Cheltenham hold on for draw

There are boring 1-1 draws, and there are entertaining 1-1 draws, and this would probably just come under the second category. However it was not entertaining in the case of free flowing football, there were no spectacular goals, or spectacular pieces of skill. Instead it was end to end stuff, with both teams creating enough chances to score a hatful. Despite Southend badgering Cheltenham's goal with shots, the Robins took the lead on 25 minutes. Steven Gillespie, lively as ever, danced through the Southend defence, and squared to give Steve Brooker an opportunity that even my grandmother couldn't have failed to score. The rest of the half consisted of each goalkeeper taking very, very long goal kicks, and not much action on the floor.

The second half began with Southend continuing their onslaught on the Cheltenham goal. While it wasn't pretty, it wasn't the sort of game you could take your eye off, as Southend came forward in waves, with Cheltenham occasionally threatening on the counter attack, thanks to a couple of moments of determination from Damien Spencer. Sadly, two moments of good football didn't hide what was in truth a poor performance from Spencer, and especially the other winger, Ashley Vincent, who did less in 75 minutes than Michael D'Agostino did in 15.

The equaliser finally came with 17 minutes to go, when a clearance fell to Nicky Bailey, who rifled home from the edge of the area.

At this point I was disappointed with two points lost, but as Southend went all out for the winner, I suddenly realised a draw against a team battling for the play offs couldn't be all that bad. After a short period of injury time, in which Southend came close with a free kick, I left Whaddon Road feeling slightly disappointed, but relieved it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

All in all our situation is probably slightly better than it was this time last season. It was around this time that we started to go on a run, winning against decent teams such as Oldham and Doncaster. Hopefully another such run of form will materialise, pulling us clear of the drop zone, and giving us a comfortable mid table position.

JAMES LEWIS

Cheltenham's away form deserts them again

Cheltenham failed to follow on from their Manchester United style 2-1 win against Brighton, in which they scored twice in injury time, as they were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by Swindon at the County Ground.

Despite a bright start, in which Steve Brooker missed two good chances, and Dave Bird hit a post, the game changed when the usually reliable Alex Russell misplaced a pass. Sadly, this was in his own penalty area, and after the mix up, Simon Cox put Swindon ahead. Russell then seemed to think Cheltenham were still playing in red, as he hit dozens of passes to gleeful Swindon players, as Cheltenham got themselves in a muddle.

Thankfully the County Ground was a lot drier than the last time I visited, but still slightly cold, and Cheltenham's day got worse following yet another mix up, as again they tried to pass it out of the box. This time Billy Paynter was the recipient, scoring Swindon’s second, which was followed a bizarre celebration as Paynter pulled captain Hasney Aljofree's shorts down in front of a slightly bemused crowd.

While Cheltenham couldn't have been faulted for determination, Steven Gillespie especially, the killer touch was lacking, and any hopes of a comeback were dashed when Christian Roberts scored with practically his first touch after coming on. A good first touch it was too, firing an angled shot into the bottom left hand corner from long range.

So not as good a day as Cheltenham's last trip to the County Ground, and they'll need to pick themselves up for the game against Hartlepool on Saturday.

Meanwhile a good set of results for Forest Green's play off hopes meant nothing as they could only draw with Stevenage, although that in itself is a credible result. Rovers remain four points off top five, and still have to go to Cambridge.

JAMES LEWIS

Cheltenham's greatest ever result?

As the Mastercard advert goes: Ticket-£13, programme-£2.50…watching Gillespie score with five minutes to go in front of the C&G Stand – priceless!

This was one of the biggest, if not the biggest game in Cheltenham’s history. Certainly the biggest I’d ever attended. The game was moved to Sunday, I heard, not due to being on television, or international reasons, the real reason was…..it clashed with the turning on with the Christmas lights. Cheltenham versus Leeds or Richard Fleeshman- I certainly know which one I’d choose!

Tickets sold out almost instantly, meaning Whaddon Road had the second biggest crowd in its Football League history, second only to the 2002 play off semi-final against Hartlepool. It was such that the club urged fans not to turn up after 1:30pm to this 2pm kick off.

Leeds, meanwhile, were confident. Dennis Wise had pointed out that Cheltenham were in dire straits, and Eddie Gray concluded that the Robins were probably the worst team he’d ever seen play, and the game should be one of the easier ones in Leeds’ League 1 season. How wrong he’d turn out to be…..

Before kick off, the general view around the ground was not whether Leeds would win, but how many they’d win by. As fans piled into the ground, and Leeds fans attempted to disguise themselves as Cheltenham fans, apprehension grew, and I counted a couple of famous and semi-famous faces, such as Flo, Prutton, Kandol and Beckford.

The Robins meanwhile had debutants on the bench. Guy Madjo, the loan signing from Crawley, and somebody called Michael D’Agostino. Despite having D’Agostino, a winger available, Keith Downing still decided to continue with the very frustrating Damien Spencer on the left side.

From the off, Leeds attacked. And continued to attack throughout the first half. At this stage I was trying to remember how long it took us to concede in the recent game against Nottingham Forest. It was, I remembered, about 10 minutes. When 15 minutes passed with no goals, I began to grow slightly optimistic.

I was reminded of cup games against superior opposition on Football Manager where I’d count down the minutes in order to hold onto the 0-0. As it got to half time, I began to feel that it could be one of those games where Leeds dominate but somehow fail to score.

It certainly helped that the Cheltenham players were defending as if their lives depended on it. It made me wonder why they couldn’t defend like this against teams like Walsall and Port Vale, who have a much less talented strikeforce than Jermaine Beckford and Tresor Kandol, with Tore Andre Flo as backup.

However our defending led Dennis Wise to panic, and Leeds launched a full on assault on the Cheltenham goal, playing a 3-3-4 formation, with De Vries and Flo coming on for Prutton and Parker, and Westlake coming onto Kandol. With quarter of an hour left. Leeds won a free kick in a dangerous position. Captain Jonathan Douglas placed the ball. Cheltenham set up what looked suspiciously like two separate walls, Douglas shot, Shane Higgs palmed it away, and Beckford smashed it into the net.

The Leeds fans went wild, and the Cheltenham fans accepted the inevitable. Just then I heard cheering behind me. "Oh must be a Leeds fan in our end" I thought. But I looked behind me and recognised him as someone who I’d seen cheering on Cheltenham a few minutes ago. So why was he cheering what looked like a Leeds winner? Then suddenly it dawned on me. It was offside! There was a moment of great amusement as the Leeds fans continued to celebrate as though they’d just won the Champions League, until the fact they hadn’t scored suddenly dawned on them.

With about ten minutes to go, a pivotal moment in the game took place. Madjo, who had just replaced Connolly, raced to beat David Lucas for the ball, resulting in a rather nasty collision. Leeds players rushed to the injured keeper, and it didn’t look good. Leeds had at this point made all three substitutions, and Lucas was their third choice keeper.

I admit I felt rather worried for him, as the urgency in which the Leeds players summoned the referee suggested this was no ordinary injury. Fortunately, he got up, though he definitely wasn’t 100% fit. And so it was that a mistake by the injured Lucas led to the only goal of the game.

A rare attack from the Robins resulted in a long ball. Lucas decided to header it, not out for a throw, but straight in front of him. A gleeful Steven Gillespie saw the open goal, chipped the ball, and…Surely it couldn’t go in? Surely Cheltenham couldn’t be taking the lead against Leeds United? It can’t be allowed! Surely the ball would bounce harmlessly over. But no…the ball was in the net! Cheltenham fans jumped for joy, and began the countdown to full time.

After four agonising additional minutes, the referee blew the whistle, and Cheltenham celebrated one of their greatest ever results. How apt that it was a scouser who robbed the points from the league leaders. To put the brilliance of the result into perspective…this was only Leeds’ second defeat of the season, the first of which came against high-flying Carlisle. We were also the first team in the league to keep a clean sheet against Leeds, not counting Hereford in the F.A Cup. Meanwhile we had only won twice before this game, at home to Gillingham and away to Huddersfield.

Next up for Cheltenham is the short trip to the Memorial Stadium to play Bristol Rovers in this weekend’s big westcountry derby. Rovers have a number of players out injured, and their home form has been rather woeful. A jubilant Robins should be confident of getting a result.

JAMES LEWIS