Striker says it is only matter of time before Boro put three or four past an opponent

BORO striker Charlie Griffin said he had no idea how the referee failed to award him a penalty against Cheltenham Town on Saturday.

The striker was tripped in the box while going for a shot just after the start of the second half with the game still goalless but despite strong appeals the referee waved play on and Cheltenham went on to score the only goal of the game.

“They’ve had one effort at goal and scored and we’re very disappointed in the way that we lost and it’s hard to take but we’ve got to be positive and we’re nearly there and it’ll only take a couple of wins and we’ll be right back up there,” Griffin told The Comet.

“There was nothing really that was going to frighten us, we looked really safe. The ‘keeper’s made two great saves, one from Joel’s (Byrom), one from Yemi (Odubade), and if that goes in early doors, the free kick, then it’s a different game.

“The second half we had the penalty appeal and how he hasn’t given it I still don’t know. I’ve seen it so many times and he’s just not having it, it’s so hard to take.

“It was a stonewall penalty.”

Boro almost took the lead through a creative piece of football from a Ronnie Henry free kick in the first half.

Henry passed the ball to Jon Ashton in the wall who then laid the ball off for Joel Byrom to blast at goal from 18 yards only for Cheltenham’s Scott Brown to pull off a terrific save to push the ball over.

Speaking about the set piece, which was one of many used in the game which had undergone a bit of work in training, Griffin said. “We work hard on free kicks and worked the day before on it in training and it’s worked fantastically well and the keeper’s pulled off a worldly save.

“One of them is going to go in sooner or later and some team’s going to get hurt because we’re going to put three or four past them.

“(Graham Westley) is inventive on things but he allows us to get on with things. He goes over it first and everything is right and he comes up with a lot of the things.”

Griffin said losing to Cheltenham after working hard to prepare for the game hurts, but his side will be looking to take all three points when Boro host Torquay this Saturday.

“We go into every game wanting to win it,” Griffin said. “Torquay will be no different. We’ll prepare right this week, clean up on a few things and go into the game and look for all three points next week.

“We know a bit about Torquay, we’ll start the ball rolling on Monday and build up to Saturday.”