ASSISTANT manager Neil Howarth paid tribute to Cheltenham Town's battling qualities after their 2-1 victory over Burton Albion on Saturday.

The Robins trailed to Shaun Harrad's 37th-minute strike, but late headed goals from Wesley Thomas and Josh Low sealed their second home win in succession at the Abbey Business Stadium.

It was Thomas' fifth goal in four starts and he has scored in every appearance he has made for Cheltenham since arriving from Dagenham and Redbridge for a nominal fee in the summer.

Cheltenham failed to reproduce the flowing football they showed when they defeated Crewe Alexandra a fortnight ago, but they showed another side to their game to grind out three more points against a solid Burton Albion side, who went into the match unbeaten.

It was the perfect way to bounce back from the previous week's 6-4 setback at Rotherham United, where Cheltenham led 3-1 before it all went wrong.

Howarth said: "We have played a lot of pretty stuff this season, but when we had to dig in and show some bottle and character we showed we can do that as well.

"We have some good creative players and we did well at Rotherham last week but had 20 minutes of bizarre defending and it cost us. The players came in for some criticism and rightly so, but we have now shown we can dig in."

Substitute Shaun Jeffers went on in the 61st minute and set up both goals with crosses in the 80th and 82nd minutes.

The 18-year-old, who has already scored twice during his loan spell at Cheltenham from Coventry City, has now linked up with the England Under-19s squad for their friendly match against Slovakia at Crewe Alexandra on Thursday.

Howarth said Jeffers' commitment to learning and improving himself during his time at Cheltenham was the key to his match-changing contribution.

"Shaun is a lovely lad off the field and he stays behind to do extra training every day," Howarth said.

"He wants to be in the starting XI and he is going about things the right way. When you have that attitude and you get your chances in match play things like that will happen."

Howarth also praised goalkeeper Scott Brown, who will feel he should have done better with Burton's goal, but went on to redeem himself with a string of second-half saves.

"Browny is one of the most honest pros I have ever worked with and he questions himself more than anyone else does," he said.

"He may have been at fault for the first goal, but he made two or three saves that have won us the match ultimately."

Cheltenham travel to Barnet next Saturday and defender Martin Riley is already a doubt after suffering a recurrence of his hamstring injury during the first half against Burton.