Cheltenham Town manager Michael Duff says that he’s wary of Exeter City ahead of this Saturday’s ‘six-point’ tie.
The Robins still find themselves at the top of League Two, despite a wobbly second half collapse against 16th-place Mansfield Town on Tuesday night, after Gloucestershire rivals Forest Green Rovers were pegged back to a 2-2 result following a late Morecambe goal.
The last time the two clubs faced off, it ended 5-3, an eight-goal thriller, in favour of Cheltenham. That game marked the first in months that Robins fans were allowed back into the Jonny-Rocks. With Exeter sitting eighth in the table and just six points from the top, Duff realises that this weekend’s game will be a challenge.
The 43-year-old said, “Exeter are a good team, Matt [Taylor] has done well. They’ve done well to respond to the playoff defeat last season – it’s not easy, we also know that.
“They’re obviously the top goalscorers in the league, by some margin actually. They’ve got that little bit of everything in that team, good experience, good physicality, a lot of flair, great youngsters and a good manager to boot so it doesn’t surprise me they are where they are.
“It was a bit of an anomaly in terms of the last game, it was a good one, but it was one of two with fans last season so those lucky fans got to see one of the games of the season.
“I’m not quite sure how we scored five but then I’m not sure how they scored three so I’d probably put quite a bit of money on there not being eight more goals between us both. It’ll be two good teams going against each other with plenty to play for so hopefully we fall the right side of it.”
A returning face for Cheltenham will be midfielder Liam Sercombe, the 30-year-old recently coming back from a knee injury. He was forced off at halftime against Colchester United on December 29 at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Duff made it clear he can’t wait to put Sercombe’s name on the teamsheet this weekend.
“Obviously you want your best players available and I don’t think it’s controversial for me to say that Sercs [Liam Sercombe] is one of the better players in the team. Football has a funny way of taking one when another one comes back so hopefully we can stay injury-free.
“Hopefully he’ll be ready to go for 90 minutes, and be able to stay injury-free because when he’s in the team, we’re generally a better team.”
Cheltenham face off against Exeter this Saturday at St James’ Park with kickoff at 15:00.
