Michael Duff applauds his Cheltenham side after victory at Charlton

Posted Sunday, September 12, 2021 by PA

Cheltenham manager Michael Duff applauded his side after their 2-1 victory against Charlton at the Valley.

First-half goals from Matty Blair and Taylor Perry put Cheltenham 2-0 up before Charlton substitute Jonathan Leko pulled one back after the break.

Cheltenham’s win puts them on nine points – 14th in League One – while the defeat for Charlton leaves them stuck on four points, clear of the relegation zone on goal difference.

“The most pleasing thing was the belief in the group,” Duff said. “We’ve gone 1-0 up three times this year and as soon as we’ve gone 1-0 up we’ve kept tossing the ball away and teams at this level will break you down.

“So the fact that we went 1-0 up and kept the ball, kept passing it…we had a 15-minute period in the second half where we were rocking a little bit but after that I thought we had the better chances.

“So yeah, absolutely delighted to come away to such a big club and basically get clapped off the pitch by some of their supporters, which says something about our performance.

“One thing we’ve shown is that we can be competitive in this league. We know where we are in the food chain, we’ve got no illusions of grandeur, we know we have to be absolutely at it every single week.”

The Robins’ visit to the Valley was the first in their history and Duff explained the motivation of coming to a club of Charlton’s stature.

He said: “Walking through the door and looking around, I told them, ‘This should inspire you, this is why you get promoted. We’ve earned the right to be here, so let’s prove we can compete to stay here’.”

Addicks boss Nigel Adkins was left thoroughly disappointed with his side’s performance, particularly their lacklustre first 45 minutes.

He said: “I’ve put trust in the team that did ever so well against Crewe and won our last game but for me, our first-half performance was unrecognisable from what we’ve seen since I’ve been at the football club. Just 11 individuals all over the place – well done to Cheltenham.

“That first-half performance was nowhere near good enough and the two goals we’ve conceded are really bad goals.

“We talk about ‘Stop the cross, deal with the cross’. We haven’t stopped the crosses, we haven’t dealt with the crosses that have come in.

“The second half was a lot better, we changed the shape and that helped the team and with a little bit more care we should have scored more goals because we had the opportunities to do that. There’s lots for us to go and work on.

“I think it’s been the best week on the training ground since I’ve been at the football club but that wasn’t evidenced in our first-half performance, I’m really disappointed with that. I’m responsible because I’m the manager.”