Cheltenham Town 2 Burton Albion 1 – Ugly

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun - with someone else's byline!!

The Sun’s football website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football

They say that if you are going to achieve anything in football, sometimes you have to win ugly – if so, this performance was a bit like watching Susan Boyle at a gurning competition.

In total contrast to the “semi naked Cameron Diaz show” the Robins put on last time I went to see them against Crewe, this time the Robins stole all three points with a fight back prompted by on loan substitute Shaun Jeffers who set up both goals.

Having said that, Cheltenham boss Mark Yates won’t mind if he wakes up next to the football equivalent of SuBo next May knowing that he will be strutting his stuff in the harem of League One beauties in 2011/12.

Jeff Goulding started the game after passing a fitness test, but Jeffers, 18, replaced him on the hour - as was the plan according to First Team Coach Neil Howarth after the match.

In the 80th minute Jeffers – on loan from Coventry and joining up with England U-19s for a game against Slovakia after the game –teed up co-striker Wes Morgan for his 5th goal in four games and less than two minutes later did the same thing for winger Josh Low to wrap up the win.

Mind you if it hadn’t been for several great saves by keeper Scott Brown things could have been very different. The last one – in injury time – was a stunning low save to his right from an 18 yard shot by Burton goal scorer Shaun Harrad that flew through a sea of legs.

I spoke to Harrad afterwards and he generously paid tribute to Brown saying: “He deserves the man of the match champagne for that performance.”

I had to wait until the man from BBC radio had finished talking to Harrad before I could grab a few words, but listened in as the striker was told he had “got away from the Cheltenham defence once and scored a goal”. I have to admit that I sometimes wonder what game my colleagues are watching as Harrad had several attempts on goal and I’m sure the central defenders – Steve Elliott and Keith Lowe – will happily admit Harrad made sure they earned their corn.

Harrad had last season’s amazing 6-5 home defeat against Cheltenham on his mind and admitted they felt as though they’d been mugged again. He said “We said at half time we couldn’t take it for granted especially after what happened last season, but they had two chances and scored from both. It’s a big knock back. I’m pleased to get of the mark in the league.”

Harrad is an extremely likeable guy and – more importantly – looks a real threat when he gets the ball in front of goal. Burton boss Paul Peschisolido will be hoping that he is given more opportunities by his teammates as the season wears on.

Indeed Pesch said: “We had enough three on twos and sometimes we chose the wrong option going forward. If you don’t take your chances away from home you don’t win and we had enough chances and we had the chances.”

Howarth is pleased that the Robins now have enough options on the bench from which they can pick to change a game as they did against Albion. He said: “A couple of times last season we looked at the bench and didn’t have much to change things, but now we have Gallinagh, Bird, Shroot and others who can come on and change things and Jeffers did it today. We’re very pleased with the squad we’ve managed to put together so far.

Josh Low is a Rolls Royce for us. Not any people would have got there and timed his run perfectly, but he’s got ability and it took some finishing.

We’ve played a lot of pretty stuff this season and today when we’ve needed to show bottle and character we did that as well.

We had a lot of huff and puff and weren’t able to break them down, but our couple of substitutions gave us a little more impetuous when we needed it.

Shaun is a lovely lad. He’s very lively and been staying on the training ground after training. He’s not quite in the starting eleven yet and we’ve got a couple of players like that and they’re going about things the right way. Their attitude is spot on.”

Scott Brown’s decisions are correct and a made some outstanding saves today and deserves a big pat on the back. That’s why he’s there at the end of the day, but every credit to him.”

Thomas, 23, was delighted with his equalizer, but paid tribute to both Brown and Jeffers. He said: “Scott has come in for a bit of stick, but to be fair he’s kept us in the game right at the end and if he can keep doing that we should have a good season. He’s got us the win really.

My confidence is high right now and it didn’t affect me when I missed one, I just feel another chance will come along. Shaun Jeffers is an exciting player and he’s got pace and ability and a great future.”