Cheltenham Town v BRFC Match Thread

Well there’s the one goal for Cheltenham- we just need seven more and we cracked it after all we done it before

UTG

Excellent result. 10 points in October so I'm satisfied. Anything else from the next few games will be a very welcome bonus.

Stats: Cheltenham Town 1 BRFC 4 - 51% - 49% - Shots 10-5 - On Target 4-4 - Corners 7-2 - Fouls 10-6 - Referee: Samuel Barrott - Attendance: 5,145 (1,430 away)

A stunning first-half performance from Rovers secured all three points against Cheltenham Town as the Gas extended their winning run in the league to three games in a row.

Joey Barton made two changes to the side that started the game against MK Dons on Tuesday evening. In came Antony Evans and Sam Finley for Luke McCormick and Josh Coburn who started the game on the substitutes' bench.

Cheltenham goalkeeper Luke Southwood slid out of his area with the ball in his hands to give Rovers a free-kick in the game's opening stages. Paul Coutts looked to drive the ball hard and low across the Cheltenham penalty area but the hosts were smart to it and were able to intercept and clear the danger.

Rovers raced into an early lead. Aaron Collins capitalised on a poor back pass and was able to round Southwood and roll the ball into an empty net for his seventh league goal of the season.

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Cheltenham looked to respond following their early set-back. Lewis Freestone's header was bundled away by Rovers and the lead remained intact.

Rovers galloped into a two-goal lead soon after. Neat play from Sam Finley and goalscorer Aaron Collins ended with the latter clipping the ball towards the back post where Antony Evans was on hand to head the ball past Southwood for his third goal this season.

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Former Rovers man Ryan Broom looked to break after a loose touch from Bobby Thomas. Expert defending from Jordan Rossiter shepherded the Cheltenham no.32 away from goal.

Rovers had their third just before the half-time interval. A Paul Coutts corner was met by Bobby Thomas who fired his header back across the goal for his second goal for the Gas.

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As the clock ticked into added time at the end of the first half the Gas made it four. A long kick downfield from Belshaw was brought down magnificently and he kept his composure to round Southwood for the second time in the game, scoring his eighth of the season.

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After the interval, the home side were awarded a penalty in the 53rd minute after Finley was adjudged to have committed a foul in the box. Former Rovers player Liam Sercombe kept his composure from the spot to grab a goal back for the Robins.

Rovers then survived after a long throw-in from the right was flicked on the edge of the six-yard box but they were relieved to see the assistant’s flag raised for a free kick. Soon after Evans picked up a loose ball outside the area after Coutts has played a wonderfully flighted ball out to the right wing. Evan’s shot however cleared the crossbar.

Belshaw was called into action for the first time in the second half to make a smart save to keep out a Ryan Broom effort from a tight angle and the subsequent corner was cleared away to safety.
With just under twenty minutes to play Gibson entered the referee’s notebook for a late tackle on the halfway line.

Joey Barton then made a double switch with Harry Anderson replacing Loft and Josh Coburn coming on for Jordan Rossiter. Luke McCormick then entered the fray, replacing Sam Finley, as the game ticked into the final ten minutes.

For the final Gas change Gibson came off for Trevor Clarke and Collins came off for Luca Hoole.
A late Robins’ cross caused danger in the area but substitute Hoole did well to clear as the Gas comfortably saw out the game to their third league win in a row.

Next up for the Gas is the Papa John’s Trophy clash against Swindon Town at The Memorial Stadium on Tuesday 18 October at 19:00.

Cheltenham Town: Luke Southwood, Sean Long (c), Caleb Taylor, Lewis Freestone, Ryan Jackson, Ben Williams, Liam Sercombe, Elliot Bonds, Taylor Perry, Ryan Broom, Dan N'Lundulu.

Subs: Shaun MacDonald, Tom Bradbury, Charlie Brown, Ellis Chapman, Christian Norton, James Olayinka, Daniel Adshead.

Rovers: James Belshaw, Lewis Gordon, Lewis Gibson, Bobby Thomas, James Gibbons, Paul Coutts (c), Jordan Rossiter, Sam Finley, Antony Evans, Aaron Collins, Ryan Loft.

Subs: Anssi Jaakkola, Josh Coburn, Sylvester Jasper, Luke McCormick, Harry Anderson, Trevor Clarke, Luca Hoole.

If you want to inspire your team then this is a good way...

Wolves' match-winner Ruben Neves alerted his team-mates to the pre-match social media wind-up that backfired badly on Nottingham Forest at Molineux.

In the build-up to their 1-0 defeat, Forest's official Twitter account posted a mock-up picture of striker Emmanuel Dennis sat on the pitch at the City Ground with three wolf cubs calmly sat with him, with the caption 'Playtime'.

The post was subsequently deleted, but not before Neves had forwarded it to the Wolves squad.

Neves went on to score the only goal from the penalty spot to lift Wolves out of the relegation zone and leave Forest bottom of the Premier League.

Wolves then posted 'Playtime's over', together with a picture of an axe embedded in a tree trunk.

"Yes, we were aware of it," said Wolves interim manager Steve Davis. "We were going to use it in the talk but Ruben said he put it on the players' chat so I didn't need to say any more.

"Those sort of things used to happen on the pitch. That doesn't happen so much now, but it gave us an edge."

What did your Nham pal think of us, Bas? According to their forum we were very ordinary and it was all down to them being atrociously poor. And of course we were wasting time at every opportunity.

11th in the table.

3 points off Barnsley who occupy the last play off place.

😉👍

I saw that when I got back. Every club we beat seem to say we’re not very good. Oxford, Cambridge, MKD and now Cheltenham were all saying we’re not special and even poor in some cases. Yet they didn’t beat us and we won and in a few cases thrashed them. I’ll settle for that and hope all teams underestimate us. Blimey, Cambridge and Cheltenham esp thinking they should beat us! 

What I like is the ability to do it different ways. Against Burton, Cheltenham we came out and blitzed them in the first half and then played the match out. Against Cambridge, MKD, we battled and got stronger to win in the second half. Got to be good.

This playing twice a week seems to really suit us. In Jan /Feb /March we seemed to have 6 or 7 weeks like that and we shot up into contention. This season we’ve had the last two weeks of it and it’s shot us up the table. Need a good squad to do that and it seems we have got a squad capable of beating teams in League 1. 👍

UTG!

We do have a competent squad and have players who can conjure that bit of magic to win games. Even with the injuries and suspensions over the past month or two we have enough in our locker to beat the likes of Lincoln, Morecambe or Accrington imho and with no disrespect to any of these clubs. The difference at the moment is that Barton is tinkering much less and using a system that suits the players we have hence better results. We’ll see over the next few games if we are good enough to compete with the better sides in this league. Having watched the goals from yesterday it looked to me like all our goals came from defensive mistakes but these happened because we were hustling their players into this. Based on last year if Coutts plays well then the team generally do too. In my opinion he is the heartbeat of our team