Steve Cotterill on Cheltenham’s heavy defeat: It’s never a 5-2 in a million years

Steve Cotterill believed his Cheltenham side did not deserve “in a million years” to lose 5-2 at Sky Bet League Two promotion chasers Notts County.

Cotterill also criticised referee Elliot Bell’s decision to show defender Sam Sherring a straight red card for hacking down winger Keanan Bennetts nine minutes from the end of a gripping match.

Isaac Hutchinson scored twice in the first half as Cheltenham, who have been battling relegation for much of the season, matched their hosts for three quarters of the game.

Hutchinson opened the scoring but County fought back to lead 2-1 through Jodi Jones and captain Matt Palmer’s first goal for three years.

The Magpies pulled away in the second half, with Tom Iorpenda scoring a brilliant individual third then setting up a fourth – claimed by Alassana Jatta, although it may have been an own goal by James Wilson – before Tyrese Hall wrapped up victory in stoppage time to end Cheltenham’s eight-match unbeaten run.

Cotterill said: “It’s never a 5-2, not in a million years. So that was tough on us and we didn’t deserve that.

“We just looked like we were running on empty. But honestly, I can’t thank the lads enough for how they’ve been.

“There’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of honesty, and I just thought, do you know what, winners never lose. Sometimes the clock just runs out. And the clock ran out on us today.”

Cotterill believed the sending-off of Sherring was harsh.

“People are saying it’s not a red card,” he said. “I need to look at it.

“The only thing is, you give the referee an opportunity don’t you? He sends him off and he gets another cheer for it, doesn’t he? So, maybe that helps his day, but it didn’t help us.”

Notts County were a strong attacking threat throughout, but had a much better balance when head coach Martin Paterson bolstered his defence at half-time to counter the threat of Hutchinson.

Paterson said: “We just weren’t quite getting the aggressiveness of the press right. At half-time, we tweaked a few things in our shape and had a little bit of a mentality chat as well.

“The lads came out and I was quite confident with the ball we were always going to hurt them.”

Paterson said Jatta was claiming the fourth goal and was pleased to see the striker impress as he made his first start since January 31 after recovering from injury.

“I’d give it him, yeah,” Paterson said of the goal. “But it’s fantastic to get him through.”

Paterson is happy with the striking options he now has, with Lee Ndlovu on the bench after returning from suspension and top scorer Matthew Dennis available for Tuesday’s trip to Oldham having completed his own two-match ban.

He said: “Lee’s back now. Matthew Dennis comes back next game.

“So there’s going to be so much competition, and the group’s getting stronger as the days go by.”