Michael Duff impressed with Cheltenham’s footballing display - 7M sport

Michael Duff impressed with Cheltenham’s footballing display



Posted Wednesday, October 23, 2019 by PA

Michael Duff impressed with Cheltenham’s footballing display

Cheltenham manager Michael Duff felt some of his side’s football in the second half of their 3-0 home win over Macclesfield was as good as he’s seen since he took the job.

Macclesfield edged much of the first half, but found themselves a goal down when Luke Varney struck in the 45th minute.

Cheltenham went on to dominate the second period, adding further goals through Conor Thomas and Ryan Broom to move up to second in the table.

“I thought the first half was tight and they are not bad, Macclesfield,” Duff, who was appointed in September last year, said.

“They have definitely improved and it was a nip and tuck first half with one real moment of quality got our noses in front.

“In the second half we were excellent and they looked a bit punch-drunk in the end, for the last 10 minutes, because we’d moved them all over the place.

“When you do dominate the ball and move it as quickly as we did in the second half, the last 25 minutes was as good as anything I’ve seen from us.”

First-team coach Danny Whitaker felt his side performed well before falling behind and then admitted it quickly went wrong.

“We have been brought back down to earth a bit, but that’s football and you have ups and downs along the season,” he said.

“We have to pick ourselves back up for Saturday now.

“There were four or five who did themselves justice, but we are a young group and we need to learn and learn quickly.

“Coming to Cheltenham on a Tuesday night is not going to be easy. You have to adapt and play a little bit differently in different circumstances.

“Before their first goal we played really well and causing some problems.

“Things then went against us and we have to bounce back.”

The away side threatened early on, with Joe Ironside going close with a header in the 17th minute.

Chris Hussey fired over from the edge of the box for Cheltenham after Charlie Raglan’s low ball from the right after half an hour.

Cheltenham were well shackled by their visitors, but they found a breakthrough in the final minute before half-time.

Raglan’s ball forward found Broom and after a clever flick made space in the penalty area he fed Varney, who finished first time low past Owen Evans for his fifth goal of the season.

Cheltenham started the second half strongly and deservedly doubled their lead in the 59th minute.

A shot from Raglan was deflected out to Hussey on the left and his low ball in was cleared as far as Thomas, who fired into the net.

Broom rounded off the scoring after Jonte Smith’s pass, rounding the goalkeeper and finishing into the empty net in the 76th minute for his sixth of the season and Cheltenham are unbeaten in nine.

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