Defiant Duff rues fine margins in Shrewsbury loss
MICHAEL Duff remained defiant after his Cheltenham Town side were beaten 3-1 by 10-man Shrewsbury Town as former boss Steve Cotterill exacted revenge for their defeat at Whaddon Road less than a month ago.
Daniel Udoh opened the scoring before Andy Williams quickly equalised for the Robins, who were without centre forward Kyle Vassell for personal reasons, while Dylan Barkers and Christian Norton were both isolating.
Just before half-time Shrewsbury’s Tom Bloxham was red-carded after a fracas with Chris Hussey, who was booked.
But the 10-man Shrews led again through Udoh three minutes into the second half, before David Davis added the third in the 78th minute to complete the misery for Duff’s men, who were worryingly open at the back despite looking dangerous going forward, particularly in the first half.
Marko Marosi made fine saves in the first half to deny Williams and Kyle Joseph, while Williams hit the bar in the second half before Shrewsbury’s third.
Substitute Callum Wright was also denied by Marosi late on, while centrehalf Charlie Raglan was pushed up front for much of the second half.
“We were good,” insisted Duff. “First half, the keeper has made two worldclass saves.
“We have had one off the line, so we could and probably should have been out of sight at half-time.
“Their lad gets sent off just before half-time. The dynamic of the game changes and we couldn’t quite open them up.
“It’s fine margins and we give two really bad goals away on the counter. It was only ever going to be a set play or a counter attack.
“Even then, the keeper has made another world-class save and we’ve hit the crossbar as well.
“Sometimes you just fall the wrong side of the fine margins and that’s what I think it was. The performance was good.”
Duff was left frustrated by the goals his side conceded - with Udoh left umarked to head in the opener, and the other two coming on the counter attack.
“They were too easy counter attacks, but it’s individual errors and there is not a lot we can do about that,” he said.
“Broader picture, you would be getting frustrated because you might think ‘we’ll win now because they have 10 men’ but it’s not that easy.
“They camped in and it’s hard to play through.
“We ended up changing it a bit and putting Charlie Raglan up top to try and pull onto the right side centre-half. As soon as we do it we hit the crossbar.
“We then go back to playing too much in front of them. It’s all a learning curve, but it’s a better performance than we’ve had in recent weeks.”
The decision to move Raglan up front with around 20 minutes to go coincided with Ellis Chapman dropping back into a back four.
Explaining the move, Duff said: “Ellis Chapman is comfortable coming forward and stepping in, so that’s why we did it.
“We thought we were playing in front of them too much, so it gives us the option of putting two big ones up there and as soon as we did that we caused problems and they brought Aaron Pierre on.
“So it proved that it was working. You have to find a way of trying to win. We were in total control.
“We were losing the game 2-1 and we shot ourselves in the foot with basic errors that you can’t cater for.
Duff refuted the suggestion that Bloxham’s red card ultimately penalised Cheltenham more than Shrewsbury.
“We didn’t lock off the game properly,” he said. The second goal has come from nothing, coming past three or four of our players with two touches and that can’t happen. The second one is an individual error and it can’t happen.”
Shrewsbury had five shots and scored three - but Cheltenham had 26 and scored one, and Duff said: “Yes, so fine margins, which is what I am talking about, in both boxes. You have to take the positives out of it.
“I thought the reaction was good, I thought the performance was good to a certain point, but ultimately you need to take more chances and concede less.
“It’s not rocket science, it’s football. We will keep working hard, keep trying, keep pushing and doing the things we are working on.
“Sometimes things go against you and sometimes you have a bit of bad luck. We had a bit of both today.”
Duff made a number of changes to the side with Mattie Pollock and Lewis Freestone relegated to the bench as he fielded a 4-2-3-1 system.
“We have conceded 11 in three games. We wanted to change the shape,” said Duff.
“We worked on something on Thursday and I didn’t like what I saw, so we changed the shape and ultimately it looked all right.
“We are trying to work hard to find ways of winning games.
“Andy Williams earned his place in the team. It’s not a case of not having anyone else.
“We had loads of people we could have played up front. He’s come on and affected games recently.
“His general play was good. He’s been unlucky, hit the bar, forced an unbelievable save from a header and scored.”
Shrewsbury Town (4-2-3-1): Marosi; Daniels (Pyke 46), Pennington, Leahy, Nurse; Davis, Bennett; Vela, Ogbeta (Pierre 68), Udoh (Bowman 80); Bloxham. Subs not used: Burgoyne, Cosgrove, Caton, Leshabela.
Cheltenham Town (4-2-3-1): Evans; Blair, Raglan, Long, Hussey; Sercombe, Chapman; May, Crowley, Joseph (Wright 70); Williams. Subs: Flinders, Pollock, Horton, Freestone, Thomas.
Referee: Andrew Kitchen.
Attendance: 5,741 (387 away).