Cheltenham Town 0-0 Stevenage
Cheltenham Town played out a 0-0 draw with Stevenage in a closely contested League Two fixture at The LCI Rail Stadium.
Billy Waters and Harry Pell went close for The Robins in the first half, but it also took a great clearance from Bartham to send the sides in level at half time.
Neither team were able to create any clear chances in the second half as the teams seemed to cancel eachother out.
The match marked the first game at The LCI Rail Stadium since The Woolridge Stand was renamed The Colin Farmer Stand.
Cheltenham had the first real chance of the game after seven minutes when Dan O’Shaughnessy played the ball over the top to Billy Waters, who brought it down and poked it towards goal – but Jamie Jones was equal to it.
Barthram then had to save The Robins ten minutes later when he made a goal-line clearance to deny Charlie Lee’s header from a Stevenage corner.
From that chance, though, Jack Munns picked the ball up and made a long pass for Danny Wright to chase, and the striker played the ball back for Pell to crack a thunderous effort towards goal that Jones had to smartly save.
It wasn’t until the 27th minute that the next chance was created as neither side were able to keep the ball for a prolonged period of time, but Russell Griffiths had to stay sharp to deny a fierce Tyler Walker effort after the attacker had found space on the left hand side of the box.
And it stayed scrappy up until the break as both sides failed to create any clear-cut opportunities to try and take the lead.
After the break the game carried on in a similar fashion to how the opening period ended, with Cheltenham coming closest through Pell’s free kick from the edge of the box that Jones did well to palm away.
With 10 minutes left on the clock the ball fell to Ben Kennedy on the edge of the Cheltenham box, but even though the Stevenage man managed to turn, his shot went high and wide of the goal.
The away side were starting to put Gary Johnson’s team under pressure late on, and it took an acrobatic save from Griffiths in the 82nd minute to keep Kgosi Ntlhe’s header out.
Despite four minutes of added time, neither team could trouble the other and it finished with the sides sharing the spoils at the final whistle.
Cheltenham Town: R Griffiths, A Downes (C), D O’Shaughnessy, R Dickie, J Cranston (D Parslow, 86), J Barthram (J Dayton, 70), A Hall, J Munns (A Morgan-Smith, 70), H Pell, B Waters, D Wright.
Unused Subs: C Kitscha, E Suliman, J Lymn, J Thomas.
Stevenage: J Jones, J King, F Franks, R Henry, K Ntlhe, C Lee, H Cowans, B Kennedy, D Gorman (M Tonge, 80), T Pett, T Walker (J Hyde, 86).
Unused Subs: C Preston, A Fox, L Wilkinson, H McKirdy, R Liburd.