City game was catalyst,

» MANAGER Michael Duff says Cheltenham Town’s outstanding performance in defeat in their FA Cup tie against Manchester City gave his squad “unbelievable belief” for the rest of the campaign.

They led for 22 minutes against Pep Guardiola’s Premier League champions-elect and Champions League finalists before three goals in the last nine minutes saw them lose 3-1.

“It gave the lads unbelievable belief. People say we froze in the Northampton game, but we didn’t freeze in the first leg.

“But there is a pandemic on, with nothing else to do on a Saturday night other than watch a 5.30pm kick-off in front of seven or eight million people, against the best team in the world.

“To deliver a performance then, when it could have been 8-0 or 9-0 and they can do that against anyone.

“They did it to Burton in the League Cup semi-final. To come through that and be winning with nine minutes left, reinforced the belief that we weren’t bad.

“In the first half of the season we played some really good football, similar to last year, expansive and freeflowing, but at that moment, the pitches had turned.

“Because of the defensive show, we have ground ourselves through the last two or three months and not played any good football, or not as much as we’d like.

“It’s almost off the back of going 1-0 up and if we can keep Man City out, we can keep these out too.

“It became a default position, which is frustrating in a way, but it all came from that one game and it got the job done.

“All last season and up to Christmas this year, we’ve played the normal football we want to play, free, expansive and open, playing it on the floor.

“The Man City game was brilliant, but almost a hindrance as we were so good without the ball and the lads recognised that straight away.

“They took real confidence from it, but they realised there is nobody in League Two that can be as good as Man City.

“In the last 10 weeks, we have ground our way to where we are. We never came out of our shape, but to play the way we want to play, you have to come out of your shape.

“On Saturday it could have been seven or eight and it looked more like us rather than the last few weeks when it’s been attritional, set plays, but that’s understandable as the lads recognise it’s history.

“The tinge of disappointment is supporters not being here.

“What the team has done this year - in 134 years the club hasn’t been (automatically) promoted, broken the points record, champions and have probably had the biggest game in the club’s history with Man City.

“There was an emotional flat spot against Newport and we didn’t see it coming.

“The lads trained hard, but they didn’t turn up.

“We were pretty confident without knowing that after a full week, and buying ourselves the free hit, there is a little bit of anxiety within it as we’ve gone 1-0 down and it’s hard to come back from 1-0 down in this league.

“When Alfie (May) misses a one on one two minutes after we go 1-0 down you are thinking, is it going to be our day. But I thought we were brilliant.”

“We’ve got the job done, which is the ultimate goal.”