We chatted to Assistant Manager Michael Stone ahead of the Forest Green encounter

Nathan Abbey had a run in the side, but swapped over in midweek with Dale Roberts returning

Well the Manager always said with the outfield players that you have to earn the right to keep the shirt - that goes right throughout the team, he's been consistent in that philosophy right from pre season to now the season's kicked in.

It's the same for a goalkeeper, there's no reason if a goalkeeper perhaps doesn't play to his optimum that he should not feel his place is threatened. Dale's been very patient, he's trained very hard, he's been away and been outstanding with the England C side, and he's won the opportunity to win his shirt back. Obviously he'll know now that he's holding that shirt and he has to keep to the standard expected of him to make sure he hangs onto it. He's been frustrated but handled it very professionally, the same applies with Nathan. Nathan was feeling under the weather on Tuesday evening anyway, so we didn't risk him on the bench, but Dale deserves the opportunity, he's going to be back better and stronger for it.

It must be a nice situation to be in, with two keepers of such quality

Two keepers of great quality, and strength in the squad too. We feel like we've got people knocking on the door waiting for opportunities, people like Matt Pattison waiting to get back in that side, Macca (Nick McNamara) back from injury waiting for that opportunity. The strikers, Cliff's wanting to start, Sam Smith's now back in the frame - so there's competition and healthy competition within the squad.

The options up front are quite impressive too aren't they?

We're fortunate up front in that we may not have a centre forward up front on 16 or 17 goals like Brodie the other night, but we have got a good spread of goals, we've got 6's 7's and 8's across all the strikers. Jefferson's on 7 (including his Crawley goals), Cliff's on 8, so we've got a nice spread of players that we know are capable of scoring goals, so whichever two get the start will be out there determined to score the goals which will keep them in the team.