My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun
A link to The Sun's footy pages: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/
Cheltenham’s Whaddon Road ground (I refuse to call it the Abbey Business Stadium) nestles in the shadows of the Cotswold hills and – although the club is actually located in the town itself – it has to be among the most scenic settings in the football league. It’s not quite the Copacabana, but Mark Yates had the locals dancing in their green wellies and tweed jackets as though they were in downtown Rio on Saturday.
Yates has spent the summer reshaping his squad and they all seem to have bought into the style of play he wants to play – and boy was it entertaining.
Crewe – under respected veteran manager Dario Gradi – have built a reputation themselves for passing football over the years and so they also contributed to a great afternoon’s entertainment.
Yates based his tactics on a midfield diamond formation and each of the four players – Michael Pook, Josh Low, Frankie Artus and Brian Smikle – covered every blade of grass as they passed, moved and interchanged. God only knows how long they had to stay in the bar to rehydrate after the game! My guess is that they are probably still in there.
Crewe took the lead through a sweetly taken volley by Cameroon central defender Patrick Ada before Wes Thomas responded with two himself. The Railwaymen never gave up though and stuck to their guns to draw level from a diving header by big striker Calvin Zola.
In the end though Cheltenham’s winner summed up the way they had played all afternoon with a sweet passing movement from the back that finished up in the net from about 12 yards out courtesy of Thomas’s co-striker Jeff Goulding.
Goulding and Thomas had played together for one season at Fisher Athletic netting nearly 40 goals between them and if the can replicate that form for Mark Yates, he’ll be one happy bunny come the end of the season.
I suspect that Goulding will turn out to be the foil for Thomas and, if they can maintain this form and get some gaol scoring support from the midfielders, I might well have seen a top seven side in action.
However, there’s a long, hard season ahead and so Robins’ fans shouldn’t get too carried away just yet. But if you missed the game on Saturday, it’s worth spending a few quid getting along to the next home fixture. There are no guarantees they’ll win, but if they play like this it’ll be money well spent.
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