Just keeping my Cheltenham match reports together
Cheltenham Town 1 Scunthorpe United 0I watched the first 30 minutes of this game last night and then put it on pause and watched the rest of it after the Stags game. It was a scrappy win for Cheltenham against a very poor Scunthorpe United side who were described by the BBC Radio Gloucestershire commentators in the first 20 minutes as the worst side seen at Whaddon Road for quite a while. Scunthorpe could be one of the two sides who may finish below the Stags and keep us in the EFL.
Cheltenham took the lead after 5 minutes with a very soft penalty scored by Reuben Reid after George Hornshaw was deemed to have brought down Elliot Bonds. However Cheltenham made heavy weather of putting Scunthorpe to the sword and Scunthorpe slowly grew into the game and Abu Eisa did have a couple of chances to equalise in the 2nd half. Cheltenham also had to defend a few corners in the 100th minute as they hung on for a win. The reason that the game went on so long was that two young Cheltenham players had to be stretchered off - midfield player, Elliott Bonds (20) (on loan from Bournemouth) and striker, George Lloyd (20). Charlie Raglan also looked like he had taken a knock when he went into a hard challenge. The local commentators said that Cheltenham have not played as well at home this season as last season (W11 D5 L2) but they have still won 2 out of 3 home games. Neil Cox and his assistant, Mark Lillis, had to self isolate and so were not at the game. Scunthorpe should have put the physio in charge. They got promoted to the Championship the last time they did that.
Matty Blair played at right wing back for Cheltenham and had a shot well saved in the 2nd half. Liam Sercombe followed up but his shot was pushed over the bar. Sub, Andy Williams, who came on for Reuben Reid also had a shot saved and then shot wide on the counter attack in injury time. Reuben Reid has a great scoring record for Cheltenham with 8 goals in 11 starts. He was described as being very strong when the ball is played to him with his back to goal but he is not going to run the channels for you.
Chris Clements played in the holding midfield role for Cheltenham. He was just as slow as ever ambling over to take his ineffective corners but he had a decent game and certainly passed the ball a lot quicker and better than James Perch who I thought had his best game for the Stags last night (apart from letting Adam Phillips run straight past him for the goal).
Michael Duff and Matty Blair interview
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