Andy Crosby hails Tranmere players for ‘hanging in there’ to seal late win

Tranmere boss Andy Crosby praised his players for responding to Cheltenham’s fightback and clinching a much-needed 3-2 victory which ended their three-game winless run.

Rovers flew out of the blocks and took the lead after two minutes when James Wilson diverted Jayden Joseph’s driven cross into his own net.

They made it two in the 11th minute as Joe Ironside capitalised on a poor back-pass to slot past Joe Day.

Cheltenham pulled one back after 34 minutes, Jordan Thomas tapping the ball home after Jake Bickerstaff’s strong run had caused problems in the box.

The visitors pressed after the break and were rewarded in the 77th minute when substitute Josh Martin fired in a shot from the edge of the area to make it 2-2.

But Tranmere had the final say four minutes from time. Charlie Whitaker’s stunning 25-yard free-kick struck a post before hitting the back of the unlucky Day and dropping into the net, sealing all three points for the hosts.

Crosby said: ”Getting the three points today was the most important thing.

“We made a brilliant start and got ourselves in front after a really good half-hour. Then the momentum of the game changed and we were on the back foot and it becomes two all.

“Cheltenham have been on a good run and have some really good players and the more stretched the game became, the more influential they became.

“The credit has to go to the players to hang in there and then for Charlie Whitaker to produce that moment, which may go down as an own goal, it’s three really big points.

“I thought it was an incredibly entertaining game for everyone to watch, but probably not the best game to be involved in on the touchline as it was pretty stressful in the second half.

“The credit has to go to the players and we got the three points and that’s the biggest thing.”

Cheltenham boss Steve Cotterill felt his side deserved something from the game.

He said: “I thought that we were the better team in the first half after going two down and much the better team in the second half.

“When we got back to 2-2, we wanted to go and win it. Three points is quite big for us at the moment, one point would have been okay, coming back from two down to 2-2.

“But there needs to be a winning mentality in us and I wanted us to go on and win that game.

“We’ve ended up losing the game trying to win it, so in the grand scheme of things, I’m glad we kept playing and playing because at two all we were the only team that was going to win that game.

“They’ve nicked it from a free kick that’s hit the post and gone in off Joe Day, so that pretty much sums up today.

“There’s absolutely no way we deserve to lose that game today, even if you take the mistakes out of it for the goals.”