This was another game that we should have won. Cheltenham were very, very poor and yet we still could not break them down.

Again Jan showed his faith in his second string when he decided to give loan signing, Eric Nixon, the keepers gloves instead of Brendan Murphy.

How long now before Brendan takes the sensible option and puts in a transfer request. And who would blame him.

Jan also gave us another example of his lack of tactical nous when he took off Drewe Broughton to replace him with Stewart Hadley.

After 75 mins of a midfield so devoid of ideas it was glaringly obvious that it would have been more beneficial to have taken off either Bennett or Bird and bought on Andy Ducros.

We needed someone to step on the ball and think and if we had we may have gone home with three points instead of one.

Cheltenhams tactics right from the off was to stick ten men behind the ball as much as they could. Ok, it was negative, but it worked.

They also started with a physical intent, but after Chris Banks got himself booked in the first minute they backed off the rough stuff a bit.

All our efforts in the first half came from outside the area with both Clarkson and Bennett going close but both shots were easily dealt with.

Tony Bird had a cross saved on the line and then Adie Smith had a long range attempt easily kept out by the Robins keeper, Steve Book.

Cheltenham had their first attempt on Nixons goal in the 28th minute when Tony Naylor fired in a low shot that Nixon blocked with his legs.

Then came a succession of free kicks for the Harriers on the edge of the area.

The first two were taken by Birdie but were both wasted when his kicks were so weak that they were easily scrambled away.

After Drewe was fouled again on the edge of the box Danny Williams stepped up thankfully and this time the ball was blasted at the wall but failed to penetrate it and again the ball was cleared.

The end of the half arrived and although it would have been nice to have gone in with a lead at least our defence had held again for the second week running.

HT. 0-0

The second half started with Cheltenham substituting ex-Harrier Mark Yates with Michael Jackson. Yates was suffering a re-occurance of the ankle injury that he received at Southend a few weeks back.

Both sides started nervously again and it took a good ten minutes before we saw an attempt on goal.

Naylor got a round of boo's from the Reds fans when he used a perfectly legal challenge from Adie Smith to demonstrate his diving ability. The ref waved play on when really he should have been getting his book out.

Broughton missed the first good chance of the half when, with his back to goal and only needing to swivel and shoot, he opted to pass the ball onto the marked Dean Bennett instead.
Jan was up instantly for the first time during the match to let Drewe know what he thought of him.

Cheltenham were making no real effort to break the deadlock but we were.

Broughton had a header cleared off the line by Banks when with a bit more power it would have gone in.

Then Bennett crossed from the left for Broughton but as he slid in he just failed to make contact.

The Reds had a good claim for a penalty turned down when Tony Bird was sent crashing but the ref waved it on.
To be fair to the ref it was probably his first mistake of the game.

Broughtons last action of the game was when, a few minutes later, he volleyed Clarksons inch perfect cross straight into the arms of Book.

Jan sent on Hadley to replace him but it was too late to make any difference.

Two points lost not one point gained.

FT. 0-0