Despite his sides positive start, Cheltenham Town manager Michael Duff has reiterated that his original season targets to stay up have not been altered.
The Gloucestershire outfit who are sat currently 10th in Sky Bet League Two, are playing in the third tier of football for the first time since 2009, and have certainly shocked some pundits with their impressive start to the campaign.
Coming off the back of two league wins on the spin, a tough trip to Bolton Wanderers beckons for the Robins, and manager Duff has made sure he stays realistic in his sights.
“Staying up is still the first target, until we achieve that we wont be reassessing our sights”
The League two title holders were one of the bookies favourites to go back down, but with a seven game unbeaten run at the moment, outsiders are quickly changing their views on Duff’s side.
“If stay up with 15 games to go we would reassess, do it with 5 games left we reassess, but it might be last game of the season, you never know.”
Cheltenham are already 10 points away from the drop zone with less than half the season played, however no concentration has been took off their original aims.
“We are still only half way from the points total we want, that’s all we are, half way.”
Their impressive start to the season has been hindered with numerous injuries however, and its safe to say the squad right now is very thin, and there are no signs of
“Nobody is back, it will be the same squad as Tuesday, we’re getting really low on numbers at the moment like we have been in past weeks and yet got some good results.
One of the injury riddled wins against Gillingham on Tuesday included loanee striker Kyle Joseph having to fill in at right wing back, his first ever time in the position.
“I said to him [Kyle Joseph] in pre season, don’t worry ill never play you wing back, so he could have sulked, but he was prepared to put a shift in for the team”
Saturdays opponents Bolton will come as a familiar face for the away side, as both teams battled in League Two last season in what was a fierce promotion race.
The big difference between last season and this season is the attendance of fans into the ground, and with Bolton expecting yet another big home crowd, Duff knows his team must not crumble under the atmosphere.
“It’s a big big club.”
“They’re a good team, you look at the run they went on after Christmas, they recruited very well in January, it’s a club which gets 20 to 25 thousand every week.”
The Robins had experienced a fairly poor string of away form at the start of the season, however after a 2-0 away victory earlier this week, Duff believes there has been massive improvements to their game away from home.
I don’t think you can pick that one game [Gills] as an individual, I think we’ve got more competitive and streetwise as the seasons gone on, I’m hoping the unbeaten run builds some confidence.
“We have to go to every game knowing we are the underdog.”
