Recently bought a Ford Escort Estate Ghia (99).

All pretty sound for the year. Drives okay, except I have noticed when I am crusing at any speed, and simply foot off throttle (no braking or clutch), it slows a (very) little, but then 2 seconds later slows more. It's a definite lag. If I take foot off throttle and use clutch, this is not noticeable

Ideas what to look for anyone?

Cheers for reading

Get someone to depress the pedal to max and then take it off whilst you watch the mechanism under the bonnet to see if it's a sticky mechanism problem or something else, it could just be the cable.

I'm not sure about Fords but other makes can have crap buildup in the throttle body, maybe worth a check if it's not the cable. If the car hasn't been used much with the throttle wide open then there could be carbon jamming the butterfly, slightly, in the throttle body. It may be this but it's hard to diagnose via the internet so it might be nothing to do with this.