Forest Green were knocked out of the Carabao Cup after falling to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Premier League Brighton and Hove Albion at The Bolt New Lawn.

Head Coach Ian Burchnall made four changes from Saturday’s defeat to Plymouth Argyle as quartet Sean Robertson, Dom Bernard, Armani Little and Connor Wickham all came in to the starting XI.

It was a cagey opening 25 minutes in Nailsworth that saw the away side have the majority of the ball but create nothing too troubling for Rovers keeper Luke McGee.

But on 27 minutes Brighton came almightily close to taking the lead as Deniz Undav flicked a Julio Enciso corner toward goal, only to be denied by the near post before McGee collected the rebound.

Rovers’ best chance of the half came through Corey O’Keeffe 10 minutes from the break as he cut in from the left before letting fly, his curling effort grazing the roof of the net.

However just moments later it was the away side would go ahead as Undav raced in on goal before going one better than his earlier woodwork hit, finding the back of the Rovers net.

And it was two in first half stoppage time as Steven Alzate set himself before unleashing a powerful low drive into the far bottom corner, leaving Rovers with it all to do after the break.

Into the second half and there was a triple change in the offing from Burchnall as Kyle McAllister, Jamille Matt and new signing Myles Peart-Harris came into the action.

Rovers came close on 53 minutes as Bailly Cargill did brilliantly to find substitute McAllister on the far side before his mazy run and pass found the feet of March whose effort was well saved by Brighton keeper Jason Steele.

The resulting corner fell to the feet of Ben Stevenson on the edge of the box but his hard hit volley fizzed just wide of goal in front of the loud South Stand.

Just past the hour mark and Undav came close to his second and Brighton’s third of the night but he could only head Evan Ferguson’s cross wide of goal.

Rovers made another two substitutions later in the half and one of them Reece Brown came close 20 minutes from time, as his makeshift volley drifted agonisingly wide of goal.

Burchnall’s men pushed to try and get back into the tie but their defeat was confirmed in injury time when Ferguson flicked home a third to eliminate Rovers from the competition.