled by Dave Batters