Cheltenham’s inexperience in defence contributed to defeat to Cats
Michael Duff hailed an 'excellent' Sunderland side for their 5-0 win on Tuesday night, but says the inexperience in his defence ultimately told.
The Cheltenham Town boss was without a number of key senior players for the trip to the Stadium of Light, including defender Will Boyle.
Though impressed with Sunderland's forward play, he felt his side's defensive shortcomings were the key factor in the defeat.
"The last two games we've played the best two teams in the league, and they're not in our market," Duff said.
"But we need to be better than that.
"Our last two years, our success has been based on our defence.
"You can't come to a place like this and give up those sorts of chances, those sorts of goals.
"It's nothing to do with formations, we tried about four in the first half and never got anywhere near Sunderland.
"Credit to them, I thought they were excellent.
"It's our fourteenth game of the season and our tenth away from home.
"I think we've done 1,100 miles this week, so it's been tough.
"We are a small club, in comparison, and we have four or five big players [injured], and this game has probably proved we're not ready to come to places like this in that situation.
"We still feel we have to compete better because in all honesty, I was happy to get out with five-nil in the end.
"Ultimately for all their good play, pretty much every time they got in was with a straight ball.
"We have to deal with that better, but credit to Sunderland for how they performed.
"We've had two 19-yearolds playing in a back three who've not played together and who we've not been able to train with on the grass," he added.
"We've got six home games next month and ultimately, we'd have 100% taken where we are in the league right now.
"We want better performances than the last two games, but we won't batter these lads now when they have been magnificent for two years.
"We have to stick together because we have another tough one with Rotherham on Saturday."