Wade Elliott: Cheltenham head coach says criticism is expected after FA Cup exit to Alvechurch

Cheltenham Town head coach Wade Elliott said his team will have to "take criticism on the chin" after being knocked out of the FA Cup first round by seventh-tier Alvechurch.

The Robins were beaten 2-1 at home by the Southern Premier Division Central club, the lowest-ranked team left in the competition.

"I say to them [the players] we're going to have to go away and digest it. We're going to have to learn the lessons from it," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"But strap yourselves in because it's not going to be nice for the week ahead or the next few days.

"Regardless of performance or anything else we are going to be open to criticism and we're going to have to wear that and take it on the chin."

Alvechurch are 96 places below their League One opponents in the football pyramid. They went two goals ahead thanks to a double from Danny Waldron, and while Ryan Jackson pulled a goal back, it was not enough for Cheltenham.

Elliott said the pressure of being the favourites to win began to affect a number of his players as the match wore on - five in the Cheltenham starting XI were aged 22 or under.

"I appreciate that they [the fans] want to see us doing better, that they come here and they expect a performance, they expect a result," he said.

"We're trying every day to get better and keep improving. It's a young team that I think you could see the pressure of having to get a result effect one or two of them. They tensed up and the decision-making went a little bit awry.

"They weren't quite as free with their football as they could have been because it's a whole new situation for one or two of them.

"The expectation and the pressure of having to win and being expected to win, and the fear that comes with it when you go a goal behind - all we can do is work to make ourselves better."

Alvechurch pulled off an FA Cup first-round shock by beating Cheltenham, 96 league places above them

'A horrible day'

Cheltenham are 19th in League One, only four points above the bottom three and have won seven matches under Elliott so far.

They were also emphatically knocked out of the Carabao Cup thanks to a 7-0 hammering by Exeter City in August.

"We've just been knocked out the cup by a low-ranked team, they [the fans] are going to ask the question obviously," Elliott added.

"A cup upset doesn't make me a bad manager. Over the course of my tenure and when I've been in, I would step back and look objectively at what we've done, the challenges that we've had.

"Obviously this is a horrible day, but if you can strip it back I genuinely think we're doing a decent job. I can't stand here in front of you and say we're doing a stellar job or we're ripping up trees or we're massively exceeding expectations, but I think we're doing a steady job.

"It's not an easy thing to say when you've just been beaten by Alvechurch at home. I can understand how that might divide opinion.

"But I won't be the first manager to be on the end of an upset, I won't be the last, and there'll be a lot better managers than me who will have been through this."

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