Cheltenham Town v West Ham United Under-21s

[Jon Palmer]

Team news, live updates and reaction all here this evening:

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/s ... am-9673049

[Shade]

Very tidy finish from Dulson.

[Shade]

Cheltenham have the ball on the left side of the penalty area, back to goal. The ref stops the game for a head injury to a West Ham player in the box, who got hurt falling into his own teammate. No foul is given. The ball is given to the West Ham goalkeeper via a drop ball to restart. Is that the rule? Or is it just us that refs don't give the ball back to?

[Shade]

What a stupid challenge from the West Ham player that could have seriously hurt Colwill when he/the ball was going nowhere. A rare penalty for us, nicely dispatched by Matty Taylor.

[HamTown]

Matty Taylor telling Bakare to calm down running to pick the ball out of West Hams net

[Shade]

Disappointing we got cut open pretty much right from the restart... Far too easy.

[Shade]

Get in there, Tom King is off the mark. Hopefully the first of many in a Cheltenham shirt.

[HamTown]

He's doing really well, looks a bit taller than the advertised 5ft 4

[Shade]

This ref is another shocker, really. Flynn has just been booked and given him a proper death stare following the ref bottling giving us a free kick and a West Ham kid a red card for being last man.

Our kids have looked better than theirs, I think. Liggett, Willcox, King. Shipley looks more comfortable at centre back, but obviously playing a PL U21 team is different from facing a L2 team.

[HamTown]

This ref is another shocker, really. Flynn has just been booked and given him a proper death stare following the ref bottling giving us a free kick and a West Ham kid a red card for being last man.

Our kids have looked better than theirs, I think. Liggett, Willcox, King. Shipley looks more comfortable at centre back, but obviously playing a PL U21 team is different from facing a L2 team.

Sohna should have been sent off after 5 mins too....

[Shade]

This ref is another shocker, really. Flynn has just been booked and given him a proper death stare following the ref bottling giving us a free kick and a West Ham kid a red card for being last man.

Our kids have looked better than theirs, I think. Liggett, Willcox, King. Shipley looks more comfortable at centre back, but obviously playing a PL U21 team is different from facing a L2 team.

Sohna should have been sent off after 5 mins too....

What did he do? I missed until about a minute before we scored the first. Stupid early kick offs.

[Si Robin]

This ref is another shocker, really. Flynn has just been booked and given him a proper death stare following the ref bottling giving us a free kick and a West Ham kid a red card for being last man.

Our kids have looked better than theirs, I think. Liggett, Willcox, King. Shipley looks more comfortable at centre back, but obviously playing a PL U21 team is different from facing a L2 team.

Sohna should have been sent off after 5 mins too....

What did he do? I missed until about a minute before we scored the first. Stupid early kick offs.

Exactly the same as the West Ham lad.

[Horteng]

Good win. Breeds the winning mentality amongst the group.

Is there any prize money of note for tonight?

[Si Robin]

£12k I believe for the win.

[Alf]

£12k I believe for the win.

Another excellent performance, long may it continue!
There are some promising individuals coming through into the team, things are looking up !

[Garby74]

Really pleasing performance all round.
Shows we do have strength in depth.
They were no mugs.

However west ham body language was pretty shocking. They thought we were beneath them...all the sweeter when we play them and battle then off the park.

Some of their players are on £5 to 25k apparently.

What's the score 74!!!!

Love it

Well done Cheltenham

I truly believe we have turn a corner the last few weeks.

Well done Flynn

[theidlerich]

Watched on tv. Overall quite impressed with our squad. Ref missed a number of fouls inc a shove just outside WHFC's box! Going forward hope some of these develop quickly. Many of WHFC's squad very skilful, but luckily didn't quite play as a team. Our defence very shaky at times too [no surprise]. So well done CTFC.

[Ihearye]

Good win, that should give the fringe players a bit of confidence

[Jerry St Clair]

Cheltenham have the ball on the left side of the penalty area, back to goal. The ref stops the game for a head injury to a West Ham player in the box, who got hurt falling into his own teammate. No foul is given. The ball is given to the West Ham goalkeeper via a drop ball to restart. Is that the rule? Or is it just us that refs don't give the ball back to?

I didn't know this but, yes, apparently so.

If play is stopped when the ball is in the penalty area, or was last touched in the penalty area, play is restarted with the ball dropped to the goalkeeper.

[horlickfanclub]

Good performance from all. Our young lads matched them.

[Fuller]

I think we’ve already qualified for the knockout stage now as Reading and Newport still have to play each other? Presume the group winners get a home tie in the next round? Next Tuesday v Reading could be a good deciding game.
Very good effort from the lads, especially compared to our very poor performances in the group stage last season. At least we have a decent squad of players to choose from now. Hopefully AJB back soon too.

[Jerry St Clair]

Reading are in an injury crisis. Likely they’d have played lots of kids anyway, but they’ll down to the bare bones. We’ll likely be effectively playing a cat 1 academy team like against the Prem clubs.

[Shade]

Cheltenham have the ball on the left side of the penalty area, back to goal. The ref stops the game for a head injury to a West Ham player in the box, who got hurt falling into his own teammate. No foul is given. The ball is given to the West Ham goalkeeper via a drop ball to restart. Is that the rule? Or is it just us that refs don't give the ball back to?

I didn't know this but, yes, apparently so.

If play is stopped when the ball is in the penalty area, or was last touched in the penalty area, play is restarted with the ball dropped to the goalkeeper.

Thanks. Seems stupid to me. Why not just give the ball back to the team that had possession, but outside the box...

[Shade]

Reading are in an injury crisis. Likely they’d have played lots of kids anyway, but they’ll down to the bare bones. We’ll likely be effectively playing a cat 1 academy team like against the Prem clubs.

I seem to remember hearing similar things in the early stages of last season when we played them in League 1. And we lost.

[Jerry St Clair]

Reading are in an injury crisis. Likely they’d have played lots of kids anyway, but they’ll down to the bare bones. We’ll likely be effectively playing a cat 1 academy team like against the Prem clubs.

I seem to remember hearing similar things in the early stages of last season when we played them in League 1. And we lost.

Indeed, I wasn't implying it'd be easy. Reading's academy is producing some very, very good players. Just that the context of the game will be more akin to CTFC v U21s than CTFC v A Fellow Lower League Team.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

I think we’ve already qualified for the knockout stage now as Reading and Newport still have to play each other?

If Newport beat Reading and then Reading beat us we are all on six points. Is it goal difference or head to head which is the first tiebreaker?

[Artemis]

I think we’ve already qualified for the knockout stage now as Reading and Newport still have to play each other?

If Newport beat Reading and then Reading beat us we are all on six points. Is it goal difference or head to head which is the first tiebreaker?

Yes. Although barring a thrashing by Reading, we should be through. A 1-0 defeat would see us through (I think)

[Shade]

Yes, it's GD, and this is how it currently stands:


Cheltenham Town Pl2 GD+3 Pts6
Reading Pl1 GD+2 Pts3
Newport County AFC Pl2 GD0 Pts3
West Ham United U21 Pl3 GD-5 Pts0