By Laurence H
February 11 2003

Cheltenham suffered their 14th league defeat of the season with a late 2-0 defeat from a Stockport side that had been reduced to 10 men early on with the sending off of player-manager, Carlton Palmer. After two excellent performances in the previous week away to Wigan and at Home to Tranmere earning the Robins 4 points hopes were high amongst the Home fans that the Robins could make it 7 points from 3 games. The team was the same side that left the field on Tuesday night with Greg Strong preferred to Shane Duff in defence and Mark Yates preferred to John Finnigan in midfield. The match started fairly slowly but with a good atmosphere from all areas of the ground and plenty of noise from the visiting fans which was something that the home fans had not been treated to very often. Stockport were putting on a lot of early pressure and this nearly resulted in an early goal for the visitors when the Robins defence was caught out and Steve Book was called upon to make a good save down low to his left from Martin Pemberton’s shot.

In a game of a lot of cards, Stockport midfielder Fraser McLachlan was the 1st name entered in the referee’s book for elbowing Robins striker Marvin Brown to the floor, Brown surprisingly playing on the left of midfield. It only took 2 minutes for the referee to get his book out again for Stockport leading scorer Luke Beckett for diving just outside the Robin’s penalty area claiming that he had been pushed by Greg Strong.

Cheltenham then had one of their best chances to take the lead when Greg Strong sent in a good high ball which met Julian Alsop’s head perfectly for him to send through to Tony Naylor who turned brilliantly and only just sent his shot over the bar. The Robins then had two more good chances when Carlton Palmer headed just over his own cross bar from a Grant McCann corner then Mark Yates just headed wide from the resulting corner.

Grant McCann was the next player to enter the referee’s book for a foul on Rickie Lambert on 30 minutes, he was then followed on 36 minutes by Stockport player-manager for a dangerous tackle on Tony Naylor, at this point Robins boss, Bobby Gould rushed out of his technical area to speak with the referee and linesman about the disgraceful challenge, this event got him sent from the dug-out, as he disappeared into the UCAS stand he got an excellent reception from the home fans for showing that much passion for the team. Two minutes later Carlton Palmer put in another wreckless and dangerous challenge, on this occasion it was on Grant McCann, all he could do was to sit on the floor as the referee produced his 2nd yellow card followed by the red card, Palmer still wasn’t finished though as he went to his dug-out to give some more instructions to his assistant manager, not that it would have made any difference with his managerial ability.

The half ended slowly but Martin Pemberton was still able to test Steve Book with a long range effort which ended easily in his hands.

Jamie Victory sent a shot just wide at the start of the 2nd half, but neither side could quite produce the chances they needed despite all the effort being put in through midfield. Marvin Brown then went close for the Robins heading just wide from a cross by Jamie Victory. This was his last contribution to the game as Damian Spencer was brought on to replace him on the left. The Robins produced their best chance moments later when Grant McCann took an excellent corner which met Jamie Victory’s head almost perfectly, the ball then hit the underside of the bar and bounced to safety, the ball was cleared by the Stockport defence but only as far as McCann just outside the area who half-volleyed a shot just over the bar. Defence then switched to attack for the visitors as Luke Beckett picked up the ball and raced towards Steve Book who was left alone in the goal with all the defence up for the corner, Antony Griffin managed to chase back very well to force him wide of the goal so that he could only put his shot straight into Steve Book’s hands.

Bobby Gould then made his 2nd substitution on 67 minutes replacing the out-of-sorts and out of position Grant McCann with Russell Milton.

The 1st goal came after 76 minutes when Stockport had a corner which Ricky Lambert took leaving Jonathan Daly a free header into the corner of the net. Four minutes later Damian Spencer managed to get the ball into the net but it was ruled out for off-side, then Julian Alsop headed wide from another good cross from Jamie Victory.

Damian Spencer then managed to head the ball over the C&G Stand from 1 yard out as the Robins continued to put on added pressure with everyone attacking.

When Cheltenham got a corner on 89 minutes, there were loud cheers from the home fans as Steve Book made his way up, he even got his head to the ball but could only direct it across the goal mouth to find no one ready to put it in.

Stockport then completed the job in injury time, Lambert fed the ball to McLachlan down the right, his shot from wide was palmed away by Book but he was unable to reach the shot from substitute Peter Wild as he put the ball into the corner of the net to round off a miserable day for the Robins