More from the A40 derby - We’ve got your back

After you’ve had a bad day at the office – or on the football pitch – it’s good to know that your friends or colleagues have your back. I speak from experience.

From school football, to Sunday morning games and five-a-side kickabouts the football chant “You’re sh*t and you know you are” was actually created for me and has followed me around … it was usually sung my team mates! Come to think of it, people hum it in the office too! I digress.

On Tuesday night Cheltenham keeper Scott Brown was culpable for Oxford’s equalizer, but striker Wes Thomas – who scored the Robins’ opener – leapt immediately to Brown’s defence and was refreshingly honest in his evaluation of the game. He said:

“As a goalkeeper you’re totally exposed when you make a mistake. No-one will be talking about the chance I missed, but Scott has nowhere to hide. I should’ve scored in the second half as well. One mistake doesn’t make you a bad player and Scott will bounce back. Everyone has faith in him.”

Manager Mark Yates was understandably fuming, but has also praised Brown in the past and I predict he will stick with him and make sure he doesn't dwell on it for too long. He said:

“There’s no beating around the bush, Scott’s cost us three points and he knows I’m not happy. The way the goal went in just deflated us. We went from up there to down there.

We worked our socks off and that has to be the minimum expectation every week. I’m just disappointed for everybody that we didn’t get all three points.”

Yates knows though that in football you can’t dwell on the past and Thomas himself has cited his boss as someone who has given him self-belief and confidence. He’ll do the same with Brown.

Oxford’s Chris Wilder was the happier of the two managers after the game and funnily enough made the point I’ve made on this blog. He said:

“Despite the fact that we only came up last year, I’ve said to the players that we’re seen as one of the big clubs in this league. Other clubs will have a go at us and Mark Yates set up his side to do that. That was always going to be Cheltenham’s biggest fixture of the season.

We were a bit naïve at times, but one thing we do is work for each other. I didn’t enjoy the first 20 minutes when we were out fought, out passed and out battled, but then we started passing and looked a decent side.”