WE'VE STILL COTT A LONG WAY TO GO

STEVE Cotterill knows Forest Green's rebirth will be no five-minute makeover despite his own 'impatience'.

- Andy Mitchell

Winning the Conference and FA Trophy in the 90s has been followed by vast experience and success in the EFL but this latest challenge is tough as they come.

Cotterill arrived at The New Lawn as the club's sixth permanent boss in 20 months, inheriting a side that was bottom of League Two, six points from safety and 12 league matches without a win.

There was an upturn, briefly escaping the drop zone with a win at Bradford City in March, with Rovers bagging 21 points from 19 games following his appointment, a ratio that would have kept them up if replicated across the season.

Cotterill argues that a gruelling fixture list - five of those matches were against the top three with a further four against play-off qualifiers - "killed us", contributing to a return to NonLeague after seven seasons.