Match Report
Forest Green Rovers 2 Yate Town 0 Diodge (29), Haughton (35)
GFA Senior Challenge Cup Semi-Final
Tuesday 13th January 2026
Yate Town, were knocked out of the Gloucester Senior Challenge Cup by a Forest Green Rovers side that contained a number of first team squad players, and gave a good account of themselves but in the end the full timers proved too strong for the Bluebells.
Forest Green Rovers started well and were in control for long periods with their first chance being when a Tre Pemberton cross was met by Elijah Morrison but his strike went just wide. Omar Taylor-Clarke shot well over for the Bluebells and a minute later a cross from the right was met by Christian Doidge to tap the ball home to put the hosts in front.
Five minutes later a mix up in the Forest Green Rovers defence led to a chance to equalise but when the ball was passed to Chris Zebroski he was in an offside position and the opportunity was lost. Shortly afterwards Nick Haughton ran unchallenged for 50 yards before firing the ball unto the bottom corner from the edge of the area to put Forest Green Rovers 2-0 up.
Goalmouth action as Forest Green Rovers pack their defence.
Rex Mannings tried a long range shot that went well over and Forest Green had a couple more efforts on goal before the end of the first half.
Joe Guest, who made his first start for the club since October.
The second half was a more even affair, but with few chances created. Corey Evans cut in from the left and saw his curling shot saw Forest Green Rovers goalkeeper, Fiachra Pagel, just manage to palm the ball away to safety.
Corery Evans shoots for goal.
A creative chip from Ryan Inniss led to Doidge through on goal to lob the ball over Aaron Sainsbury but the goal was ruled out for offside and James Ollis had a chance in the dying moments of the game but he shot straight at Pagel.
Yate Town: Sainsbury, Wakins, Jenkins (Ball 84), Moody, Batt, Taylor-Clarke (Sady 71), James, Guest, Evans, Mannings (Ollis 71), Zebroski (Felix 84)
Unused sub: Jackson
Bookings: Sady
Photos by Jack Palmer