By Peegs
April 11 2003

A battling Cheltenham twice came from behind last night against Luton in an entertaining game at Whaddon Road. Second half sub Julian Alsop netting with a header on 81 minutes to keep the Robins chances of survival going. Bobby Gould made one change to the team that threw away 2 points at Brentford, with Shane Higgs replacing Book in goal, a move that was suggested by myself as Book was caught out of position for Brentford’s first goal on Saturday.

As was expected the ‘Hatter’ got off to a good start, both Forbes – who later said hello to a C and G advertising board! – and last years Division 3 leading scorer Steve Howard sent their shots wide.

With 7 minutes on the clock the Robins could have and maybe should have taken the lead, Devaney robbed ex Swindon left back Sol Davis of the ball, he ran towards goal and sent in a shot that Carl Emberson in the Luton goal saved, Devaney shot in the rebound but the ‘keeper managed to turn it behind for a corner.

The star player on the night Sammy Igoe – currently on loan from Reading – instigated a move in the 12th minute that would see Luton take the lead. He ran through the midfield before threading a ball through to Forbes down the right, he crossed into the box and Paul Hughes diverted the ball past Shane Higgs and into the net infront of the travelling Luton fans in the Away End.

With 27 minutes on the clock, loud cries from the C and G for a penalty were rewarded when a run by Finnigan into the box was halted by a clumsy challenge by Kevin Nicholls, the referee pointed to the spot and for the second game running Northern Ireland star Grant McCann converted the spot kick, this time sending the ‘keeper the wrong way. Having not had a league penalty given for us all season, to have two in two games is a bit ironic.

Cheltenham would have wanted to either add to the score sheet or to make it to half time on level terms, however 7 minutes before the break awful defending let in Adrian Forbes to score. First half sub Ian Hillier – on for the injured Russell Perrett – received a ball from a short corner, he crossed it in and all the defenders left it, Higgs stayed rooted to his line and Adrian Forbes slid in and converted the ball into the net. Another soft goal given away, lack of communication between defenders and ‘keeper have costs us many goals this season, Mike Duff’s header in the home game v Notts County a prime example.

The Robins defence had fallen to pieces at this point and Steve Howard should have given Luton a 2 goal cushion moments before half time, but this time Higgs rushed off his line and was able to deflect his shot wide from 7 yards.

Luton had a goal disallowed for offside in the moment leading up to half time although Joe Kinnear was celebrating a goal!

H/T 1-2

There were no half time subs made by either ex Wimbledon manager, Cheltenham hadn’t been playing that bad however were punished for the mistakes that they had made.

10 minutes after the break Cheltenham suffered the luck that teams at the bottom suffer, a free kick by John Finnigan was swung to the back post, it was met with a deft header by Yates but instead of nestling inside the post it struck the woodwork and rebounded out. Moments of bad luck like this are not needed as we battle to accumulate all the points we can.

With 65 minutes a through ball saw Yates through, however Emberson rushed off his line and grabbed the ball, Yates slid in and caught the ‘keeper which resulted in the handbags coming out, when all calmed down the referee called the Robins captain over and issued him a yellow card.

On 68 minutes Julian Alsop was sent on – note not off! – inpalce of Dave Bird and 7 minutes later Gould sent on Tony Naylor for the ineffective Marvin Brown. The moment of best class in the game should have seen Luton wrap up the points. Matthew Spring took on a couple of players, chipped the ball over a defenders head and volleyed at goal from 18 yards, however his volley flew over the bar and over the C and G stand. It really was a piece of skill that could have come from the Premiership.

With 9 minutes to go the Robins got reward for their perseverance with a crucial equalising goal. Both subs were involved, Naylor got the ball on the Cheltenham left near the corner flag, he laid the ball back to Victory who swung in a cross and Alsop met the ball with a trade mark header that again hit the post, however this time it rebounded into the goal and the referee and the assistant referee adjudged it o have crossed the line before the Luton defender hacked clear.

On my prediction for this game VIEW MY PREDICTIONS HERE I predicted a scoring draw and I was correct! We have currently got the correct amount of points – 42 – that I predicted we should have. We are now 2 points behind Peterborough but crucially the ‘Posh’ have that game in hand. They visit Whaddon Road on Easter Monday for a game that will possibly make or break are season.

F/T 2-2

CHELTENHAM TOWN : Higgs, Bird (Alsop 68), M.Duff, S.Duff, Victory, Devaney, Yates, Finnigan, McCann, Brough, Brown (Naylor 75).

LUTON TOWN : Emberson, Willmott, Coyne, Perrett (Hillier 32), Davis, Igoe, Spring, Nicholls, Hughes, Howard, Forbes (Holmes 88).

Attendance 3,762