Junior Mondal scored on his first league start for Forest Green as they beat Yeovil Town 3-0 at The New Lawn on Saturday.

Christian Doidge and Lee Collins also got on the scoresheet, in the latter’s first league start of the campaign, in what was a convincing display from the home team.

Cooper made three changes to his side from Tuesday’s match against Swindon with Farrand Rawson, Junior Mondal and Lee Collins coming into the team, with the latter making his first league start of the season.

It was apparent quite early on that Rovers would be looking to try out a slightly different system in a 4-2-3-1 shape. Reece Brown, George Williams and Junior Mondal found pockets of space in and around the Yeovil area on countless occasions in an open first 15 minutes.

Joseph Mills and Williams especially seemed to have a lot of space down the FGR left and both looked a threat going forward.

This space in the attacking area eventually resulted in the opening goal after 22 minutes. Some good work from Brown set Carl Winchester free down the right-hand side. The right-back for the day saw his effort deflected perfectly into the path of Mondal who pounced to score his first goal for the club from six yards out.

Christian Doidge came close to doubling FGR’s lead on half-an-hour when his looping header had to be tipped over the bar by Nathan Baxter.

He didn’t have to wait long before his head did indeed double the lead. The Welshman nodded home at the near post from a Williams corner to score his eighth goal of the season after 32 minutes.

Doidge and Williams linked up cleverly on the halfway line to release the latter through on goal after 42 minutes but the winger’s shot was parried by Baxter. His attempt at the rebound kept the ball in play with it eventually falling to Brown but he sliced his effort off target.

Alex Dobre had an effort saved on the stretch by Ward in the Rovers goal with a couple of minutes of regular first half minutes to play. The away team continued to press forward and went very close twice in five seconds. Francois Zoko’s close range shot was blocked by Ward before Jake Gray’s ambitious attempt came off the bar.

Yeovil started the second half as they finished the first, pushing forward in an attempt to get a goal back.

Rovers did soon begin to assert more control over proceedings with Williams continuing to be a threat from set pieces. One of his corners was audaciously flicked on towards the bottom corner by Gavin Gunning but it was met and held by Baxter.

Some delightful build up play created a chance for Williams just inside the area but the winger couldn’t find a way through the smothering Yeovil defenders.

The home side did made it three just before the hour. Another Williams corner created problems for the Yeovil defence. This time his ball found its way to the back post and Lee Collins fired it into the back of the net.

Williams almost added to the scoreline three minutes later but Baxter got down well to save low to his right-hand side to stop his shot from 20-yards.

After Shawn McCoulsky was introduced into the game to replace Mondal, Williams moved over to play predominantly on the right-hand side and continued to be a threat even if the game as a contest was beginning to fizzle out.

Man of the match Williams came close to grabbing himself a goal to cap of a brilliant performance but failed to do so. The closest he came was in the final ten minutes when a trademark 35-yard free-kick rattled the post.

Rovers thought they had four when Doidge rounded the keeper to put the ball in the back of the net in stoppage time, but the linesman’s flag halted his celebrations.

Forest Green Rovers XI: Lewis Ward, Lee Collins (c) (Ben Liddle 78’), Farrend Rawson, Carl Winchester, Christian Doidge, Reece Brown, George Williams, Gavin Gunning, Paul Digby, Joseph Mills (Nathan McGinley 66’), Junior Mondal (Shawn McCoulsky 71’)

Unused subs: Lewis Thomas, Lloyd James, Udoka Godwin-Malife, Reuben Reid

Yeovil Town XI: Nathan Baxter, Adel Gafaiti, Carl Dickinson, Bevis Mugabi, Alex Fisher (Courtney Duffus 75’), Jake Gray, Francois Zoko (c) (Ryan Seager 66’), Alex Pattison, Yoann Arquin (Rhys Browne 57’), Craig Alcock, Alex Dobre

Unused subs: Stuart Nelson, Matt Worthington, Gabriel Rogers, Tristan Abrahams,

Attendance: 2,449 (354 away)

Referee: Ben Toner

Man of the Match: George Williams

Match Sponsor: Grundon Recycle

Matchball Sponsor: Grundon Recycle