THE Football Association are to investigate suspicious betting patterns for Forest Green's match at Grays on Sunday after large amounts of money were staked on a 22-1 outcome. Two bookies, William Hill and Blue Square, suspended betting the day before the game after a large number of bets - including three-figure sums - were placed on Grays to win after trailing at half-time. The match ended 2-1 to Grays, a team from Essex, who were losing 1-0 at the break. An FA spokesman said: "We take these matters very seriously and we will investigate." Forest Green have responded to the allegations with the following statement: "Forest Green Rovers FC are deeply concerned to learn from press reports made this morning making allegations concerning irregular betting patterns, which lent to the suspension of bets some 24 hours before the match against Grays Athletic took place in the Blue Square Premier. "The club will support any investigation into this allegation but it is disappointed that despite betting being suspended 24 hours before kick off that neither of the clubs were contacted nor were other standard practices put into operation by both the Football Association and the Football Conference. "A joint complaint has therefore been lodged to both these bodies. "Therefore at this stage, until the club receives any further information it is not in a position to make any formal statements as no specific allegations have been made to them." The sums involved were not as high as that staked on the Accrington Stanley v Bury match last season which has led to the FA charging six players including Forest Green striker Andy Mangan with breaching betting rules. On that game, one bookie alone took £281,000 in bets, 20 times the normal sum. William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said: "When you have a meaningless end-of-season match you are not expecting to take much money and all of a sudden you are being offered a large number of bets for one outcome and some relatively substantial bets. "It was a 22-1 shot for the home team to be losing at half-time and to win at full-time. "The biggest sum placed was a three-figure bet so we suspended betting on Saturday afternoon. Interestingly, another bookmaker unbeknown to us did the same thing which suggests this not a freak occurrence." Sharpe said there was no reason for the heavy betting on the Grays versus Forest Green game such as occurred two months ago when news spread among fans that another Blue Square Premier side Weymouth would be forced to play a team of youngsters against Rushden and Diamonds. "If you can see an explanation you adjust the odds but if can't then you have to pull the plug on the game and report it to the Gambling Commission, which is the action we took," said Sharpe.