Forest Green Rovers vs Tranmere Rovers. Sky Bet League Two Play-Offs Semi-Final.
The New LawnAttendance4,492.
1-2
Watch Forest Green vs Tranmere live on Sky Sports Football from 7.30pm on Monday; Kick-off is at 7.45pm
Monday 13 May 2019 19:00, UK
Forest Green will hope to make home advantage count when they take on Tranmere in their League Two play-off semi-final decider at The New Lawn.
Ollie Banks' stunner gave Micky Mellon's side a 1-0 advantage on Merseyside, yet Forest Green turned in a fine defensive display after the early dismissal of Gavin Gunning to keep the deficit down and keep alive their hopes of reaching the Wembley final on May 25.
Forest Green will be without Gunning for the second leg after he was sent off after only 15 minutes at Prenton Park for kicking out at Jay Harris.
Striker Reuben Reid was left out of the squad for the first game but could be recalled.
George Williams missed the final two games of the regular season with a twisted ankle, but returned as a substitute in the first game on Friday and could be pushing for a recall to the starting line-up.
Tranmere have no new injury problems as they look to secure a place in the final at Wembley.
Manager Micky Mellon may name an unchanged team, although he has the likes of Jonathan Smith available should he wish to tweak things.
Luke McCullough (knee), Mark Ellis (knee), Ishmael Miller (hamstring) and Evan Gumbs remain long term absentees for Tranmere.
Rovers are bidding to return to League One for the first time since 2014, while Forest Green have never featured in the third tier.
Forest Green boss Mark Cooper: "It was a magnificent effort from the players and the supporters (on Friday). It's a proud night for Forest Green I would say.
"I've seen it (the red card). It looks a little bit harsh to me. He's flicked out with his leg. It's not a stamp. It's a foul for us and he's flicked out. It's harsh.
"I was pleased with the way we kept the ball at times as well and created two really good opportunities and we should have had two penalties.
"The fourth official told me that the referee said he (Doidge) dived. He's clean through on goal, he's our top goalscorer and (apparently) he chose to dive on the penalty spot. Fantastic.
"We were up against it but we came through it manfully and we gave ourselves an opportunity in the home game."
Tranmere boss Micky Mellon: "Ollie Banks got us a goal. Let's be clear about that. It's a fantastic strike. All that goal-line technology did was confirm it.
"You want to come out of that first two halves of football making sure hopefully that you've got some sort of advantage going into the second one. Whether it's home or away it doesn't matter.
"We got that goal - fantastic goal, wasn't it - just couldn't get the second against a team that decided that they were going to play five, three and one up top.
"They sat in there and made it very difficult. They've got a lot of big units. It's difficult to find space in and around there.
"There's loads of things that we could say that we would like to be better at but certainly going into the second leg with an advantage we've got to be pleased."
Forest Green lost 1-0 at Prenton Park in the first leg of this play-off tie; each of the last nine sides to lose the first leg of a League Two play-off semi-final away from home were eliminated, with Rochdale the last to overturn such a deficit in 2008, beating Darlington on penalties after both sides won their home leg 2-1.
Forest Green won their only previous home meeting with Tranmere in the Football League 3-1 in October 2018.
Tranmere Rovers are without a win in four away matches in League Two (D2 L2), this after having won each of the three beforehand.
Forest Green have gone three matches without a win in all competitions (D1 L2), last going longer without victory back in November 2018 (five games).
Christian Doidge has been directly involved in eight of Forest Green's last 15 goals in League Two, scoring six and assisting two. Doidge has scored in both of his last two matches at the New Lawn (two goals).
Tranmere forward James Norwood has scored 29 goals in League Two in 2018-19; the last player to reach 30+ goals in a single campaign in the division (including play-offs) was Tom Pope for Port Vale in 2012-13 (31).
