Goalkeeper Jamie Pardington felt a youthful Cheltenham side were “really unlucky” as they bowed out of the Gloucestershire Senior Cup at the hands of Roman St Glass on Wednesday night.
Roman Glass progressed to the semi-final of the Gloucestershire Senior Cup after beating Cheltenham on penalties at the Completely-Suzuki Stadium.
Bristol’s oldest football club took an early lead within a minute from Lewis Leigh-Gilchrist putting the Hellenic League side ahead.
They almost held on in normal time but young star Tom King equalised in the 94th minute for Cheltenham to send the tie to penalties.
Roman Glass won 5-3 penalties after nine spot kicks with goalkeeper Elliot Jones the hero saving Sopuru Obieri’s attempt from twelve yards.
The Hellenic League side will face National League South side Gloucester City in the semi-finals of the competition.
Robins goalkeeper spoke on the challenges of facing a senior team with such a youthful side: “I think it was tough when we come into it as the younger team overall.
“The lads wanted to play a certain way, with their mid-block it was frustrating in the first half but we came out second half and tried to mix it up a little bit and on another day two or three of those could and should go in.”
The 23-year-old said the young team need to learn from the match: “You can’t make mistakes like that, and a few of them will learn from that hopefully.
“But that’s why I think these competitions are quite good, playing in these competitions and you learn if you are going to play a certain way you’ve got to also have the consequences with it as well.”
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Wolves youth product felt Cheltenham were unlucky not to come away with more after their efforts in the second half: “100 per cent, especially towards the later stages of the game.
“The amount of chances we’ve created I think we’ve been really unlucky with it, and on another day a few of those should go in.”
Cheltenham’s team consisted of a mixture of first/second-year scholars and under-16s as well as three pros.
Of the three pros, Pardington was the oldest at 23 years old and he has the most experience in the team with non-league appearances at six clubs.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe other two pros were attacking talents Adulai Sambu and Tom King.
Sambu, one of the subjects of the Sky documentary ‘One Shot’, has been on loan at Southern League – Premier South side, Hungerford Town.
Sambu has 13 goal involvements in 24 games for Hungerford and has also made non-league appearances for Redditch United, Stratford Town and Cirencester Town.
Tom King made headlines earlier in the season featuring in England’s U18 World Cup squad and later signed his first professional contract in January.
Cheltenham Town’s next senior match is against Burton Albion in League One at the Completely-Suzuki Stadium on Saturday, 29 February.
