Cheltenham Town’s Michael Duff wants his team to turn their draws into winning score lines ahead of their clash with bottom of the table Crewe Alexander: “We’ve been on a good run, but we’ve had too many draws.
“This unbeaten run is good for morale and it keeps the scoreboard ticking over, games in this league are hard and we should have won four or five of those with the performances we put in.
“They’ve only lost once since the new year but have won just two of their last fifteen.”
The Gloucestershire side are sat in 15th place in the league on 41 points with a healthy 11 point gap on the relegation places.
They have avoided defeat against some of the better sides in the third tier recently; holding the likes of Oxford, Wigan, Wycombe and Ipswich to draws, as well as beating Sunderland 2-1.
The Robins boss says that he’s pleased with his sides improvement against the divisions toughest opposition: “Earlier in the season there was a real gulf in class between us and the top sides in the league, we’ve been stronger in the second cycle against these so-called bigger teams.”
On Tuesday night Cheltenham gained another well earned point on the road with a 0-0 draw at Ipswich, it was a second trip to a promotion contender following their ten goal thriller against Wycombe on Saturday.
Duff was delighted as his side battled against the recent injury crisis that they have had to deal with: “The pleasing thing about the other night was was that we made four or five changes going into the game, but all the players still gave us a performance.
We had them off training today to give them the best chance possible to recover, we look at the patterns and cycles to see if we can change anything.”
The Robins are set to host bottom of the table Crewe Alexandra this weekend at the Jonny Rocks Stadium.
The Railwaymen have lost their last seven games and have only won once this year, a very different campaign that David Artell’s side would have been hoping for after finishing in the top half last season.
Duff said that despite their position his side need to be focused and not take anything for granted: “I’m surprised at where they are, it’s a tough league and they’ve lost a lot of players from their promotion winning side.
“It’s always a tight game when we play against them, even last year when we were in the league below we took them to extra time in the FA Cup.
“Look at our squad and training ground, we can’t just expect to turn up and beat anyone, as long as we’re tuned in mentally and fully focused on the job at hand then hopefully we’ll be okay.”
There are still a number of players missing through injury, however Duff has said that both Kion Etete and Will Boyle will be assessed for Saturday’s game.
“I will be sure about the injuries when we train tomorrow, we will have a headcount to see who is fit and ready to play,” Duff said.
