Duff praises two-goal debutant Varney following Cheltenham’s draw with Morecambe - 7M sport

Duff praises two-goal debutant Varney following Cheltenham’s draw with Morecambe



Posted Wednesday, October 03, 2018 by PA

Duff praises two-goal debutant Varney following Cheltenham’s draw with Morecambe

Michael Duff praised model professional Luke Varney after his brace secured a 2-2 draw for Cheltenham against Morecambe.

The 36-year-old former Leeds and Blackburn forward, making his full debut, netted a stoppage-time leveller to deny the Shrimps a third straight win.

“I think it gives you an idea of what a good professional he is,” Duff said.

“He did a pre-season at Lincoln and for the last month he’s just trained on his own.

“So he has now played 20 or 25 minutes on Saturday and a full 90 minutes today.

“Ideally we wouldn’t have kept him on for 90 minutes, but that’s where we are at the minute.

“I had to keep telling him to keep going as we didn’t have any options.

“I am pleased for him on his full debut and hopefully it can get us rolling.”

Morecambe boss Jim Bentley admitted it was tough to take, conceding with the last kick of the game after leading twice at Whaddon Road.

“It feels like a loss,” he said. “Obviously they scored so late on, it will feel like a win to them.

“A lot of credit has to go to Cheltenham, they’re a hard-working side, they’re battling themselves.

“I think at times, there were a lot of balls going into the box and we were struggling to defend them.

“We had a lot of chances we should have taken and the game would have been over.

“Most of the crowd would have walked out, it would have been game over at 3-1.

“But it stayed 2-1 and that’s always difficult. We kept going, but I was disappointed with the game management.

“We kept giving the ball back to them, when we should have been sticking it in the corner to kill the game off.”

The Shrimps had to withstand early pressure from the Robins, who were looking for their first home win of the campaign.

But after Barry Roche’s fine save to deny Cheltenham captain Johnny Mullins, Jordan Cranston struck after 32 minutes against the club who released him in the summer.

The left-back stroked in his first goal for Morecambe from 20 yards after good work from Liam Mandeville.

Varney crashed a shot against the bar for Cheltenham three minutes later, but the veteran frontman did open his account for his new club in the 44th minute, finishing from close range after Tyrone Barnett helped on a cross from Chris Clements.

Morecambe regained the lead in the 54th minute as Rhys Oates found the bottom right corner after a poor clearance.

Cheltenham should have levelled two minutes later when Mullins was brought down in the box by Lamin Jagne, but Barnett blazed over the bar from the penalty spot.

Only a good block from Scott Flinders late on denied Vadaine Oliver as Morecambe looked for a third, but Varney completed his double in the fourth and final minute of time added on.

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