Cheltenham Town 0-3 Accrington Stanley Match Analysis

Last weekend Cheltenham Town welcomed visitors Accrington Stanley to the Abbey Business Stadium, however despite pre-match confidence among supporters of a victory for their home side they instead went home wondering why the team played so badly following a 3-0 defeat.

And yes the performance was that bad. In all fairness to Accrington they did their homework on us and played well themselves, but their is no reason on our part to explain how they got away with it. All three goals were due to sloppy defending by Cheltenham and two of them involved mistakes by player of the month for August, Harry Hooman. He looked lost at the heart of the back four and after the third goal even the stadium announcer put out a request for a lost boy called Harry to return to his mum, much to the amusement of supporters. His inexperience shone through in the mistakes that he made. For the first goal he misjudged the bounce of the ball, but instead of quickly chasing back to get it he left it for Scott Brown, only for the Accrington striker to intercept and ultimately punish the young lad. The second goal was a result of sloppiness from the whole team. A corner was not cleared by Cheltenham, on mre than one occasion, and the ball was slotted home by Accrington from the edge of the area, The final goal was a result if a mistake by Hooman. As the ball was played over the top Accrington he decided to step up late in order to play offside, however it was not successful as the Accrington player was let through on goal after easily out-pacing Steve Elliott. In my opinion he should have covered for Steve Elliott, who this season is another year older and another year short of pace. Instead he allowed Elliott to be involved in a foot race which nine times out of ten he is going to lose.

Blame cannot be solely placed on Hooman's shoulders though as I don't think that any of the team played well. The attackers looked short of ideas which ultimately caused our inability to break down the opposition defence. This resulted in a lot of high balls to the forwards which isn't ideal seeing as McGlashan and Harrad aren't exactly the tallest of forwards. But even the simplest of passes weren't completed. Marlon Pack looked a shadow of his former self, which made me think that maybe his mind was eleswhere following the closing of the transfer window the night before. Perhaps he wished a bigger club had come in for him, or he had been refused permission to speak with another club. Or it could just be the simple reason that he had a bad day at the office. Chris Zebroski hasn't excited me yet either. He seems clumsy on the ball and hasnt really got himself in scoring positions. I wasn't sure when Mark Yates signed him and I havent seen anything yet to prove me wrong. There is always one player each season that frustrates me the most. In the past it has been the likes of Brian Smikle, Danny Andrew, Josh Low, Andy Lindegaard, Barry Hayles, Craig Armstrong and this season I have a feeling it could be him.

Mark Yates should also take part of the blame for the performance. He set the team up in a 4-4-2 formation which left us short in the middle of the park and therefore we found it a struggle to keep posession as we were outnumbered in that area. He also took too long to change the system and the personnel when we were two and three goals down which gave us no chance of getting back in the match. One player that did manage to excite me was once again Jermaine McGlashan. He again managed to beat the opposition left back on many occasion, something he seems to do in most games. I do feel that his final delivery could be a bit better as his crosses sometimes aren't that threatening.

After watching the game on Saturday something came to my attention which I dont quite understand. Whenever the ball went wide of the goal or a shot was missed. Scott Brown always seemed to clap his hands and praise/encourage the defence. From the stand, this even looked the case when the defending wasn't great, for example when a player was given too much space to have a shot. I think he needs to be more vocal and tell the defenders when they make a mistake so it doesn't happen again as well as praising them when they do defend well.

All in all, it was a day to forget for Cheltenham fans. It was just one of those days when nothing went our way, we had no lucky breaks and nothing seemed to go right. The chances are that this was just an offday and that performances will get better, hopefully starting next week against Wycombe who once again will be tough opposition. It is important to get behind the players and hopefully look forward to some better results. But all that comes with being a Cheltenham supporter, it never all goes how we want it to.

Cheltenham Town 0-3 Accrington Stanley 1st September 2012

Cheltenham Town surrendered their unbeaten start to the season to Accrington Stanley following this below-par display at the Abbey Business Stadium.

All the damage was done in the first half, leaking two sloppy goals before the break to leave Mark Yates' side with everything to do in the second.

Accrington Stanley's uncompromising brand of counter-attacking football served them well and they went on to put this one out of sight within 80 seconds of the restart.

Cheltenham were quite simply well below their best in every department here, producing a meek performance which was at odds to their encouraging displays of late.

Plenty then for the manager to ponder on as he prepares for next weekend's tricky trip to Wycombe Wanderers.

Yates made one change to the side which defeated Aldershot Town seven days ago, handing Kaid Mohamed his first start of the campaign at the expense of Jeff Goulding.

The striker, who started at the EBB Stadium last weekend, joined Darren Carter, Darryl Duffy and Alan Bennett on the substitutes' bench.

The switch resulted in a change of formation, with the winger pressed into action on the left wing to supply the strike pairing of Chris Zebroski and Shaud Harrad.

The latter claimed his third goal in as many games in a lone role against the Shots but operated ahead of a midfield four on a fine, late summer's afternoon in Gloucestershire.

Cheltenham made the worse possible start, conceding as early as the fourth minute after a catstrophic error by Harry Hooman.

Lee Molyneux lumped a long ball over the top but under little pressure, the centre half made a hash of his clearance allowing Padraig Amond to charge in on goal.

Scott Brown dashed to narrow the angle but the Irish striker took full advantage, slotting the ball under the goalkeeper to hand his side the early lead.

Romuald Boco tried his luck from 20 yards five minutes later, but Brown was equal to it.

Harrod hooked wide Cheltenham's first chance of the afternoon with 13 minutes on the clock, but they struggled to find their feet after the early blow and it was the Lancashire side which created the next openings.

Will Hatfield drew a save from Brown with a dipping curler from the corner of the box, while Molyneux slammed one wide from distance.

At the other end Zebroski called Ian Dunbavin into a comfortable save from an angle 20 yards out.

Then Jombati threaded a ball into the path of Harrad, but the striker pulled his shot wide of the target.

There was an opening for Mohamed mid-way through the first half, but despite beating a couple of the defenders to make the area he was unable to get a shot away, the ball squirming into the air.

It fell nicely enough for McGlashan, but the winger's well-struck volley from 12 yards was kept out by Dunbavin's wonderful one-handed save.

Things though went from bad to worse 12 minutes before the break when George Miller doubled his side's advantage after a passage of poor defending by the home side.

Billy Jones failed to deal with a long ball forward, leaving Steve Elliott to concede a corner which Hatfield sent in from the left.

The Cheltenham defence failed to clear their lines, allowing the Accrington front man to pick out Miller at the second attempt who drilled the ball through the conjested penalty area and past Brown from 16 yards.

Zebroski created a chance with half-time approaching, lifting one in from the left towards McGlashan who found Mohamed but the winger's shot was deflected into Dunbavin's midriff for a comfortable save.

Cheltenham left themselves with a mountain to climb only 80 seconds after the restart, shipping the third after creating a promising attack of their own.

Accrington quickly turned defence into attack, forcing another mistake from Hooman and the ball fell kindly to Hatfield, who released Boco down the right.

Again Brown raced off his line to shrink the target but pacey wideman applied a cool finish past Brown to leave Yates in dispair.

Miller was a coat of pain away from making it four a moment later, his drive fading wide at the last moment.

McGlashan fashioned his side's first opening of the second period with some trickery down the right to force an opening for Harrad but the striker couldn't find the target on the turn.

Yates made his first change with an hour played, swapping Mohamed with Duffy who summed up his side's performance with a lacklustre attempt to reach Harrad's delivery from the right a moment later.

The Scot then poked one wide with 65 minutes on the clock after Jones had swung in a corner from the left.

Next Zebroski and Duffy combined to tee up Harrad, but Dunbavin got down well to turn the low effort around for a corner.

Hatfield was presented with the opportunity to head home his side's fourth 15 minutes from time but Brown parried to safety.

The home faithful caught their first glimpse of Carter shortly afterwards, who replaced Russ Penn in midfield while Harrad made way for Sam Deering as Yates made his final changes.

But the substitutes failed to make an impression as a disappointing afternoon drew to a close.

CHELTENHAM TOWN (4-4-2): Brown; Jombati, Hooman, Elliott, Jones; McGlashan, Penn (Carter 76), Pack, Mohamed (Duffy 60); Zebroski, Harrad (Deering 76). Subs not used: Lowe, Goulding, Roberts (Gk), Bennett.

ACCRINGTON STANLEY (4-2-3-1): Dunbavin; Winnard, Nsiala, Murphy, Liddle; Joyce (c), Miller; Boco, Molyneux (Barnett 57); Hatfield, Amond (Sheppard 82). Subs not used: Lindfield, Chippendale, Dicon, Gray, Dawber (Gk).

REFEREE: Tony Harrington

ATTENDANCE: 2,708 (55 from Accrington)