City, for the opening 25 mins were a class apart, they ripped Cheltenham to shreds, a clinical pass from Kav put Campbell in to score the opener on 11 mins and a Legg shot and another effort from Campbell saw City so close to doubling the lead.
Then for 20 mins it all went wrong, no control in midfield, a lack of commitment and a lack of quality saw Cheltenham register their only two shots on goal. A tame Paul Brayson shot was easily caught by Alexander than disaster. Rhys Weston was harshly judge to have fouled Brayson and even harsher was the yellow card he received from Premiership ref Graham Barbour. The free kick came in and City were poor in defence and Neil Howard poked the ball into the back of the net.
As far as Cheltenham were concerned that was it. City had close on all the play from there but could break them down. The Bluebirds were poor in the final third as much as Cheltenham being good in defence. It was hard to watch at times, even harder when you consider the awful views you get from the away end at Whaddon Rd. It's pre historic. It was hard to see the penalty area in front of us as fans were up againt the pitchside fence, if you were to stand behind the goal you could just about reach out and touch the posts, let alone the net which was only 6 inches in front of your eyes.
City started with Legg, Whalley, Boland and Kav in midfield a sort of 4 - 4 -2 / 4 - 3 - 1 - 2 hybrid. Leo was dropped but came on later on in controversial circumstances. City's most creative player was Andy Legg and it came as a great shock when Legg was replaced by Leo with several mins to go. It was felt amongst the fans that Legg's deliveries top Leo could have helped get that elusive goal.
Earnie came on for Campbell. Again too many times a Cheltenham player was eager for the ball while City sat back and waited for possession (it came to the pretty easily as Cheltenham gave the ball away time after time).
The City fans gave a great deal of support for Paul Brayson. Several times the ex City player answered calls to do the ayatollah and he got a louder cheer from the City fans when he was substituted than from the home support.
Today was another 2 points dropped. Same as last Monday against Luton, we have come up against one of the poorest teams in the league and have not been able to break them down.
It's all very well the management acknowledging that teams will put so many men behind the ball, the truth is we did not look good enough to carve them open. We stay 5th, we have no game next week but will probably stay in the top 10 even after the other teams play their games. We are not out of it, far from it but c'mon, we have played rubbish teams who play rubbish football and as far as the results go the record shows we are only as good as them as far as points are concerned.
Sort it out Lennie. We may think we are the Man Utd of this division but they score goals and win matches, they do enough. We don't.