Cheltenham win Division Two place (From Stroud News and Journal)

Cheltenham win Division Two place

Nationwide League Division Three play-off final Cheltenham Town 3, Rushden & Diamonds 1

THE dream of promotion to Division Two is now a reality for Cheltenham Town after they beat Rushden & Diamonds in the play-off decider at the Millennium Stadium on Monday.

The Robins cruelly missed out on automatic promotion two weeks ago when they were pipped for third place on the last day of the season by Mansfield Town.

But Steve Cotterill's men came through a two legged play-off semi-final against Hartlepool and played superbly in Cardiff to earn promotion to division two for the first time in the club's history.

Goals from Martin Devaney, Julian Alsop and John Finnigan sent the hoards of Cheltenham fans into dreamland at the final whistle.

After a very tense opening 20 minutes in which both teams had to get used to the magnificent surroundings, the game exploded with two goals in less than 40 seconds. Town went into the lead when Devaney ran down the left wing and reached the byline and aimed to cut the ball back to Alsop in the six-yard area.

The ball deflected back into the path of Devaney and he managed to squeeze the ball into the net.

Cotterill, the fans and the players went wild with celebrations but they were to be brought back down to earth only seconds later.

Straight from the kick-off Diamonds' Paul Hall received the ball on the right-wing and started off on a mazy run.

He kept going and when in the area slotted the ball over keeper Steve Book and now the Rushden faithful were going mad.

The score remained the same till the break but Town brought the match alive four minutes into the second-half.

A super cross into the box found Alsop and he aimed his header into the run of strike partner Tony Naylor, but the ball was cut out by a Diamonds defender and it rolled back and Alsop had the simple chance of tapping the ball into the empty net.

Cotterill brought on veteran forward Neil Grayson for Devaney and the fans favorite had a big hand in the third and promotion clinching goal.

Grayson reacted well to hit a tremendous shot, which smacked the crossbar, but Finnigan pounced on the loose ball, sidestepped a defender and coolly curled his shot beyond Billy Turley to secure a tremendous victory.