Forest Green Rovers 1 Shrewsbury Town 1

Last updated : 13 March 2004 By Footymad Previewer

A last-minute goal by Denny Ingram rescued a point for Forest Green Rovers making amends for an earlier penalty miss against high-flying Shrewsbury Town.

The former Birmingham City midfielder Martin O'Connor went close to giving the Shrews the lead after only seven minutes when he latched on to a loose ball but his low drive from the edge of the area was comfortably saved for Steve Perrin.

Rovers had their first chance five minutes later when a ball forward was headed down by Damon Searle to Alex Sykes who flashed his effort across the face of goal.

Forest Green were awarded a penalty eight minutes before half time. Searle swung a free kick into the Shrewsbury penalty area and, when Martin Foster went down under the challenge of Kevin Street, the linesman flagged for the foul giving the referee no option but to point to the spot.

Ingram stepped up with his 100 per cent record still intact but his low weak effort was comfortably save by Shrews keeper Scott Howie.

Shrewsbury almost grabbed a first-half injury time goal when a scramble in the box forced most of the Forest Green players back in their own area to block several efforts from Duane Darby, Jake Sedgemore and Colin Cramb.

Seven minutes into the second half Paul Moore went close to grabbing his second goal in four games for Forest Green when he latched on to Alex Meechan's cross but his effort went wide of the right-hand post.

In the 67th minute Shrewsbury took the lead. O'Connor's corner fell to Cramb and his looping header took a deflection off a Forest Green player on its way into the net.

The Shrews could have wrapped up the three points with Luke Rodgers causing no end of havoc for the Forest Green defence, but the chances went begging.

They were left to rue those misses when they did not deal with Hugh McAuley's cross in the 90th minute.

A goalmouth scramble ended with Ingram toe-poking the ball into the left-hand corner of the net.