Johnson feeling generous
Jubilant
GARY JOHNSON was so pleased with his Cheltenham Town side’s home win over Crawley Town he may even consider giving his players a day off.
Goals from birthday boy Billy Waters and Jack Munns secured the Robins’ second win since returning to the Football League and Johnson immediately set his sights on the play-offs.
“We are only six points off now and we can start looking up because this was a good win in a key game,” Johnson said. “We saw it out professionally and I was really pleased with the boys. If they twist my arm I might just give them an extra day off for that.
“We had to work hard because Crawley have had a good run. I was pleased with the way we started and to get the first goal.
“My strikers [Waters and Danny Wright] were magnificent and we’ve worked very hard with them. I was also pleased for Kyle Storer to get a win on his Football League debut.”
Crawley boss Dermot Drummy conceded that Cheltenham were worthy winners despite his team’s improvement in the second half.
“Cheltenham deserved the victory and we didn’t combat their aerial threat,” Drummy said. “They controlled the tempo of the game and we weren’t at the races in the first half. They scored one and had a stonewall penalty shout so could have been 2-0 up, then hit the inside of the post, so could have put the game to bed.
“We then scored and rallied and it was a decent second-half performance, but if you put a first 45 minutes in like that you are not going to win a game.
“Cheltenham had their tails up and are a tough side. Their work ethic was fantastic.”
Waters opened the scoring in the third minute, latching onto Storer’s pass, evading two defenders and finished past Glenn Morris for his fourth of the season.
Barthram went down in the box in the 44th minute, but much to the disbelief of the home crowd, referee Graham Horwood waved away appeals.
Munns crashed a shot against the post two minutes into the second half before Russell Griffiths made his first real save to touch Bobson Bawling’s effort over the bar.
It was 2-0 in the 62nd minute when Wright was denied by Morris’s block and Waters’ follow-up was headed off the line by Mark Connolly, but Munns smashed in the ball.
A lovely left-footed finish from 20 yards by Kabi Djalo made it 2-1 with 11 minutes to go but Cheltenham had done enough.