We didn’t deserve any rewards, admits Duff
CHELTENHAM were knocked off the top of the Sky Bet League Two table by Cambridge, who defeated Newport on Saturday, after going down to a late strike by substitute Jordan Maguire-Drew at Crawley on Friday night.
Former Leyton Orient man Maguire-Drew clinched victory with his first Crawley goal on 77 minutes, scoring with a well-taken shot in off the post following a Tom Nichols pass.
Earlier, Alfie May showed good control when he had a close-range shot saved by veteran Crawley goalkeeper Glenn Morris.
A long ball by Ben Tozer put the Crawley defence under pressure and Callum Wright shot wide from a good position.
Cheltenham had an escape on 34 minutes when Sean Long gave the ball away and Ashley Nadesan put the ball over after rounding onloan keeper Josh Griffiths.
The hosts also had a let-off in first-half stoppage-time, Nichols deflecting a cross by Chris Hussey onto his own bar.
Another slack back-pass by Long gave striker Nichols an opportunity shortly after the break, but the exCheltenham loanee shot straight at Griffiths when one-on-one.
Nichols later had a shot saved before an attempted chip by Liam Sercombe came back off the bar at
CRAWLEY TOWN ............. 1 CHELTENHAM TOWN ..... 0
the other end. Ultimately, though, Maguire-Drew had the final say.
Robins boss Michael Duff said: “I didn’t think we were great tonight.
“We have hit the bar a couple of times and had a good chance at the end. We had a really good chance when I thought Conor Thomas could have scored before it actually hit the crossbar, and I am not sure what happened there.
“It didn’t look like us tonight and we were wide open at times. We turned it into a basketball game, which is unlike us. We didn’t deserve to win, I know that.
“We didn’t do any part of the game well. We didn’t fight, look organised, have a shape or pass the ball. You are going to struggle to win a game of football when you don’t do any part of the game right.
“But you need to have a little bit of perspective. We were poor. Move onto the next one. Five left to go.” Crawley: Morris, Davies, Tunnicliffe, McNerney, Tsaroulla, Matthews (Craig 86), Powell, Hessenthaler, Tilley (Maguire-Drew 68), Nadesan, Nichols. Not Used: Sesay, Rodari, Nelson, J Wright.
Booked: Nichols.
Goals: Maguire-Drew 77.
Cheltenham: Griffiths, Raglan, Tozer, Long, Blair, Wright (Chapman 70), Thomas (Azaz 81), Sercombe, Hussey, May (Smith 70), Williams (Vassilev 81). Not Used: Flinders, Freestone, Lloyd.
Booked: Wright.
Referee: Sam Purkiss (London).