Forest Green Rovers can confirm our fourth pre-season friendly against Royal Wootton Bassett Town.
The fixture will take place at the Sustain Stadium on Saturday 27 July (3pm kick-off).
Admission is set to be £8 for adults, £5 for concessions and free for RWBTFC youth members.
Bassett will be striving to build on consecutive top five finishes as they push for another playoff finish and a tilt at promotion to the Southern League.
With the experienced Steve Cotterill at the helm, we go into the season seeking an immediate return to the EFL after consecutive relegations.
Four levels may separate Royal Wootton Bassett Town from Forest Green Rovers but there are plenty of links between the two clubs.
Having previously served in the role for the club’s reserve team when they finished as unbeaten champions of Hellenic League Division Two West in 2000-01, Mike Byrne was Bassett’s Men’s First Team assistant manager during Pete Yeardley’s time in charge from 2001 to 2004.
Byrne then moved to Forest Green, forming part of Rovers’ First Team coaching staff from 2004 to 2010. He is now back with the New Lawn club as their Head of Academy Coaching and Lead Academy Goalkeeper Coach.
Four former Forest Green players - including two Rovers greats - also have ties with Bassett.
Striker Paul ‘Oggy’ Hunt helped Forest Green to back-to-back promotions as Rovers reached the Conference (now the National League) for the first time in 1998.
Hunt also was part of the Forest Green sides that reached the 1998-99 and 2000-01 FA Trophy finals. Overall, from 1996 to 2001, he appeared in 116 games for Forest Green, registering 52 goals.
Hunt later had a brief spell with Bassett, scoring nine times in Hellenic League Division One West in 2008-09.
While Hunt’s time with Bassett was towards the end of his playing days, Paul Stonehouse featured in blue and yellow at the start of his.
From the town, the dynamic full-back featured for Bassett’s Under 18 Floodlit team in 2002-03 and 2003-04.
Stonehouse earned a contract with Forest Green in 2005 and, during a spell that lasted until 2010 when he moved to Mansfield Town, became Rovers’ youngest ever player to reach 100 National League appearances.
Stonehouse played 177 times in total for Forest Green, scoring seven goals.
RWBTFC boss Sam Collier’s former assistant Matt Bulman spent time with Forest Green during his playing career too. The ‘keeper was with Rovers from May 2011 to January 2013.
Jon Holloway - a defender who featured for Bassett in their 2009-10 Hellenic League Division One West promotion-winning campaign - also had a brief spell with Rovers in 2004.
