Cheltenham manager Michael Duff said he was quite happy with last night’s 0-0 draw at Portman Road, in which frustrated Blues fans chanted ‘Boring, boring Cheltenham’ in the second half, having had enough excitement during Saturday’s 5-5 draw at Wycombe Wanderers.

The Robins spent much of the second half breaking up the flow of the game with frequent stoppages for injuries while taking their time over every set piece.

“To be honest, I thought their crowd was more interested in us than they were supporting their own team in the second half, which probably tells you everything,” Duff told Gloucestershire Live.

“Boring, boring Cheltenham? We had enough entertainment on Saturday, so I’m quite happy with a 0-0.”

Reflecting further on his side's performance, he added: “I couldn’t be prouder. To come away to a team who have won seven in the last 10, after Saturday, you look around and see the size of the club, the players they have and we’ve come here with 14 players really.

“Longy [Sean Long] has not really trained, Jamie [Soule] we don’t know that much about and the team changed this morning because Sercs [Liam Sercombe] was ill.

“We have seen the number of bodies that weren’t involved through injury and to be honest, other than Owen [Evans] making one save, I am not sure he’s had a lot to do.

“We were better second half, when I thought we had as many chances, if not more, than them.

“We are under no obligation to try and come here and take them on, toe-to-toe in a football match. We kept our shape and discipline and the character that the lads showed at the end was magnificent.

“We had quite a few playing who hadn’t played for quite a long time and you see them going down with cramp and it’s genuine, it’s not time-wasting.

“The worst thing you can get in football is cramp, it’s horrible. Once you get it, you can’t seem to get rid of it, but that spirit and togetherness, I’ve told them before, everyone will be used and everyone will be needed. It’s a really, really important point.”

That point was Cheltenham's first at Portman Road having been beaten on their previous two visits in the Southern League back in the 1936/37 and 1937/38 seasons.

Photo: Action Images

Dissboyitfc added 11:41 - Feb 23 Clearly doesnt believe that paying supporters should be entertained, sooner we leave this league behind the better. As for Duff saying he was proud, he should feel ashamed! I guess we have a target on our backs! Bring on saturday!
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blues1 added 11:48 - Feb 23 Duff talking bs. Yes, totally entitled to put 10 men behind the ball for the 90 minutes and make it hard for us to break them down. But to say his players were going down with genuine injuries is rubbish. Didn't see a single one of their players being treated for cramp. And pretty sure had we managed to get ourselves a goal, not one of them would have gone down neither. Just pure cheating. Something that's happened too often here this season. Oxford probably the worst example.

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johnwarksshorts added 11:48 - Feb 23 That's all very well, but any team like the Cheltenhams, Morecombes etc are going to come to bigger clubs and try and frustrate the opposition so they can pick up points to remain in league 1. We just need to be better and take our chances which we didn't last night so you can't blame Cheltenham. Having said that I'm glad I'm in our shoes and not theirs. COYB.
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Churchman added 12:21 - Feb 23 He's entitled to his view, I suppose. Berk.
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BlueBlood90 added 12:35 - Feb 23 Hopefully they are the worst side to ever take 4 points from us in a season. We should've had 6 points from those games without fail.
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KernewekBlue added 12:37 - Feb 23 johnwarksshorts is right... minnows like Cheltenham will come to us and park the bus, especially now we're finding some cohesion and the team are performing much better. Of course Michael Duff is going to praise his players. They got him a point when they were favourites to lose the match, and they should have done, we just need that bit of extra sharpness in their box and we would have rolled them over. We should have, and on another day we would have, beaten them by 2 or 3 goals. If Wes Burns had converted the on-a-plate cross from Celina, I think they would have crumbled. Anyhow, it is what it is, another decent performance, another point gained and another clean sheet... prepare for the next game and we go again. COYB

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AlanG296 added 13:03 - Feb 23 Duff's right on one thing, his keeper had very little to do, for all our possession and attractive build up play, our shots were tame and crosses and set pieces didn't cause him any difficulties.
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bleedblueandwhite added 13:15 - Feb 23 "The worst thing you can get in football is cramp" You what mate? Have you ever heard of cruciate ligament injuries?? Small club loser mentality. Well done to them though they did what they wanted, and for them coming to Ipswich and getting a point is like getting to the FA Cup Final...
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AlanG296 added 13:41 - Feb 23 Expressions like minnows, small clubs, bigger clubs just show arrogance. Singing Boring Boring whatever is just blaming the opposition for our failure. We had more than enough opportunities to win last night. Fact is that we are in this division on merit as are the other 23 and Cheltenham will be in this division next year on merit, as probably, for all McKenna's good work, will we.

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VanDusen added 13:41 - Feb 23 Mm. Bit of entitlement coming through in these posts isn' there with talk of "minnows" when we've been in exactly the same circs in the Prem and even the Championship in recent years with budget/quality etc.? Duff has every right to be proud. Just as we were when we parked the bus at Old Trafford in '94 and got a 0-0 in a match where Man United had about 30 shots and the only 'highlight' BBC could show of us in 25 mins coverage was us getting over the halfway line once. It's part of the game and frankly we needed to be more ruthless. They didn't really start going down or time wasting til the last 10 mins either which is a marked improvement not only on Oxford, but also Accrington, Gillingham. Give some credit where credit's due.

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chepstowblue added 14:02 - Feb 23 Let's face it; we've played crap on several occasions this season and won either 1-0 or 2-1. Fans come on here and will say "I don't care how we did it", nor will last nights opposition. We need to stop worrying about Cheltenhams perfectly legitimate tactics and worry about our own deficiencies and inability in finding a way to unlock an organised defence. Unfortunately it's the reason why we aren't perhaps the big fish that many on here believe we are. We're 9th for a reason and likely to miss out on the play offs because of us !

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BeattiesBackPocket added 14:04 - Feb 23 As much as we can moan about teams coming to us sitting back and time wasting which they and a few teams have this season we played well enough in the first half to be a goal or two up the movement, quick football and worked the keeper but wasted chances. Second half we were slower, not good enough we just didn't work the keeper or get shots on target. I still feel we are missing that instinctive striker like a Mathie, johnson, away from being a top 6 side someone who knows where to be in the box near post far post they can be the difference between winning and drawing.

5

grumpyoldman added 14:14 - Feb 23 Minnows, small club & big club are a perspective comparison. To Cheltenham we are a big club, to Man City we are a small club, to Real Madrid we are minnows. It is not disrespectful at all.
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runningout added 14:20 - Feb 23 Micheal Duff Spot on .. up to us to deal with it, not moan.
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 14:30 - Feb 23 It was just one of those nights. Football matches aren't decided in advanced and don't always to to plan. We should have won, with some of our play in the first half bordering on the spectacular; but we didn't. And you can't blame Cheltenham for playing the way they see fit. It's up to us to score, and it just didn't happen. Played out over a whole season, I think we'd get enough results in games like this to be well above Cheltenham in the table. But this was a one-off. You can blame Cheltenham for time-wasting, but they are not alone in that. Sad to say, I imagine we would do the same in a similar situation, where we had a result with only injury time to go. Glad to see this ref. didn't buy all the falling over, however.

4

AlanG296 added 14:37 - Feb 23 Grumpy, in the context that they are used above, they are disrespectful. Cheltenham are one of many clubs who should be respected for making the most of their resources, something that can't (yet) be said for us.
0

IpswichToon added 15:29 - Feb 23 Bizarre to think that from the 4 games against Sunderland and Cheltenham we only took 2 points, despite being the better team in all 4 games.
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Dissboyitfc added 15:35 - Feb 23 feigning injury is cheating and is nothing to be proud of!
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Bazza8564 added 16:03 - Feb 23 Cheltenham pushed it to the absolute limit, and when their guy says they didn't go down unnecessarily, I challenge him to remember when the keeper went down clutching his hip, got a furious volley from the North, the same from the Ref, and got up sheepishly realising he'd been rumbled. Having said that, Wes Burns threw the ball away twice saturday at 1/0 and we thought it was professional, so its really not worth the fuss. Fair play to them. Funny though even after one draw in such a good run we can start arguing amongst ourselves again over such a non issue.

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PortmanTerrorist added 18:06 - Feb 23 Saw more Miracles on the pitch last night than at a Smokey Robinson concert. Wish my bad back would spontaneously recover in seconds, but real life is not like that, but sounds like it might in Mr Duff's fantasy world. As for result, not as disappointed as many, still think there is plenty of time and points ahead.....and we need to keep improving to have a chance as we have not yet beaten anyone properly above us other than Wickham which was a strange result at the time by anyone's standards. We keep picking up points and then if we beat the likes of Oxford and Plymouth, then it may be on and can hope that Wigan and Rotherham are on the beach by the time we play them !

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ringwoodblue added 20:14 - Feb 23 If Burns or Celina had converted their chances, we would have seen a very different Cheltenham, like the team that came back from two goals down twice at Wycombe. Like it or not they did what they had to do and we should've had the quality upfront to beat them. We didn't so no good moaning about them, we move on to Morecambe.
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Phil1969 added 20:17 - Feb 23 That's fine MrDuff we'll be in the Premiership and you will still be playing the same shxt house football. Cheltenham area catchment is significantly bigger than Suffolk so good luck on that ambition!
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Mariner1974 added 20:50 - Feb 23 I actually agree with BeattiesBackPocket for once! We played more than well enough to have won that easily, but fluffed our lines in the 6 year box and didn't deliver the perfect balls, that Kayden was doing from the wing on saturday. That goal Celina scored on saturday was literally on a plate for him, and with Kayden in the middle, no-one was supplying the same kind of simple cut back into the box like he did on saturday. McKenna was right to bring on KVY as DT as good as a left back/defender he is, he doesn't have the confidence to go to the bye-line and cut a ball back. Personally think we should solidly be playing and sticking by Bonne til he rediscovers his goal touch. He's the closest thing we have to a predator and was scoring a chunk first part of the season as we all know. All strikers go through a period of drought, but as Conte says he'd still play Kane if he had one leg

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Mariner1974 added 20:52 - Feb 23 What's the 6 Year box? The 6 YARD Box! Duff is just winding us up with his comments. Knows he'll get under our skin. As much as it's a good point gained for them, I'm not sure you'd be wanting to travel across country from Gloucestershire to see your team draw a blank.
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shakytown added 21:04 - Feb 23 Phil1969. We cant beat Cheltenham and you think we will be playing premier league. Hilarious.
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