Today marked the start of Cheltenham Town's league campaign and like most first games of the season, it wasn't a thriller. Both teams played some decent football with good spells of posession and some intricate passing. However there was also some spells when neither team could keep hold of the ball follow many miss-placed passes and mistakes. Cheltenham set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Pack and Penn sitting slightly deeper in midfield which allowed Sam Deering to play just behind Shaun Harrad and for Zebroski and McGlashan to play on the flanks. Sam Deering looked good in this position. He was everywhere on the pitch and looked good in posession of the football. Despite a few sloppy passes he showed some nice touches and his good work, skill and awareness enabled him to set up the opener for Shaun Harrad.
Chris Zebroski started in an attacking position on the left handside of an attacking midfield. In all honesty I wasnt too impressed by his performance. As he kept on wandering inside to play alongside Harrad, it made the team narrow and meant we often had to play long balls, which didn't work too often, as the centre of the pitch was grid-locked. Even though he grafted hard and put in a good shift, I felt he was fairly clumsy in posession and didnt really pose much of a threat. Although there was one moment in the second half when he nicely beat a player on the edge of the box and hit a nice chip towards the far post which was just in the keepers reach. This shows the skill that he does posess and after a few games to get to grips with a new team and to get fully match fit it looks like he could be an important player for us.
The width was provided on the right handside by Jermaine McGlashan. Always looks good with the ball at his feet and always looks to beat his man and get in a shot or a cross, but he is also happy to track back and defend which is an important job for wingers in the modern game. He had the left back in his back pocket the whole game and generally looked lively. The moment of the match belonged to him when he thrashed in a shot at the start of the second half to put Cheltenham two goals to the good and effectively kill the game off. It has been pretty obvious that he has improved his shooting since he joined Cheltenham. He had one effort in the first half that was fired agonisingly wide from a tight angle on the edge of the box. I truly believe that McGlashan will be an important player for us this year and good match Kaid Mohameds goal tally of last season by reaching ten goals for the sesaon.
Cheltenham fans also saw a rare glimpse of central defender Harry Hooman in what was one of a few appearences in the football league. Generally he was solid however there was a few nervy moments, most notably when he played a few back passes and some of his clearing headers were mis-timed. On the left of defence was Billy Jones. I think at times he looked a little lost about when he should defend and when he should go forward. But when he did get forward he showed some promising touches and whipped in a few nice balls with his left foot. I feel that this is a problem that will be overcome in time as he builds and understanding with his fellow team mates.
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