Steve Cotterill: Forest Green Rovers boss has 'work to get on with' after club's relegation

Steve Cotterill was appointed at the end of January when Forest Green were already in the bottom two of the League Two table

Forest Green manager Steve Cotterill will stay on at the club after their relegation to the National League.

Cotterill was appointed on 25 January but despite improving results was unable to stop their slide out of League Two.

Forest Green have won five and drawn twice in the 17 games of Cotterill's tenure so far.

"We'd already had that discussion, myself and Dale [Vince - club owner] so I wasn't not staying," Cotterill said.

"I knew what it was about, I've ended up probably getting more of an affinity now with the people I work with and I work for.

"Every club I've been at I've left them in a better position than when I arrived so that means there's work to do, and we've got to get on with it."

The Gloucestershire club's relegation was confirmed on Tuesday despite them not playing, after Colchester United beat Grimsby to move eight points clear of Rovers, with only two games to play.

Forest Green were thrashed 6-0 by League One-bound Wrexham last Saturday, a result that all but confirmed their fate back to the fifth tier.

"The realisation had probably set in for me, the realisation was probably there at half-time for me last Saturday because we weren't going to come back after that first-half performance," Cotterill told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"I think I knew probably last weekend at the end of the game that that probably would have been it for us."

Cotterill said while he knew it would be tough when he was appointed to keep Forest Green from relegation, it would have helped to have had the whole of the January transfer window to work in rather than a handful of days, and for their fixture schedule to be kinder.

Of the 17 matches Cotterill has overseen, 11 have been against teams in the top nine of the league while their last five matches have been against the division's top five.

"I wouldn't say that I've been in the best of moods or the best of form this week because I don't know what it feels like," Cotterill, who has never previously been relegated as a manager, said.

"It's still your own personal pride with everything, that's how I feel. I really appreciate the contact I've had from a lot of people who haven't shied away from calling or texting me."