Forest Green Rovers5

Grayson 26, Richardson 41, Grayson 55, Odejayi 58, Cowe 62

Daggers2

West 45, Terry 46

(Nationwide Conference)

DAGGERS fans who ventured into Forest Green's local village would have noticed that there was a slight twilight zone feel to it.

But the sight of couples jiving in the market square, a man walking round wearing nothing but underpants and tinsel playing the kazoo and someone dressed as a cow holding a placard was nothing compared with the madness on display at The Lawn later that day.

Apparently carnival weekend in Nailsworth is a cause for all sanity to go astray, which may be why the Daggers had a total of eight players who could play in defence on the pitch at the same time at one point with Tim Cole up front.

But of course, there was method to this particular madness. Garry Hill knew the loss would secure a play-off semi-final with second placed Morecambe and said afterwards: "There was only one person who was going to get his way today and that was me and I'm happy with that."

Neil Grayson opened the scoring for Rovers after 26 minutes and from then on the goals failed to cease flowing. Alex Meechan played the ball across the face of goal and Grayson's header looked to have been caught by Paul Gothard, but it was adjudged to have crossed the line.

Rovers increased their lead four minutes before the break when Gary Owers' cross found Kayode Odejayi only for his header to hit the post. Following in though was Jon Richardson who hammered home to double the advantage.

However, Steve West pulled one back for the Daggers deep into stoppage time when Steve Jenkins mis-cued his pass and West nipped in to stroke the ball home.

Shortly after the restart Paul Terry levelled the scores when he got onto the end of Mark Janney's cross to tap in past Steve Perrin.

Rovers fought back though and soon retook the lead on 55 minutes as Odejayi burst through and ran towards the 18-yard box and struck with force. Though Gothard was equal to it and smothered the ball, Neil Grayson nipped in and fired home the rebound to put Rovers back in the lead.

It was only a matter of time before Kayode Odejayi struck as the Nigerian had been making cutting runs all day. Grayson played him through and the striker, known as 'Dave' on the terraces, ran from the halfway line and placed the ball under Gothard.

Odejayi then turned provider for the fifth and final goal, sending in a cross from the right wing for Cowe to latch on to and lift into the roof of the net.

DAGGERS: Gothard, Potts, Cole, Heffer, Broom, Janney (sub: Mustafa 69min), Terry, Goodwin, McGrath, Hill (Rooney 65), West (Smith 55)

May 1, 2003 10:30