Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley admitted he has a tough task ahead of him after watching his side succumb to a defeat in his first game in charge.
Ardley inherited a side short on confidence when he was appointed in midweek and despite a spirited effort against Cheltenham, goals from Marlon Pack and Kaid Mohamed proved the difference despite a late Byron Harrison effort.
And while Ardley, who made over 300 appearances for the original Wimbledon side during an 11-year spell with the club, insisted there were positives from the game, he knows there is plenty of hard work ahead if his troops are to climb the League Two table.
"The job in front of us was laid bare today. We've got a tough next few weeks so it would have been great to get something here," he said. "Credit to the boys though, we looked like we had a threat and we looked like we could score so I have to look at the positives, but at the same time not ignore the problems.
"There was nothing in the game. No-one settled down for the first 20 minutes, the game was a bit of a hot potato. I was trying to get the lads to calm down, and it was only after we went 1-0 down that we did that.
"I thought the last 20 minutes of the first half we took the game to them, but we didn't take our chances.
Once it got to 2-0 we were chasing the game, and if Byron had scored his second at the end it would have been an unbelievable comeback."
