‘We need to win the next game’
Duff ’s simple priority as Robins fall into drop zone,
MICHAEL Duff admitted Cheltenham Town have one simple task after slipping into the bottom two of League Two – win a game.
Sam Jones was sent off as the Robins went down 2-0 at Oldham Athletic on Tuesday while Cambridge were grabbing a win over Swindon to jump out of the drop zone.
And Duff admits only one thing matters when they host Stevenage on Saturday.
The Robins boss said: “The next aim is to win a game, first and foremost.
“There is no point in talking about being all right if we do this or that, we need to win the next game and then we need to win the next game and the next game.
“It’s up to the players to start taking responsibility and grabbing the shirts because I have been here for five or six weeks.
“I want them to show a personality and character now and say ‘I’ll take the ball’ and ‘I’ll take the shirt’ because that’s what we are waiting for.”
Duff, who is yet to win since succeeding Gary Johnson, denied that falling into the relegation zone makes any difference to the task ahead of him.
“It makes no difference really,” he said. “It’s the end of the season that counts.
“There is three quarters of the season to go, so I have absolute belief in what I do and the players have shown they want to do it as well.
“It’s more disappointing after Saturday and 0-0 at half-time and 11 v 11 we have a good chance to go on an win the game.
“That’s probably distorting my overall view of the game because I felt we could have gone on to win it, but the second half was completely defending as it is tough when you are down to 10 men.”
Jones was sent off at the end of a goalless first half after a challenge on Christopher Missilou.
With referee Ben Toner poised to show a yellow card, Jones squared up to Jose Baxter and the card changed to red for an apparent headbutt.
Oldham grabbed the points with second-half goals from substitute Jonathan Benteke and Callum Lang as the hosts ended their own five-match winless streak.
Duff admitted Jones’ dismissal was the turning point.
“The sending off was soft,” he said. “It was right in front of me and I think they both put their heads together and their lad put his head into Jonesey first.
“We needed to get better in the second half and we didn’t make enough passes, but 0-0 away from home at halftime is not bad.
“Even when Oldham scored the crowd were just starting to turn on them. It’s disappointing because after Saturday, then you are in it at half-time and thinking you can go on and on, but the referee has changed the game.
“Sam has given the referee a decision to make, that’s the problem.
“First and foremost he doesn’t need to get involved. He has given a bad foul away and he’s probably going to get booked, so you get up, pick him up and walk back into the middle of the pitch.
“It’s not just the referee’s fault and if Sam doesn’t get involved he’s been told he has to learn from that as he’s let his team mates down.
“It’s not always as clinical as it looks from the stand and I have done things and everyone else has done things on a football pitch.
“He is more disappointed than anyone as he feels he’s let his mates down. Ideally it would have been nice to pinch a point, but we didn’t.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves because football owes you nothing, so you dust yourselves down, pick the bones out of it, work hard and go again on Saturday.”
With just two wins in 14 league games, Duff is pretty clear about what needs to be improved.
“We need to improve everything, conceding less goals and scoring more, and I am not trying to be funny,” he said.
“There are things we have worked on and you can see have been worked on, but ultimately you have to win games of football.
“I am not stood here thinking we are all right, but it’s not panic stations because the hard work will go on.
“But players need to stand up as well, along with the staff.
“We will analyse it about whether we picked the right team and used the right formation.
“That’s the key, everyone being honest with each other and we don’t want people hiding or trying to blame the man next door.
“Look yourself in the mirror, did you do everything you can and that’s what we have got to do.”