Exeter City picked up their first win on the road in style thanks to a Jevani Brown hat-trick and Sam Nombe's early strike.
Saturday's loss to Burton Albion led to manager Matt Taylor making changes to the starting XI and the bench. Jack Sparkes and Sam Nombe came into the starting XI to replace Jonathan Grounds and Matt Jay, with academy graduates Harrison King and Pedro Borges making the bench for the first time in the league this season.
After seven years away City were back in League action live on Sky Sports, all while sporting the pink and black away kit for the first time this season.
With only six minutes on the clock, the dynamic duo of Nombe and Brown joined forces once again. A sloppy pass out from the back by a Forest Green defender led to Brown picking the ball up 25-yards out from the goal, he then slid the ball into Nombe in the box who slotted under Luke McGee in the Rovers net to open the scoring.
Come the 17th minute City were on the attack once again with Nombe finding his way in behind the Rovers defence. After some magic feet taking the ball past the keeper, it trickled out to Rekeem Harper on the edge of the area, with bellows of SHOOT, Harper let loose but his shot had too much power behind it and it fired well over the stand.
25 minutes played and Jevani Brown made it 2-0 to City. After a high boot from Ben Stevenson connected with the head of Rekeem Harper in the penalty area, the referee Ben Speedie gave a penalty. Brown stepped up and found the same corner as Nombe earlier in the half.
An absolutely unbelievable moment in the 35th minute, for the first time in the game Rovers found themselves in the City penalty area and at the first and second time of asking Blackman made two fantastic saves, either side of an Alex Hartridge goal-line clearance denied Forest Green their first of the game.
After the heart in mouth moment down one end, City were on the attack once again, this time Jay Stansfield who was fed the ball by Collins down the left hand side. A lovely piece of skill from Stansfield left one defender frozen in time, then the next touch of the ball found Brown 12 yards out, after steadying himself he hit the back of the net once again making it 3-0 to The Grecians.
Coming out for the second half Matt Taylor kept it completely unchanged from the side in the first half who put three goals past Forest Green.
With City leading the game 3-0 they were allowed to sit back and play the game how they wanted to and that’s what they did in the opening 15 minutes of the second half. The first chance of the second-half fell to an unlikely source, captain Pierce Sweeney, whose flick on from a free-kick led to a superb save from McGee in the Rovers net.
Another sight on goal, this time a more likely source of goals, Nombe, picking up the ball outside the 18-yard box but his effort just sailed wide of the post, the chances are coming once again for City who after 68 minutes were still three up.
McGee in the Forest Green goal came to their rescue once again in the 74th minute making a fantastic save from a beautiful jinxing run by Archie Collins. The next piece of play saw Stansfield chasing back a Rovers counter attack which then saw him take a yellow for the team for a tactical challenge. This was to be his last action of the game as he was replaced by club captain Matt Jay.
With only eight minutes left to play of normal time, marauding left wing back Sparkes found himself in the attacking penalty area, only for a few seconds though as he was upended by a Rovers defender. There was only one man to take the penalty and it was the magic man Brown, who completed his hat-trick putting the game to bed at 4-0.
City are next in action this Saturday against Bristol Rovers in a 3pm kick-off at SJP. Click here to tickets.
City XI: Blackman, Caprice, Key, Sweeney (C), Hartridge, Sparkes, Harper, Collins, Brown (Chauke), Stansfield (Jay), Nombe
Subs not used: Brown, Smith, Cox, Borges, King
Forest Green: McGee, Bernard, Casey, Stevenson, Hendry (Brown), Moore-Taylor, Jones, Mcallister (Fiabema), Wickham, Peart-Harris (Little), Davis (March)
Subs not used: Thomas, O’brien, Bunker,
Referee: Ben Speedie
Attendance: 2623