» Let’s finish the job Robins boss Duff eyes the title
CHELTENHAM Town go into their final match of the season at home to Harrogate Town needing a win to secure the League Two title after going down 1-0 at Newport County in their penultimate game.
A fine 20-yard strike from ex-robins loanee Joss Labadie in the fourth minute was enough to sink Michael Duff’s side, who clinched automatic promotion with a 1-1 home draw against Carlisle United on Tuesday night.
With their rivals for top spot Bolton Wanderers losing 2-1 at home to Exeter City after Cambridge United were beaten 5-4 at Harrogate on Friday, Cheltenham know exactly what they need from their final fixture at the Jonny-rocks Stadium next Saturday.
Bolton are effectively out of the title race owing to Cheltenham’s superior goal difference, so Cambridge are the only team who can stop Duff’s men.
The U’s are two points behind Cheltenham with a better goal difference (by two) and Mark Bonner’s team host relegated Grimsby Town on the final day.
Duff admitted to being “disappointed” with the display of his side.
“We looked flat, which is sort of understandable after an unbelievably emotional week,” he said.
“If you think of the late goal against Colchester, which almost seals it.
“We go 1-0 down against Carlisle and do it, which is something this club has never done, so you have to recognise how big an achievement that is.
“Then we have come here and looked a little bit flat.
“It’s difficult with no supporters, no crowd and I am not making excuses, but the players have been on a real emotional high and it was a little bit ‘after the Lord Mayor’s Show.’
“I understand supporters maybe wondering how we are flat after the week we’ve had, but it’s probably the week we’ve had that has made us flat.
“I didn’t sense it before the game and they looked at it, but we didn’t come out or take responsibility.
“So, no qualms with the result. We got beaten by a better team today.
“But let’s just take stock after a busy, busy week.
“We have a full week to prepare now and ultimately, I think we are going to come first or second, so the players are going to get a medal around their neck.
“Obviously we have the best chance of winning the league, which has never been done before at this football club.
“There will be no excuses next week and if we don’t do it, it’s because we don’t deserve to do it.
“If we do it, fantastic and it’s another momentous occasion for everyone at the football club.”
Labadie’s strike left Cheltenham a goal down at half-time and Duff made four changes to try and get a foothold in the game,
“In the last 20 minutes we had a bit of a go, trying to change the formation two or three times to try and spark something into life,” he said.
“We were better last 20 minutes, but it doesn’t matter.
“It could have been one, two, three, four, it doesn’t matter. We weren’t good enough to win the game and that’s it ultimately, no qualms with that.”
Duff started with a 3-4-3 formation, with Alfie May, George Lloyd and Sam Smith in a three-pronged attack.
He explained: “Newport almost play a back four with (Josh) Sheehan because he rarely gets ahead of the ball.
“We wanted to press from there, but the tactics didn’t work as nothing was right today.
“Newport are a difficult team, a good team who have won three on the spin here now and four clean sheets on the spin.
“Mickey (Flynn) has done a good job and I hope they go on and do it because they’ve had a difficult couple of years with the disappointment of the playoffs, but what he’s done, with the amount of players he’s lost, to keep turning out performances, he’s done great.”
But despite the defeat, Duff remains proud of his side and hopes they can finish the job this weekend and lift the title.
“There isn’t a club in our league that wouldn’t take our position now,” he said.
“It’s hard to win games in this league, so it’s not just going to happen.
“We need to prepare properly and be better at other parts of the game. You can’t always rely on being resilient, togetherness and spirit.
“Sometimes you need to show a bit more with the ball and whether the pitch was good, bad or indifferent, Newport played some decent football on it.
“I thought too many people took the easy option today. That’s probably subliminal.
“It’s hard to keep firing yourself up all the time and we’ve done it better than everyone else so far this season so we have to just do it one more time.
“We’ve got two chances and we’ve lost one of them.
“There will be no excuses next week. A full week to prepare, full week to do some proper training to get things into them we want them to do and then it’s up to us.
“Cambridge still have to win, but we won’t be relying on that and if we don’t win we’ll be really disappointed.
“We’ve had two real highs and there
One more to go, can we do it? If we don’t, we don’t. There is not a person in the town who will be disappointed with this team this year
Michael Duff
is almost a reality check within it as well.
“You aren’t going to be brilliant every week and have that sort of thunderous spirit every week, so would you have taken at the start of the week, the position we are in, 100 per cent.
“We’ll go through what it was, but it was a lack of intensity more than anything else. From every part of it.
“It’s take stock and I can’t say they were brilliant Tuesday and last Saturday and then today say there are rubbish and disown them.
“I am proud of every single one of them. They’ll be disappointed because they know they weren’t at it.
“One more to go, can we do it? If we don’t, we don’t. There is not a person in the town who will be disappointed with this football team this year, I know that.
“No excuses, we’ve been better at it than everyone else so far. Can we finish the job off?”
Newport County (3-5-2): King; Shephard, Bennett, Demetriou; Lewis, Hartigan, Labadie, Sheehan, Haynes; Amond, Collins (Maynard 81). Subs not used: Townsend, Dolan, Gambin, Ellison, Taylor, Ledley.
Cheltenham Town (3-4-3): Griffiths; Raglan (Wright 46), Tozer, Long; Blair, Thomas, Sercombe, Hussey; May (Vassilev 64), Smith (Williams 64), Lloyd (Azaz 64). Subs not used: Flinders, Freestone, Chapman.
Referee: Scott Oldham.