Forest Green Rovers’ electric ambition fuels promotion to League One

It seems apt that Journey’s song Don’t Stop Believin’ gets an airing on board Forest Green Rovers’ electric coach, as it quietly eats up the final mile of the trip to Memorial Stadium on Saturday, three hours before the Gloucestershire side cement promotion to League One with a 0-0 draw at Bristol Rovers, becoming the smallest club to reach the division.

Forty years after lifting the FA Vase against Rainworth Miners Welfare and toasting promotion from the Hellenic League Premier Division, the ninth tier of English football, Forest Green will soon be preparing to host Derby, Ipswich and Portsmouth. The goalkeeping coach, Dan Connor, is the unofficial DJ and controls a diverse playlist that ranges from Rihanna to Fleetwood Mac and Outkast. “I’m open to requests on the way back,” he says, smiling.

Rob Edwards, the impressive Forest Green head coach, the head of football operations, James Mooney, Connor and three of the team’s locally based players – Dom Bernard, Kane Wilson and Josh March – are among the first to board the coach just before 10.30am for what is a historic journey: Forest Green are the first team in the world to travel to a sporting event in a zero-emissions vehicle.

“Let’s go,” says Edwards as the coach pulls out of Another Way before snaking through Nailsworth, a town home to about 7,000 people, the colourful Saturday farmers’ market in full flow. The topic of conversation equally takes many twists and turns, from Tyson Fury’s fight against Dillian Whyte, Clint Eastwood and even vacuums, as we pass Dodington Park estate, which is owned by James Dyson.

The rest of the squad, all wearing recyclable tracksuits, some players carrying reusable water bottles, get on at a hotel on the outskirts of Bristol after