Yates Pleased With Character Again

Manager Mark Yates got his wish for Cheltenham to go five unbeaten following the draw against Oxford in midweek, and he was delighted with the character of the team to come back from being behind.

Oxford got their noses in front in what was a tight encounter with about 12 minutes remaining in the game, but thankfully six minutes from full time Jamie Cureton got us back on level terms and gave us a much deserved point from the match to keep our unbeaten record going.

Chances were hardly fre flowing in the game as between the sides you can combine them and count them on one hand, but it was a battling display from the players that showed their desire and that was what pleased the gaffer.

Speaking to the Official Site following the match, Yates explained.

‘I do think it was a fair point. We created a few problems of our own with a few scrambles at the end but I’m actually a little disappointed we didn’t get more from the game. We had some really good chances second half, but we showed a lot of character to come back against a decent side and got something out of it when we could have dropped and faded away.’

The gaffer goes on to say that it was fantastic finishing by Cureton, and a really clinical strike, but he could’ve scored before that and of course we hit the woodwork as well, so an equaliser was the least we deserved on the night really.

Cureton himself has described it as the strangest goal he’s ever scored!

Especially as he feels we were very unlucky to concede the goal that we did.

‘We’ve given away possession and Stevie Elliott was a bit unlucky and I understand what he was trying to do. Unfortunately he has tried to play with it, it took three deflections and the lad is in and has scored. We didn’t deserve that.’

The gaffer says that overall he knows we weren’t as good as last Saturday performance and football wise, but we dug in and got ourselves a good point.