A great result, which did not look likely at half time in all honesty. While we had the better chances, I thought Cheltenham were the better side in the first period in terms of shape and possession. They are a reasonable side now, which makes this result all the more impressive. After half time we just seemed to be more aggressive and play ten yards further up the pitch, and we completely outplayed them in the end.
In the first half I thought we were too deep at times, and allowed Cheltenham to progress too close to our eighteen yard box before we pressed them; that was how the first goal arose when Maddox, their best player, was given too much time on the ball and was allowed to thread a ball through, albeit the goal looked offside to me. After half time we pressed more aggressively, and the service from the midfield, particularly Banks, was excellent, and the Cheltenham back four could not cope with the power and movement of Norwood and Miller. We should have scored five or six really.
Individually, I thought Miller was a real handful: strong, powerful, not particularly subtle, but with decent movement and certainly unafraid to have a shot at goal. He is not a conventional target man, more the sort of Showunmi / Savage type, but in fifteen minutes you could see he offers more goal threat than Stockton. Perkins took a while to get going, but always seemed to find space and time on the ball. He did not do anything spectacular but kept the ball moving with simple passes and rarely gave it away. Elsewhere, I thought Banks was absolutely superb, both with the control he gave us to protect the defence and his raking, defence-splitting passes. Caprice, McCullough and Mullin also had good games, while Ellis was immense at the back once again.
I don't want to end on a negative, nor do I want to single players out, but the left back position does concern me. The Cheltenham right winger Broom was a decent player but no world beater, but Ridehalgh really struggled to deal with him. At times he was too far off him to put him under any pressure; on other occasions he was too tight and got skinned. Too many balls came into our box from that wing and I think that is one position where we still need further improvements.
Onwards and upwards.