Vanarama National League: Forest Green Rovers 3 Guiseley 0

FOREST Green Rovers extended their lead at the summit with a comfortable home win at the New Lawn over visitors Guiseley.

The Lions were dumped back into the basement as they suffered their first league defeat following encouraging back-to-back victories.

Adam Lockwood’s side had Danny East returning from injury at right back, and there were chances for both sides in a nip-and-tuck opening spell, with Jermaine Hylton and Jordan Preston going close for Guiseley, while Liam Noble and Fabian Robert threatened for the home side.

Rovers’ keeper Sam Russell was tested by Jake Cassidy but he reacted quickly to save.

The home side took the lead soon after and never looked back as they marched towards the victory that kept them top of the table.

The only goal of the first half came when Darren Carter curled a left-foot shot into the top corner, giving Lions keeper Dan Atkinson no chance.

Atkinson was also well beaten by the other two goals.

Just after the break, Chris Doidge doubled the home side’s lead when he collected a through ball following a good move and cut back to make space before rifling a shot into the top corner.

Rovers then put the gloss on their victory with a third goal just before the hour.

It was another frustration for Atkinson as he set himself to cover a ball into the area from Dan Wishart, who was making his home debut, only to see the ball go into his net off Jake Lawlor for an own goal.

Lockwood was upset by the officiating but accepted the defeat.

He said: “Especially at the start of the game, I’m sure some people watching will know how disappointing it was because it became about one person and not about two sides who were trying to give it a good go, but I will leave that one for people to think about.

“We were up against a good side and we want to be competitive against the best in this league but we came up short. Forest Green are a well-organised team with good ability.

“On a different day, who knows? We went there and it was a good effort from the boys but we were just short of that bit of quality against a top side.”