Michael Duff delighted to see a moment of quality secure Cheltenham three points

Cheltenham boss Michael Duff hailed the “one moment of quality” during his promotion-chasing team’s 1-0 win at Harrogate.

Will Boyle’s 42nd-minute header from Sean Long’s chipped cross proved the difference as the Robins ended a run of five away games without a victory.

Duff was also encouraged by a third successive clean sheet, which equalled the visitors’ best league sequence for four years, and left them third in the League Two table.

He said: “It was a scrappy, ugly game on a pitch that wasn’t conducive to good football. It cut up and started to freeze, so there were a few bobbles as it started to get worse.

“It was also a game of few chances, but we had the few that there were and I can’t remember Josh (Griffiths) making a save. It was attritional and wasn’t pretty, but you can’t always play expansive football.

“Harrogate had come off the back of a couple of good results and it was a really hard-fought performance. It was a case of winning the knockdowns and flick-ons and being as big as we could be.

“It then came down to one moment of quality when we put four or five passes together and teed up Boylo for a brilliant header. I am delighted with the resilience and togetherness in the group, because we knew it would be a hard game.

“Harrogate have done well this season and recruited well in January, so I’m happy with keeping a third clean sheet on the spin too.”

Harrogate boss Simon Weaver felt his team were punished for five minutes of sloppy first-half defending, but also wanted greater attacking quality as the Sulphurites failed to net for a fourth game in their last five fixtures at Wetherby Road.

He said: “It was a real war of attrition and it was always going to be won by the team that kept their concentration defensively and we had five minutes of not clearing our lines and switching off.

“They did not make any such errors and deservedly won the game because of their defensive organisation.

“It was a frustrating night overall against a good, experienced team in Cheltenham who have height and strength and did ever so well against Manchester City and came here with the same game-plan of getting behind the ball and then in behind us by chasing everything.

“The pitch was hard and it was difficult to get the ball down, but we have two good wingers that like to have a go at opposition full-backs and we need to make sure we give them more of the ball than we did in this match.

“We should have been able to string at least four or five passes together, but we seemed to get frustrated and banged the ball forward hoping for the best and we have to be more sophisticated than that.”