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Forest Green are fired up and ready to go, says Liam Noble

All Areas > Sport > Football

Author: Roger Jackson, Posted: Wednesday, 3rd May 2017, 15:00, Tags: Captain's Log

Liam Noble Liam Noble

“If we’d been told at the start of the season that we needed to win two and draw one of our last three games to win promotion to the Football League we’d have taken that.”

So says Forest Green Rovers captain Liam Noble as he prepares for the National League play-off semi-final first leg clash at Dagenham and Redbridge on Thursday (7pm).

Yes, the target was automatic promotion at the start of campaign but once Lincoln City had pulled too far away Forest Green concentrated all their efforts on at least finishing the season in the top three so that they would have home advantage in the semi-final second leg.

Not that Noble is thinking about the game against the Daggers at the New Lawn on Sunday (3pm).

“You can’t go to Dagenham looking for a 0-0 or anything like that,” he said. “Football doesn’t work like that. You’ve got to play the game as it comes. If we’re 1-0 up and the gaffer [Mark Cooper] wants us to hold on to what we’ve got then that’s what we’ll try to do.

“But at this stage we are going there to win the game.”

That won’t be easy. Forest Green have failed to beat Dagenham this season, drawing 1-1 at the New Lawn at the end of October before losing 2-1 at Dagenham in mid-March.

“These are two massive games coming up,” said Noble. “It’s going to be very hard but we need to give it everything. They are two good teams who will treat each other with respect. They know our strengths and weaknesses and we know theirs.”

Noble, 26 on Tuesday, knows all about playing in the Football League having played well over 100 games for Carlisle United and 70 for Notts County.

He followed the same path as manager Cooper when he left Notts County for Forest Green last summer and he says he enjoys playing for him.

“I like the type of football he wants to play,” said the midfielder. “He likes to play it out from the back and likes his teams to be good on the eye.

“When I came here the plan was obviously to try and win the league. We didn’t quite manage that but we were always going to get into the play-offs.

“We’ve rested a couple of players in the last few games but come Thursday we’ll be ready to go.”

Forest Green, who were beaten 3-1 by Grimsby Town in last season’s play-off final, picked up only two points from their final three league games while Dagenham won one and drew the other two.

Noble doesn’t believe that recent form will have any bearing on the semi-final and if Forest Green do overcome their east London rivals he will at least know what it is like to play at Wembley after getting there with Carlisle in the Football League Trophy final in 2011.

Carlisle beat Brentford 1-0 and Noble remembers: “I was a sub but I got on after only 10 minutes when someone got injured. It was a brilliant experience. I was only a young lad but I’d love to get back there with Forest Green.”

The winners of the Forest Green/Dagenham tie will play the winners of the Tranmere Rovers v Aldershot Town clash at Wembley on Sunday, May 14.

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