Accrington Stanley 1-1 Cheltenham Town
Accrington Stanley and Cheltenham Town drew 1-1 in a feisty match at The Wham Stadium.
The sides went in level at half time as neither team was able to create any clear-cut chances to break the deadlock.
After the break Cheltenham started well, but went down to 10 men with just under half an hour to go after Dan O’Shaughnessy received his second yellow card of the game.
Terry Gornell put Accrington in front on 75 minutes, but Rob Dickie’s last gasp-header was enough to give the sides a share of the spoils.
New signing Alex Cooper’s debut was cut short after just four minutes when Daniel Parslow replaced him due to injury.
It wasn’t until 22 minutes in that Harry Pell had Cheltenham’s first shot on target when he raced forward from midfield and hit a low shot, but Stanley goalkeeper Aaron Chapman comfortably saved it.
The Robins were in control of the game but were having to remain conscious of an Accrington counter attack, as it took clever defending from Dickie to clear Omar Beckles’ header off the line.
37 minutes in the home side had the best chance of the half as John O’Sullivan was gifted a free header inside the box, but his effort went straight into the hands of Russell Griffiths.
After the break Cheltenham came out firing as Asa Hall went close twice within the space of the first two minutes with driving efforts from the edge of the Stanley box.
Despite their good start to the second half, The Robins were dealt a blow after 64 minutes when O’Shaughnessy was given his marching orders after bringing down Gornell when he was through on goal.
Five minutes later Cheltenham thought they had taken the lead when Jonny Smith went through on goal and tucked the ball under Chapman, but he was denied by the linesman raising his flag for offside.
In the 74th minute Accrington took the lead when Rommy Boco’s cross from the left hand side was headed into the far corner by former Cheltenham man Gornell.
However, with just one minute left on the clock there was pinball in the box following James Dayton’s corner, and even though Chapman saved Danny Wright’s initial header Dickie was on hand to nod The Robins level.
Accrington Stanley: A Chapman, M Pearson, M Hughes (B Kee, 68), O Beckles, Z Vyner, J Clarke, S Brown, J O’Sullivan (C Eagles, 79), S Conneely, R Boco, T Gornell.
Unused Subs: E Parish, C Jones, G Taylor-Fletcher, P Lacey, S Hewitt.
Cheltenham Town: R Griffiths, A Downes, D O’Shaughnessy, R Dickie, J Barthram, A Cooper (D Parslow, 4), A Hall, J Munns (J Smith, 68), H Pell, B Waters (J Dayton, 68), D Wright.
Unused Subs: C Kitscha, K Storer, D Whitehead, A Morgan-Smith.
Attendance: 1637 (115)