23 February 2021

Michael Duff delighted as Cheltenham hit back with win at leaders Cambridge

23 February 2021

Michael Duff praised his side’s response after Cheltenham won at Cambridge to boost their promotion hopes.

Sean Long headed the winner on 63 minutes, netting against the club he played for on loan in 2016, to secure a 1-0 victory at the Abbey Stadium.

It secured a positive response to defeat to Bradford on Saturday, dealing Cambridge only their third home league defeat of the season and their first since December 5.

The Us still top League Two before Forest Green play on Wednesday, but Cheltenham moved to within two points and hold two games in hand on the leaders.

“I’m delighted, to come away from home against a team top of the league with the best home record in the league after a poor performance,” Duff said afterwards.

“Sometimes it’s hard, the players just forget the detail in how we try and work because the games are coming relentlessly. Sometimes you just need a little bit of a reminder.

“The players knew they had to be at it today because (Cambridge) are obviously a very good team, particularly with the players that we’ve got missing. I’m really pleased with the response from Saturday and the performance.

“It was never going to be a real game of quality because the pitch is difficult but you’ve got to find different ways of winning, and that was a good solid away performance in my opinion.

“We grew into it. If you look at the injuries we’ve got at the minute it’s almost just finding a way of putting something out there that makes us competitive and that’s what we were today.”

Cambridge boss Mark Bonner rued the missed chances that cost his side a result, with Harvey Knibbs twice going close in the last five minutes along with Paul Mullin.

“We’re disappointed to be on the wrong side of the result,” said Bonner.

“There’s been very little to separate the two teams in the two games we’ve played against them. I wouldn’t have bet against us at the end from getting the equaliser late on, like we did at their place.

“We knew that we were in danger of being outnumbered in the middle of the pitch but it would give us opportunities. We’ve created three chances that we should do better with. The one right towards the end (for Knibbs) is a really good chance.

“We’re disappointed that we haven’t taken something from the game because there was very little to separate the two sides. We lacked a bit of quality in the attacking half at times, we were a bit erratic at times.

“It’s a bit of a flat dressing room because they’re the games that you want to make sure you do take something from. We definitely didn’t deserve to win the game but I think a fair result probably would have been a point.”

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