NEW Forest Green striker Magno Vieira insists the ambition shown by chairman Dale Vince and boss David Hockaday sealed the deal for the Brazilian hit-man.

Vieira signed a three-year-contract at the New Lawn last week after leaving Blue Square Premier champions Fleetwood Town on a free transfer.

He said: “What attracted me is the ambition of the chairman and the attitude of the manager, who seems to really rate me as a player.

“I’ve played against Forest Green over the past two years and I think they’ve improved loads.

“Hopefully I can help them improve further and add to what is already a good strike-force.”

The 27-year-old has made over 200 senior appearances and scored more than 70 times in a career that started with Wigan Athletic before taking in spells at Carlisle United, Barnet, Crawley Town, Wycombe Wanderers and Fleetwood Town.

And the likeable striker is hoping to prove a hit with the New Lawn fans.

He added: “They can expect goals. I’ve scored goals at every club I’ve been to.

“I enjoyed my two years with Fleetwood but felt it was the right time to move on and I think Forest Green is the right destination.”

Meanwhile, Forest Green’s second string are celebrating winning the Football Combination Southern Division title.

Coach Scott Bartlett and first team assistant boss Gary Seward guided Rovers to victory over illustrious Championship side Brighton and a double over League Two side Crawley in their campaign.

Bartlett said: “It’s a great league and to be competitive against the likes of Brighton shows we are heading in the right direction.”

Bartlett and Seward blooded a number of players from the Forest Green under-18s alongside the likes of Chris Todd, Al Bangura and Reece Styche, who used the games to build up their match fitness after lengthy injury spells.

And Bartlett revealed it was a pleasure to guide the team alongside Seward.

He added: “James Norwood would play every game if he could, which makes our job easy. Then you have senior pros like Luke Graham, Wayne Turk and Chris Todd, who have led by example whenever they have been asked to play. The all-round attitude and application has been superb.

“The Football Combination League has certainly served a purpose for us, we respected the competition and treated it properly using a mixture of our young players and senior professionals that needed games.”