Robins thought they had nicked it

The Robins boss was less than happy with his side’s defending.

But he was pleased with their fighting spirit as they battled back for a point at Whaddon Road.

What looked like a defeat for much of the contest was transformed in injury-time.

It might even have led to all three points had a linesman’s flag not saved Pompey.

Yates said: ‘We can’t keep conceding goals like we do at the moment.

‘But we’ve showed spirit to dig ourselves out of it.

‘We’re very disappointed not to have won the game in the end.

‘We didn’t really do enough to win the game but goals are massive.

‘They change games, they change people’s mindsets.

‘We’ve scored right at the end and it then looked liked we had won it.

‘Unfortunately we haven’t quite done it.’

While Pompey are struggling to keep goals out, Cheltenham are facing a similar problem.

Yates said: ‘I thought we started alright – but then there was the collision between our two centre halves and they score the first goal.

‘We fought back into it, it’s not free flowing football and we know that but there was a bit of magic for the goal.

‘It was a great ball from Terry Gornell and a great finish from Jermaine McGlashan.

‘From 25 minutes we were dominant.

‘But then we don’t deal with a throw-in, we don’t keep the ball and they go up to our end and the ball’s in the back of the net.

‘We’re making bad decisions that are costing us goals and that’s down to everybody.

‘We were the better team for the last 20 minutes of the first half.

‘But then we’re 2-1 down again and heads drop.

STEVE WILSON