» Duff stays upbeat despite seeing win snatched away
MICHAEL Duff was staying upbeat about Cheltenham Town’s display despite seeing two points snatched away by Paul Mullin’s last gasp leveller for Cambridge in Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw.
In the clash of sides second and third at kick-off, Ben Tozer’s goal in first half stoppage time looked to have been enough to seal a narrow home victory before Mullin’s late intervention.
Cambridge edged the first half. and Mullin raced onto a clearance from goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov in the 25th minute and found himself through on goal, but Josh Griffiths made an excellent save.
With only one added minute scheduled at the end of the first half, Mullin suffered a head injury near the halfway line.
In the extra stoppage time, Mitov could only parry Hussey’s curling freekick and Tozer followed up to score his second goal in four days from close range.
Mullin had the ball in the net for Cambridge early in the second half after a ball in from Harrison Dunk, but he was offside, then Liam Sercombe finished off a Hussey corner with a neat finish, but referee Craig Hicks had spotted a foul.
The leveller came when Kyle Knoyle’s low ball in after a throw-in was slammed home by Mullin.
“Obviously I am disappointed to concede in the 95th minute,” said Duff.
“The way they got in was not like us, but overall I was pleased.
“I thought we were the better team. Boylo (Will Boyle) has had a header a minute before and it’s cleared off the line and not quite dropped for Toze (Ben Tozer).
“There is a little bit of frustration, but if you take out the fact of when they scored, I was pleased with the performance.
“It’s always disappointing to concede goals. It is what it is and there’s no point crying about it.
“It’s over the time, our goal was over the time. They were going mad about it.
“It tells you something, their reaction. Teams come here ready for us now, so we’ll take that as a compliment.
“We opened them up a few times today, particularly in the second half again.
“We’ve taken seven points from nine and everyone would have taken that.
”The table doesn’t lie and we are through in all the cup competitions we’ve been in, so the lads have performed well.
“I have just said to the players there is no point reflecting with your head in your hands, or being all disappointed - you can’t affect it.
“There are things we could have done better obviously.
“We’ll pick that out of it, they have scored from a punt down the pitch that wasn’t dealt with and a throw-in that’s gone through 1,000 bodies.
“Yes, there are bits of that you could have done, but there is no point in me ranting or raving.
“Ultimately we’ve not been beaten against one of our competitors and never looked like being beaten either.
“They’ll get shown all the good things that we did and the goal and things they can learn from, but me going in ranting and raving and calling people all sorts of names isn’t going to benefit anybody.
“We’ve taken seven points from nine and everyone would take that. People will dress it up however they want, but Carlisle, Walsall and Cambridge - seven points from nine is a good return.”
Cheltenham Town: Griffiths; Raglan, Tozer, Boyle; Blair, Thomas (Azaz 75), Chapman, Sercombe, Hussey; May (Lloyd 82), Williams (Reid 82). Subs not used: Flinders, Clements, Freestone, Sang
Cambridge United: Mitov; Knoyle, Taylor, Cundy, Iredale (Knibbs 85); Hannant, Digby, Boateng, Hoolahan; Dunk (Ironside 75), Mullin. Subs not used: Darling, Davies, Mizouni, May, Burton
Referee: Craig Hicks
Star Man: Ben Tozer