Yates hails best win

13 September 2010 12:00
Mark Yates was fully aware of how hard his Cheltenham side had to work to record their narrow 1-0 victory over battling Stevenage and had nothing but praise for his players. The Robins made it 10 points from six games thanks to Wes Thomas' sixth goal of the season, a result Yates labelled as the club`s best of the season to date. "I'm pretty happy we've got a clean sheet. If we'd have taken a result it would have been 1-0. Sometimes a 1-0 scoreline is a proper scoreline against a strong organised team like Stevenage," he said. "We know what Wes Thomas is about, we see it day in and day out at training. It was tough on Saturday, we had no focal point of attack but those two boys (Thomas and Shaun Jeffers) battled manfully against two big competitive players who've earned a good reputation. "Brian Smikle, very unlucky to be left out of the team. Could have sulked, could have moaned but didn't, came in with a big smile on his face and his 27 minutes on the pitch summed up him as a person and he was a massive factor in winning the game. "We have got competition for places. I've read things that I'm threatening to wield the axe, no-one's safe, but it's not a case of that. I make changes that I think are right for team."

Source: PA