Cheltenham boss Duff hails midfield performance

Posted Sunday, August 11, 2019 by PA

Cheltenham manager Michael Duff heaped praise on his midfield trio after the Robins’ 4-1 home win over Scunthorpe.

The visitors took the lead through Lee Novak’s 55th minute strike, which came against the run of play.

But Cheltenham stormed back with three goals in five minutes through Ryan Broom, Charlie Raglan and Alex Addai, with Conor Thomas adding a late fourth from the penalty spot to seal their first victory of the season in style.

In a good all-round display, it was Chris Clements, Max Sheaf and debutant Jake Doyle-Hayes, who is on loan from Aston Villa, who impressed Duff the most.

“I thought the three in the middle of the park were excellent” he said.

“Clem (Chris Clements) only came off because he’s the smallest and I know he’s disappointed, but Jake showed what he’s about and so did Sheafy, nearly slipping people in and getting in good pockets.

“They are good footballers and they’ll have other challenges when we come up against teams when we won’t have the ball as much, but I thought they were excellent.

“We have more quality in the squad than there was 12 months ago. The squad was bigger then, but we’ve trimmed it down and added more quality.”

Scunthorpe boss Paul Hurst was furious with his team as they slumped to their second defeat, leaving them bottom of the early League Two table.

“I’m embarrassed and angry and I think that’s what the fans are as well,” he said.

“That’s not a team performance I enjoy being associated with.

“I’ve asked the players how much it means to them and how much it means to be a footballer.

“We went 1-0 up against the run of play and made it easy for Cheltenham.

“When we did try, the quality was extremely low.

“We kicked off after their second goal and they went up and scored a third. That says it all.

“We’ve got to improve one hell of a lot. We’ve got to show more enthusiasm and appetite for the game.

“With due respect to Cheltenham, we’ve played against one of the teams who weren’t fancied in the league and they deserved their win.”

Scunthorpe opened the scoring after a misplaced pass from Raglan was cut out by Matthew Lund, who set up Novak to finish neatly.

Visiting goalkeeper Jake Eastwood made two excellent saves either side of the goal.

He turned a powerful effort from Broom over the bar early in the second half and then blocked from Tahvon Campbell, who was in on goal after Gavin Reilly’s through ball in the 61st minute.

But Eastwood could do nothing to keep out Broom’s well-placed shot in the 68th minute after Sheaf’s pass.

Raglan then made up for his error by heading in Clements’ cross from the left in the 72nd minute and substitute Addai raced through to add the third a minute later.

Thomas rounded off the scoring from the penalty spot in the fourth minute of added time after Jordan Clarke tripped Addai in the box.