FOREST GREEN ROVERS 1 GATESHEAD 0
A BATTLING victory keeps Forest Green on the tail of the Blue Square Bet Premier pacesetters.
An early missed penalty seemed to knock Dave Hockaday's men off their usual stride, but they recovered to bag all three points thanks to Magno Vieira's second-half strike.
Gateshead had giant forward Liam Hatch playing as a makeshift central defender, and inside three minutes he was penalised for handling a driven cross by Chris Stokes inside the area.
Yan Klukowski is normally reliable from the spot, but on this occasion his effort was tame and visiting keeper Adam Bartlett got down to his left to gather at the second attempt.
Gateshead ought to have gone ahead in the 57th minute when Ryan Donaldson found himself one-on-one with Sam Russell, but his stubbed effort was blocked by the custodian's boot.
That prompted a change from Hockaday, who handed teenage striker Saul Williams a debut in place of James Rowe and immediately saw his attack pepped up.
The breakthrough came from a Klukowski corner which was nodded down by Jamie Turley, giving Vieira the chance to swivel and hook the ball home adroitly for his fourth goal of the season.
See Monday's Citizen for Peter Orchard's match overview, match reaction and pictures.
Forest Green: Russell; Hodgkiss, Turley, Asafu-Adjaye, Stokes; Klukowski, Green, Rowe (Williams 58); Vieira (Wright 86), Taylor (Oshodi 70), Norwood; Subs not used: Koroma, Bulman.
A BATTLING victory keeps Forest Green on the tail of the Blue Square Bet Premier pacesetters.
An early missed penalty seemed to knock Dave Hockaday's men off their usual stride, but they recovered to bag all three points thanks to Magno Vieira's second-half strike.
Gateshead had giant forward Liam Hatch playing as a makeshift central defender, and inside three minutes he was penalised for handling a driven cross by Chris Stokes inside the area.
Yan Klukowski is normally reliable from the spot, but on this occasion his effort was tame and visiting keeper Adam Bartlett got down to his left to gather at the second attempt.
Gateshead ought to have gone ahead in the 57th minute when Ryan Donaldson found himself one-on-one with Sam Russell, but his stubbed effort was blocked by the custodian's boot.
That prompted a change from Hockaday, who handed teenage striker Saul Williams a debut in place of James Rowe and immediately saw his attack pepped up.
The breakthrough came from a Klukowski corner which was nodded down by Jamie Turley, giving Vieira the chance to swivel and hook the ball home adroitly for his fourth goal of the season.
See Monday's Citizen for Peter Orchard's match overview, match reaction and pictures.
Forest Green: Russell; Hodgkiss, Turley, Asafu-Adjaye, Stokes; Klukowski, Green, Rowe (Williams 58); Vieira (Wright 86), Taylor (Oshodi 70), Norwood; Subs not used: Koroma, Bulman.