COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Nuneaton Town defied predictions of another Forest Green drubbing as they picked up an excellent 1-1 draw on Tuesday night.

Rovers put eight past Hyde on Saturday as talk of ‘ champions elect’ was raised in some quarters, however, Boro took their points tally to four with a fantastically hard working display.

Andy Brown gave the hosts the lead with an 18th minute header before Jared Hodgkiss levelled with 13 to play.

Boro will be delighted with their display, the one disappointment being ridiculously naïve defending as they left two v two at the back for the equaliser.

Nuneaton made just the one enforced change to the team that beat Macclesfield Town 1-0 as James Belshaw replaced Dimitar Evtimov in goal.

The Nottingham Forest loanee was on international duty with Bulgaria Under-21s. The rest of the squad was the same, but there was a change in formation to 4-3-1-2 with Theo Streete playing at right-back and Wes York given a free role.

Birmingham City manager Lee Clark was in the stands, presumably watching Boro loan signing Amari’i Bell, but potentially a transfer target as well.

Boro turned in an outstanding first half performance to go into the break 1-0 up. Belshaw made a strong start to the game by holding onto a James Norwood strike in the ninth minute.

Within a minute Adam Walker fired a low ball across the box that somehow evaded everyone. They took the lead after 18 minutes when Theo Streete drove into the box and forced Hodgkiss to slice over his own bar.

Walker swung in the corner and Brown hung in the air to plant an excellent header into the top corner from eight yards.

The game settled from there with Boro working tremendously hard. They were given a let off after 40 minutes when the otherwise impressive Amari’I Bell was robbed by Norwood, who fired over when in on goal.

There was another scare in injury time when the ball ricocheted off Belshaw but was cleared by the outstanding Jon Adams.

The second half had less goalmouth action but Boro kept up their work rate to restrict the visitors. Forest Green did have a good chance after 65 minutes when Chris Stokes fired low across the box.

For all their hard work Boro really shot themselves in the foot for the 77th minute equaliser as they left two v two at the back when they had a corner.

Rovers broke with pace and quality as Hodgkiss finished at the back post, but this was the naïve defending off last season.

Boro looked shattered in the final five minutes but they held on for a point, which was the least they deserved.

GOALS: Boro – Brown (18); Rovers – Hodgkiss (77)

BORO (4-3-1-2): Belshaw 8; Streete 8, Dean (c) 8, Cowan 8, Bell 8; Adams 9, Armson 7, Walker 8; York (Taylor 90) 7; Brown 8, Moult 8; Subs not used: Sleath, McNamee, Gordon, Pearson

ROVERS (4-3-3): Russell; Hodgkiss, Bennett, Pilkington; Barry (Klukowski 65), Bangura, Kelly; Taylor, Wright (Barnes-Homer 53), Norwood; Subs not used: Asafu-Adjaye, Bulman, Williams

REFEREE: Declan Ford 6

ATTENDANCE: 1,005

YELLOW: Armson – (83), Streete (90); Rovers – Norwood (73), Taylor (74), Hodgkiss (75)

RED: None

BORO STAR MAN: Jon Adams