Tier Hopping: Cheltenham beat Accrington despite their best efforts.

Have you ever watched paint dry? 

It seemed an exciting proposition as I stood bewildered by just how abysmal the football on offer at Whaddon Road was on Tuesday.  

Have you ever watched rugby?

When two teams kick the ball across the pitch to each other like a big game of catch…that's how I'd sum up the first half. It's only the second Cheltenham Town game I've seen this season but those accompanying me ensured that I knew what I was in for with a full psychological evaluation and even the ticket office attendee asking if I was OK when I tried to buy my ticket. My hopes were not high and my standards were already on the floor but those first 45 minutes were just something else. 

For context, I was supposed to be travelling to Chesham to watch them play Bishops Cleeve in the FA Cup, but the rain quashed that adventure.

The only way I can think to put it is that this was akin to entering two preschools on to University Challenge and seeing them struggle to string a sentence together. Agamemnon was a distant dream.

Under 3000 supporters were in attendance to see Cheltenham Town beat Accrington Stanley courtesy of late goals from Manni Norkett and Ryan Bowman to seal a shock turnaround that has surely bought Michael Flynn a few more weeks. The atmosphere even approaching the ground was not a fun one, no one looked like they cared and the boos were already loaded. So we watched on in silence, block one was doing its best impression of a class of mimes on a school trip and those behind the goal stood apathetic to what they were witnessing. A few cheers for big tackles and the occasional block were quickly hushed by Dara Costelloe's 39th minute opener, much to the indignation of the bloke stood behind me who seemed to hate the Burnley loanee with a burning passion.

The halftime whistle brought the expected reaction. At least Flynn was stood up, though!

The Cheltenham media team pulled off an interesting strategy as the action resumed, simply changing the scoreboard to say 0-0 and assumedly pretending that the game was goalless. You do have to give some credit to the management staff as the removal of Scot Bennett from the action turned the Robins back into an okay team, from then it took just ten minutes to find the equaliser as Norkett capitalised on comical defending and slotted the ball home. Ten minutes after that, and with ten minutes left to play, Bowman rose highest to head home the winner, picking out the bottom right corner and leaving the Stanley shot-stopper rooted to the spot. Cue relieved celebrations before the squad were met with a mix of applause and hands in pockets as they took their post-match lap of honour. A much needed win and an invaluable three points. Could this be the spark that kickstarts their season and tears open the new era of Cheltenham Town? I hope so, but I'm not sure.

It was actually 0-1, but we won't tell

You talk about papering over cracks but Cheltenham at the moment seem to be attempting to paper-mache together a functioning football club and they're running out of PVA. There's going to be plenty of movement in the boardroom this season with the two largest shareholders selling up and the fans not at all in favour of chairman David Bloxham, the only thing that's certain is that this season could be one that defines the club's future in the most make or break campaign since 2015.