Michael Flynn relieved to see Cheltenham come from goal down to beat Accrington

Posted Wednesday, October 02, 2024 by PA

Michael Flynn was relieved to see his Cheltenham side come back from a goal down to defeat Accrington 2-1.

Second-half goals from Manni Norkett and Ryan Bowman completed the turnaround after Dara Costelloe’s opener for Stanley, who remain winless.

Cheltenham had been booed off after Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat by Fleetwood, but they did enough to claim a morale-boosting third win of the season.

“I haven’t had a good sleep since Saturday and I care deeply because first and foremost I am a professional and I want to do well and secondly, I enjoy being at Cheltenham Town,” Flynn said.

“It will do wonders for the group and for the supporters in terms of short little steps and a bit of belief because we are wafer thin at the minute with our injuries.

“We have a complete rebuild to do and we are going to have a long, up and down season, but when things are tough we need the supporters even more.”

Accrington had taken a deserved lead five minutes before half-time through Costelloe, who capitalised on an error from Robins skipper Scot Bennett and slotted a shot past Owen Evans and into the bottom left corner.

John Doolan’s side had earlier threatened through Seamus Conneely and then Kelsey Mooney, whose header drew a fine save from Evans.

Tom Pett was denied by the feet of goalkeeper William Crellin at the other end after being played in by Joel Colwill.

Cheltenham improved in the second half, with Nottingham Forest loanee Norkett’s first senior goal making it 1-1 in the 69th minute.

And Bowman’s first goal since joining Cheltenham in the summer sealed the points, heading in Liam Kinsella’s cross from the right 10 minutes from the end.

Evans made a superb save from Aaron Pickles in the final seconds and Stanley are still waiting for their first win of the season.

“We didn’t take our chance and we should have taken it, especially in the second half,” Doolan said.

“Dara scored a good goal first half and their keeper has made a world-class save from Kelsey after a good move from us and then he’s made another at the end from Pickles, so the least we deserved was a draw.

“We have to see that game out and we didn’t take our chances, so it’s very disappointing. I didn’t see it coming to be honest.

“We lacked a bit of quality at times, but we had that fighting spirit. Their equaliser was a mess and the lads think their second was offside from the lad who crossed the ball in, but Bowman has been doing that for a while in his career. It’s just really disappointing, but we have to go again, it’s as simple as that.”