New Forest Green boss Troy Deeney described his side’s goalless draw with Gillingham as “the first building block”.
Deeney’s first game in management yielded a point against a side with play-off ambitions, but the draw leaves struggling Rovers five points from safety.
The 35-year-old, who was appointed as David Horseman’s replacement on Wednesday, said: “Everyone could see the passion and want to change things and that’s the first building block. It’s about enjoying that togetherness and spirit tonight.
“It wasn’t a new manager bounce – it’s about putting players in positions they feel more comfortable. It would’ve worn off after 15 minutes if it was.
“We caused our problems more than anything, but it’s a good first day.”
On bringing in former Newcastle, Wolves and Sunderland forward David Kelly as his assistant, Deeney said: “The governor is in. I don’t know it all, so I needed some experience. He tells it as it is so there are no grey areas with him.”
Deeney’s side started at a frantic pace and Ryan Inniss headed over the crossbar from a deep corner in the first couple of minutes.
Callum Morton had Forest Green’s best chance of the half after Charlie McCann found the forward inside the area, but his effort was parried by Gills goalkeeper Jake Turner.
Rovers keeper Luke Daniels handled outside his penalty area, but Connor Mahoney lifted his free-kick over the crossbar.
Matty Stevens had a golden opportunity for the hosts from a well-worked short corner routine but missed the target.
Macauley Bonne headed straight at Daniels in Gillingham’s best effort before the break.
Robbie McKenzie’s speculative long-range effort had Daniels scrambling across goal, but the effort dropped wide of the mark.
Jonny Williams delivered an inch-perfect corner for Timothee Dieng, but his free header was smartly saved by Daniels.
Jayden Clarke’s curling effort just minutes later flew just past the far post as the Gills pressed for a winner after the break, but both sides had to settle for a point.
Gillingham manager Stephen Clemence admitted Deeney’s tactics shocked him.
He said: “The system surprised us a little and we had to make adjustments at half-time.
“They looked to catch us on the break and nearly did a couple of times, but the lads dealt with it.
“I was disappointed not to win the game, but it can be difficult when a team has a new manager.”
Lukaku among five withdrawals from Belgium squad
Romelu Lukaku has joined four other players in withdrawing from the Belgium squad due to injury ahead of Monday's Nations League finale against Israel.
Belgium sit third in Nations League Group A2 following their 1-0 defeat to Italy on Thursday, a result that ended their hopes of reaching next year's quarter-finals.
They are simply playing to avoid automatic relegation when they face Israel behind closed doors in Hungary, with a draw enough to send the Red Devils through to a play-off against a third-placed finisher from League B.
Napoli striker Lukaku – Belgium's all-time leading scorer with 85 goals in 120 caps – has joined Aston Villa's Amadou Onana, Chelsea's Romeo Lavia, Arthur Theate of Eintracht Frankfurt and Brugge's Maxim De Cuyper in dropping out with unspecified issues.
Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne had already asked not to be included in Domenico Tedesco's party as he works his way back to full fitness after suffering a thigh injury.
Sebastiaan Bornauw, Koni De Winter, Jeremy Doku and Youri Tielemans were also left out of Tedesco's squad due to fitness concerns, while uncapped Coventry City striker Norman Bassette has now been called up as cover.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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