Vincent’s a star as Robins rot is stopped
CHELTENHAM Town manager Mark Yates praised winger Ashley Vincent for providing the spark his side needed as they ended their sevenmatch winless run at Newport County.
Vincent made his first League Two start of the campaign and his closerange strike in the 22nd minute gave the Robins their opening victory of 2014, easing their fears of being dragged into a relegation battle.
“It’s time for people to step up now and the playoffs might be out of reach, but we can still finish eighth and the desire and commitment we showed today means we have a chance,” Yates said.
“It might be the lease of life Ashley Vincent needs and the bit of spark we needed as a team and as well as scoring he put a few crosses in which we have been missing.
“He was excellent for 50 minutes before he tired and I decided to keep him in January because if we can use him and get the best out of him, we have a very good player.”
Yates also hailed his side’s defensive effort at Rodney Parade as they became the first team to stop Newport scoring on their own pitch this term.
“We were good on the break and we limited them to one half chance despite having 33 crosses,” Yates said.
“We won everything because we wanted it and that’s what we needed.
“We’ve been far from perfect this season, but performances like that give you heart.
Newport assistant manager Jimmy Dack said there was real disappointed that the Exiles failed to build on last Tuesday’s win over Oxford United as their play-off hopes were dented.
“We are very disappointed and we were below par,” he said.“We played well on Tuesday and we had a chance to kick on, but it’s a very deflated dressing room, manager and supporters. “Conceding early didn’t help and I don’t want to use the pitch as an excuse because Cheltenham dealt with it.We knocked on the door, but we couldn’t open it up.
“We know with that pitch, going into the sand you can’t move the ball quickly, but in the second half playing into the good half we thought we could get in, but Cheltenham got men behind the ball and we couldn’t open them up, so we are really disappointed.”
Brundle started the move which led to the decisive goal, releasing Jermaine McGlashan on the right before Vincent stretched to force his low cross over the line.
Clear chances were at a premium but Chris Zebroski went close against his old club in the 38th minute.