Learning curve Young players will be better for that experience
TUESDAY night’s 3-0 Papa John’s Trophy defeat by Portsmouth will be a learning curve for Cheltenham Town’s young players, says manager Michael Duff.
Duff made eight changes from Saturday’s 5-3 win over Exeter with only Ben Tozer, Alfie May and Finn Azaz surviving.
The first goal arrived in the 15th minute when Ben Close fed Haji Mnoga at the back post and the right wing-back cut inside and found the corner.
Hiwula struck in the 29th minute when ex-robins youth team player Cam Pring’s cross was nodded to him by Alfie Stanley and he beat Scott Flinders.
The third stemmed from Bryn Morris’ free-kick which was seized upon by Hiwula and his early shot beat Flinders five minutes into the second half.
Cheltenham Town (3-4-3): Flinders; Bowry, Tozer (Lloyd 46), Freestone; Sang, Azaz (Miles 77), Chamberlain, Chapman; May (Blair 46), Reid, Williams. Subs not used: Hussey, Griffiths, Ebanks, Jakeways.
Portsmouth (3-5-2): Bass; Bolton, Downing, Nicolaisen; Mnoga, Close, Morris, Bell (Storey 62), Pring; Hiwula, Stanley (Jae Lee 77). Subs not used: Jewitt-white, Brook, Kavanagh, Rew, Seymour.
Referee: Kevin Johnson.
» Duff on the result: Beaten by a better team. Disappointing the way we didn’t compete with them. No excuses, but the formation was slightly different. If you are playing against better opposition,
You have to head it more than them and run harder than them and I didn’t think we did that well enough Michael Duff
which they clearly are because of their league status, then you have to head it more than them and run harder than them and I didn’t think we did that well enough and it showed in the result.
» Duff on going out of the competition: It’s a relief to have one less thing to worry about, but it’s not a relief to lose a game. The key is we are still in the FA Cup and there have been a lot of games and it’s caught up with us in the last week. It catches up with different teams at different moments. So could we have done without the game? Probably because we are carrying a few knocks, but it’s been good to us, this competition and there was enough in that team to win the game, but we didn’t do enough.
» Duff on his substitutions: That was always going to happen and it was just trying to protect players. We weren’t in a position to change all 11. The game had gone by the time Felix (Miles) went on so we were just trying to rest Finn (Azaz). He’s not had as much football as some of the others, but he needs minutes, so it was just another opportunity to give someone a debut and get somebody off that’s played a lot of football.
» Duff on his young players: It’s a learning curve for some of them. We have some good footballers, but there are three sides to a game. I’ve just told them, you have the ball for 90 seconds, or two minutes tops in a game. Games last 100 minutes now, so what are you doing? The players that make it to the top are the ones that tune in and deal with the other side of the game and they did that better than us and it showed in the result.
» Duff on Tom Sang and Ellis Chapman: I thought Sangy did all right. Ellis will have been disappointed with his performance, but we needed to see them in those positions because we believe they can play there. In the first half Sangy had a good battle with Pringy (Cam Pring). Ellis needs to learn that being a good footballer just isn’t enough and that’s what he’s just been told, it’s part of his learning. He wasn’t a brilliant player after the South Shields game and next couple of games and he’s not become a bad player off the back of two performances where he’s not done the other side of the game well enough. It’s our job to coach him and teach him.
» Duff on Dan Bowry and Lewis Freestone: Lewis has been good. Dan has to learn that he has to do better in the air, more dominant and he knows that. It’s a reminder of the level you have to get to. But it’s part of Dan’s learning, he’s gone away in non-league, but the higher the level, the bigger, the stronger, the quicker they see things, so you need to be bigger, stronger, quicker and more intelligent as well.
» Duff on Tom Chamberlain: Chambo will learn again. He’s not had a lot of football and he isolated for two weeks about three weeks ago, so he’s only been back training for about a week. He’ll be better for that. He’s a good footballer, but it shows him he needs to dictate the game more. Don’t just jog around and ask for the ball, get on the ball. It’s a bit like Chris Clements really and if he doesn’t make people give him the ball, he might as well not play. It’s something he’ll learn from. He did okay in spells.
» Duff on Felix Miles: He’s probably had his debut earlier than we’d want because he is a dot and he’s not trained a lot with the first team. I don’t want to do him down, but it was as much as trying to save other people tonight, as getting him on the pitch. Felix has been one of the better ones out of the youth team, he’s come up and trained, he has good feet, he’s a ‘jinker’ and he moves the ball well. It’s a night he’ll never forget.
» Duff on potential loan moves: Dan (Bowry) has been on the bench for the last three weeks so he needs to be ready. Chambo is slightly different and we’ll have a look at him. It’s a constant evaluation every week, every two weeks where the squad is at, where individuals are at because we could have done with Grant Horton, Tahvon Campbell and Alex Addai this evening, but bigger picture thinking, keeping them for this one game when they are going to get three or four elsewhere, bigger picture thinking.
» Duff on injuries: I don’t know whether they’ll all be fit, but we are hoping at least a couple of them will be. They are only knocks and it’s nothing too serious. Charlie Raglan with his ribs, and there were little tweaks. Hopefully they’ll be much improved by Thursday.