Cheltenham Town were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw to Accrington Stanley despite missing a number of golden chances.
With both sides residing near the relegation spots in League One, a win was much needed for the Robins however it did not come after a number of chances were missed by the hosts.
The clubs record signing Aidan Keena was given a starting debut, whilst Dylan Barkers made his first appearance of the campaign with Liam Sercombe also making a return to the starting eleven.
The hosts missed several key opportunities with the first in the 11th minute when Taylor Perry had his effort saved magnificently by Burnley Loanee Lukas Jensen.
Jensen, who saved a penalty in the midweek draw at Port Vale, went on to make an even better stop to keep out Liam Sercombe’s effort in the 57th minute after the midfielder beat his marker for pace before trying to squeeze a shot past in at the near post.
The Robins’ manager Wade Elliott spoke to journalists after the game surrounding his sides’ disappointing run of recent results.
“We deserved to win it but I was pleased with the performance and the endeavour. I was pleased with the chances we made. It’s important the players don’t get disillusioned and they keep doing the work, keep doing the things we are asking from them and as we always say, eventually hard work will pay you back.
“I said to the players, if we weren’t creating chances and the performances were a bit icky, I’d be panicked, but you can see the performances for yourself, so if we keep delivering that, there are a lot of points to play for. If we keep delivering performances like that, we’ll scoop up enough of them.”
Cheltenham currently sit two points off of the relegation spots in 19th, however their boss is unfazed at this stage of the season with a similar run of matches to last season awaiting them.
“We try to chunk it down. We work a half at a time, don’t get too far ahead of yourselves, we’ll just focus on Cambridge. The performances generally have been very good, so we don’t get too bogged down with it. Let’s concentrate on going to deliver a similar performance at Cambridge on Tuesday night.”
Tomorrow night they will travel to Cambridge in a bid to distance themselves from the ongoing threat of relegation and Elliott will be keen to secure three points.
