By Peegs
August 26 2003

The Robins came from a goal down to beat rivals Kidderminster Harriers by 2 goals to 1 at Whaddon Road thanks to a trade mark Grant McCann free kick 10 minutes from time. There was a new name in the starting line up as another Bristol player joined the club, this time centre half Darren Jones who has joined on a months loan to cover for the injured Shane Duff, John Brough was surprisingly dropped from the 16 and Higgs replaced Book in goal.

If for some reason you missed the first half you didn't miss much as not an awful lot happened, the football was poor and the atmosphere was flat for a supposed local derby.

Mark Yates who has upped his game in his last couple of appearances was lucky only to see yellow after a nasty looking lunge on Kiddie's Kenny Coleman but in all honesty this was the highlight of the first 20 minutes in a dour opening to the game.

Soon after some entertainment for the disappointing crowd of just over 4,100 as Bo 'Gippo' Henrikson fired a lose ball towards goal from 6 yards, however to the delight of the C and G crowd given their chance to abuse Bo lanky Kevin Amankwaah managed to get in a sliding block to deny the Danish striker appearing on the scoresheet.

The Robins - shooting towards the away fans in the first half - created their first opening of note, a whipped in Grant McCann corner was met with a looping header from Spencer, however Brook in the Harriers goal flung himself across his goal to stop the ball nestling in the top right hand corner of the net.

And in truth that was all of a very disappointing first half however Town fans always had the hope of knowing that Bob Taylor was waiting and ready to enter the field of play having taken his place on the bench.

H/T 0-0

Kidderminster - reportedly playing under the lowest budget in the 3rd division - outclassed the Robins in the first half and played some neat and tidy football and it was them that made a change to their team at half time. Adie Smith entered the field of play to replace the injured Scott Stamps.

Kayode Odejayi was having a very poor game upfront for Cheltenham and he let his frustration get the better of him 5 minutes in the second half. Having lost the ball he chased down a pass 15 yards away and lunged in with a wild tackle on Coleman. The referee saw the foul as a yellow card offence but Odejayi looked off the pace all afternoon, perhaps 2 games in 3 days was taking its toll on the tall Nigerian born striker.

5 minutes into the 2nd half Kiddie took a deserved lead. The ref blew up for a dubious foul by Mike Duff on Andrew Bishop 25 yards out. After long deliberation of getting the Robins wall 10 yards back Danny Williams charged in and smacked and un stoppable shot into Higgs top left corner. It was a cracking goal by one of the Harriers best prospects and Cheltenham needed to wake up to get anything out of the game.

Bobby Gould immediately made a change and sent on Bob Taylor for his home debut inplace of the inefective 'Kay ODJ' and Martin Devaney entered the field of play inplace of Scotsman Graham Fyfe.

The Robins played much better after the tactical changes, Devaney playing on the right was a threat and McCann came more into the game down the left flank, however it was Bob Taylor that made the difference.

He nearly hit an equaliser when the ball broke to him in the box, he hit a powerful shot goalwards but somehow Brock made a block and, I don't think it will be long before we see 'Super Bob' on the scoresheet.

Indeed it was Taylor himself heavily involved in the goal. Grant McCann hit in a corner at the C and G End, Taylor won a header that looped towards goal, Mike Duff challenged the goalee who couldn't gather the ball and luckily for Cheltenham the ball fell right to Jamie Victory who drilled the ball into the back of the net to make the score 1-1.

The goal struck the crowd into life and the Robins gave their fans more to cheer about 2 minutes later with the winner. McCann was fouled 19 yards out, with Bob Taylor making a nuisance of himself in the wall McCann struck his free kick low and hard with pace, too much pace for Stuart Brock in the Harriers goal and the ball rifled low into the net. McCann now one of the Division's top scorers celebrated infront of the C and G but the players knew they were lucky to be collecting 3 points after a low key performance.

The Harriers misery was confounded edging towards 90 minutes when ex Swindon defender Adam Willis - who incidentally had already stamped on Bob Taylor - was shown a red card after siving down Martin Devaney who was surging into the box, this time the McCann free kick was comfortably saved by Brock.

The game ended 2-1 however the Robins will have to play better if they are to acheive anything this season. Leyton Orient are next up and hopefully Bob Taylor and Devaney will start the game down in London after they came on and changed this local Derby game from being a lack lustre defeat to a crucial 3 point win.

F/T 2-1

CHELTENHAM TOWN : Higgs, Amankwaah, Jones, M.Duff, Victory, Fyfe (Devaney 54), Yates, McCann, Cozic, Spencer (Forsyth 82), Odejayi (Taylor 54)

KIDDERMINSTER HARRIERS : Brock, Coleman,Willis , Hinton, Stamps (Smith 46), Bennett, D.Williams, Flynn, Shilton, Bishop, Henrikson

Attendance 4,179