Forest Green coach Josh Bowen heaped praise on Reading loanee Kelvin Abrefa after a convincing 2-0 win over Eastleigh in the National League.

A debut goal from Will Grigg and a second-half strike from Filozofe Mabete gave the coaching trio of Bowen, Yan Klukowski and Jonathan Gould their first three points since Robbie Savage departed for League One side, Peterborough United.

“I have known Kelvin for years, he can be anything he wants to be when he is on it and his mentality is right,” Bowen said on the trust he has in the Reading loanee. “He has got every attribute to be a top player for us and in the future as well, he was excellent all night I thought.”

The only downside on the night was the injury concern surrounding Freddie Sass, who was replaced by Neil Kengni midway through the first half after appearing to sustain a serious foot injury. Bowen confirmed he will be assessed during the course of the week.

Rovers threatened a lot down the flanks in the first-half and their pressure paid off after 28 minutes when Abrefa found the unmarked Grigg just a couple of yards out for an easy tap-in past Nick Townsend in the Eastleigh goal.

“Will (Grigg) has great pedigree; we know what he is about. He is a great lad in the dressing room, the standards he sets and then on the pitch as well; he has got that great quality and that nous. He was excellent for as much as he could give us; he will only get fitter and stronger as well. D’Mani (Mellor) did excellently when he replaced him and gave us a really good outlet.”

After a month in collaborative control of the squad, Bowen said: “The Wealdstone game we went behind and I thought we did really well to come back and we probably deserved more from the game. The one real disappointment that we have had is the Hartlepool game; we conceded far too many easy and preventable goals and gave ourselves a mountain to climb.

“Chesham away from home in the FA Cup, they are only one division below us, that is going to be tough for any team and we kept a clean sheet there.”

Grigg, who made 13 appearances for Northern Ireland between 2012 and 2018, worked extremely hard on his official debut until he was replaced with 25 minutes to go.

Praising the veteran striker’s efficiency in front of goal, Bowen said: “I really don’t think we are far away, we have spoken about the chances we create. The strikers that we have got, a couple of them are missing.

“D’Mani (Mellor) has done excellently since he came in. Will just is another option for us, but all of them are going to be vital from now until the end of the season, he has got his chance and given us 60 really good minutes. I am delighted that we have got really good options up there especially.”

Jayden Clarke was continually dangerous over set-pieces in the clash with the Spitfires, he had a chance of his own with 68 minutes on the clock when his fierce free-kick rattled the crossbar and the resulting effort couldn’t be tapped away.

Forest Green eventually doubled their tally just six minutes later from another set-piece when Townsend had palmed away an effort into the path of Mabete for him to drill home the three points from close range.

“We do carry a real threat from set-plays and we worked on that certainly going into this game. We looked dangerous from them all night and luckily, he got that one, I was delighted that he was alive to that dropping ball to smash it home. He didn’t need to smash it as hard as he possibly did and risk missing it over the bar, but it was great to see it hit the back of the net.”

Despite Saturday’s clash with Barrow being abandoned, Rovers started poorly giving away a cheap goal from kick-off. Having put that right on Wednesday evening, Bowen said: “Myself, Yan (Klukowski) and Jonathan (Gould) had words after the game when we went inside. In addition to that, the players led most of the rampage afterwards, they all pointed fingers at themselves and other players. They knew, they didn’t even need the coaches to tell them it was unacceptable what had happened. That gave us a real platform then to put that to bed and really be able to start games on the front foot.”

In truth, the result was relatively convincing and Rovers will feel that it could have been more, they defended excellently throughout and Luke McNicholas was rarely called into action during the course of the 90 minutes.

“It was routine in the sense that we had to work hard for the whole game, we restricted them to very little, we have to go back and remember how many times Luke actually had to make a save and that is not taking anything away from him because I thought he was excellent at taking crosses and that sort of stuff. We restricted them to very little and created a host of opportunities ourselves, really pleasing.”

Since returning to life in the National League, Forest Green extend their winning run over Matt Gray’s Eastleigh side to five games after Wednesday night’s result.

Rovers host high-flying Harrogate Town on Saturday in the lunchtime kick-off. On the quick turnaround, Bowen said: “It is the same for them (having played on Wednesday against Carlisle). In terms of our squad, I always believe we are one of the fittest teams in the league when you see our energy and the way we get after the ball. There are no excuses really, whatever team we put out will be able to give everything for 90 minutes.”

The win takes Forest Green up to 15th in the National League, eight points outside of the playoff positions.

Forest Green Rovers (4-2-3-1): McNicholas; Abrefa, Mabete, McIntyre, Sass (Kengni 23); Clarke, Campbell; McAllister, Kelly (Haughton 78), Etaluku (Ifeanyi 78); Grigg (Mellor 63).

Subs not used: Ross, Kircough, Ewing.

Eastleigh (4-2-3-1): Townsend; Caprice (Rankine 46), Eweka, Dobson-Ventura, Koiki (Johnson 46); Sidwell (Hawkins 83), Cousins; Dickov, Ghandour (Williams 46), Randall (Stone 78); Blair.

Subs not used: Jeffries, Bakare.

Referee: Harrison Blair.

Attendance: 1147 (46 away).