Christian Doidge: Forest Green Rovers striker says Steve Cotterill has given players belief

Christian Doidge is Forest Green's all-time leading goalscorer and has three goals to his name since returning to the club in January

Forest Green striker Christian Doidge said manager Steve Cotterill has "put a lot of belief" into the players in the club's fight for league survival.

Doidge scored both goals as they beat Bradford 2-0 to move out of the League Two relegation zone for the first time since November.

Forest Green have won four and drawn two of their 10 games since Cotterill was appointed at the end of January.

Doidge is the club's all-time leading goalscorer and re-signed in January.

"The manager has come in and he's put a lot of belief in a lot of lads," Doidge told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"I feel like you see a team that goes out there and works really hard for each other, and that's first and foremost wheat we want to do when we go over the white line."

Doidge scored on his first appearance for the club, after joining from Hibernian, during the 3-3 draw with Colchester, but was yet to find the net again until he scored in the first and 93rd minutes of the win against Bradford.

Cotterill praised the striker's work ethic after the victory - which marked the first time Forest Green have recorded back-to-back wins this season.

"Coming into this I knew that it wasn't going be easy and I probably wasn't going to get a lot of chances, just because of the position we are in," Doidge said.

"I feel to come in and work as hard as I can just shows the lads that someone's really trying for them up front, and I'll continue to do that for the rest of the season."

Forest Green's 38 goals is the second lowest in the division and Doidge said he hoped Tuesday's win would give the players confidence to take a more attacking mindset in the games to come.

They next host bottom-of-the-table Sutton on Saturday, in what could prove a massive game in the relegation battle.

"It is a hard shift up there on your own and especially when we're winning the game, because we're dropping a bit deeper," Doidge said.

"I think the confidence we got from [Tuesday] with the games to come, I feel like when we do get a goal up we'll get lads closer to me just because belief of being able to go forward and score goals.

"We've lost a lot of games, it's been a real tough year and when we get that lead we're probably sitting on it a bit. This game [on Tuesday] gives us that confidence to keep trying to move forward."