Duff relieved as Cheltenham hang on to defeat Morecambe

Posted Sunday, February 02, 2020 by PA

Cheltenham boss Michael Duff admitted his team were fortunate to hang on for a 2-1 home win over Morecambe.

The Robins led 2-0 at the break through Conor Thomas and Alfie May’s goals, but Morecambe pulled one back through substitute A-Jay Leitch-Smith.

The Shrimps pushed hard for a leveller in the closing stages, but the home side held on to move back into the play-off places.

“I think it’s fair to say we got away with one there,” Duff said. “We looked sloppy after starting well for the first two or three minutes.

“We then just got lulled in and it’s difficult sometimes because the crowd are just expecting us to win because of the league table, but football is not quite that simple.

“Derek (Adams) has them organised, hard-working and I didn’t think we deserved to be 2-0 up at half-time, so they’ll feel hard done by.

“But we were excellent at Bradford on Tuesday night (1-1 draw), when I thought we should have won the game.

“We’ve had quite a few draws at home in the last couple of months and not been able to go on and score that extra goal so maybe we were paid back a bit today, but that’s the credit gone and the players have been told that.”

Thomas opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 32nd minute after a clumsy challenge from ex-Robins full-back Jordan Cranston on Luke Varney in the box.

May added the second three minutes later, racing through after Morecambe conceded possession in their own half and Varney played him in for a confident finish.

It was the January signing from Doncaster’s fourth goal in five starts and Varney headed a cross from Sean Long just wide before half-time.

Morecambe asked a few questions early in the second half, but they failed to seriously test home goalkeeper Owen Evans.

May set up substitute Tom Nichols for a chance in the 70th minute but he could not bundle the ball over the line from close range.

A shot from May after Ryan Broom’s pass hit the outside of the right post, with Sam Lavelle’s header hitting the upright at the other end less than a minute later.

Leitch-Smith’s 84th-minute strike from Adam Phillips’ pass gave Morecambe hope.

They were close to a leveller, with Ben Tozer blocking a Cole Stockton effort on the line and Leitch-Smith hitting the bar as Cheltenham held on.

Shrimps boss Adams felt his side missed out on a big opportunity to pick up valuable points in their battle against the drop.

“We started off the game well and unfortunately we gave away a needless penalty to go 1-0 down and it was a penalty,” he said.

“They hadn’t done much in the game to cause us a great deal of trouble, but we found ourselves 2-0 down after a mistake, despite us playing well.

“We haven’t punished teams when they’ve made mistakes and we hit the bar and post, eventually scored one, then we were on top for the rest of the game.

“There was time-wasting and Cheltenham had to resort to the dark arts because we were on top

“They were holding on in the second half and they are very fortunate to come away with the victory and they know that.”