Manchester City will be making the trip to the Jonny-Rocks Stadium on Saturday for an FA Cup fourth round clash with League Two side Cheltenham Town.
The Robins have previously faced Premier League sides Tottenham, Everton and Newcastle in the competition but the visit from Pep Guardiola’s men is set to be the biggest tie in the Gloucestershire club’s history.
Therefore it is with little surprise that the national media are taking an interest in the Robins and their manager Michael Duff ahead of the fixture.
Sky Sports’ Jeremy Langdon spoke to Duff earlier today and was impressed with the former Burnley defender’s press conference behaviour.
“It was the first time I’ve spoken to him as I don’t normally deal with Cheltenham or League Two, but I really liked him. He was open, honest and quite lucid with what he had to say about the match.
“Duff was interesting and approachable, quite a contrast to some of the managers I deal with on a regular basis in the Premier League where they can be not as friendly, forthcoming or honest.”
Yesterday evening, Manchester City beat Aston Villa 2-0, which sent them top of the Premier League table momentarily. Both Duff and Cheltenham Town’s director of football Mickey Moore were at the Etihad watching on and Langdon believes the Robins manager is fully aware of the challenge he faces on Saturday.
“He (Duff) went to see Manchester City play last night which is quite unusual at the moment but he knows having seen them last night how tough it’s going to be.
“I don’t think he will be daunted by Pep Guardiola in the dug-out, it will be a really good moment for him.
“He says it’s going to be a free hit. I don’t think realistically they’ve got any chance at all. They’re going to have so many problems getting the ball off city.
“There’s an enormous gap between the two teams. Cheltenham haven’t won a league game this year and their recent form in League Two hasn’t been great.”
As for Cheltenham’s opponents Manchester City, Duff stated the club would be as hospitable as they could, with Langdon expecting Guardiola to understand the drop off in quality of facilities and also make plenty of changes.
“Guardiola knows they’re not going to be treated to the same level of opulence that you get in the Premier League, so it’s going to be a bit of a comedown for them, but seeing what Spurs had to do in the last round at Marine, I think they’ll know what to expect.
“Manchester City take the FA Cup seriously but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s massive changes given the number of Premier League games at the moment.
“You might see Aguero play but big changes will occur, maybe even ten or eleven. I think Manchester City know they still have enough quality players to beat Cheltenham even with a completely changed team.
With recent weather warnings in the county due to Storm Christoph, Langdon asked Duff about the weather situation and if it would be an issue on Saturday.
“The weather around Gloucestershire has been poor but Michael (Duff) seems to think it’s not going to be a factor and they won’t have to use anything to protect the pitch.
“They’re not going to train on the pitch until the match because they want to have a good surface. It’s a surface that isn’t your typical lower league one – it’s going to be a good pitch despite all the rain.”
In their last league game, Cheltenham drew 1-1 with Newport County, with goalkeeper Josh Griffiths making a mistake and the visitor’s keeper Tom King scoring from his own box.
Langdon stated that as Sky Sports don’t have the rights to the FA Cup, he was keen to ask about the incident.
“Sky don’t have the rights for the FA Cup so we were keen to ask about the goalkeepers mistake against Newport because we have that goal we can show. It’s quite incredible to see a goalkeeper scoring.
“To concede a goal from a goal-kick might’ve shaken the keeper’s confidence, so that’s going to be quite an interesting aspect of the game.
“Duff said there’s no problems with the goalkeeper playing.”
As a journalist for Sky Sports, Langdon is used to the Premier League personalities and big names, but speaking to Duff was something he enjoyed.
“It was quite interesting and refreshing to be speaking to a manager from the lower leagues because it’s someone we don’t normally speak to. He was very open, unguarded and wasn’t trying to be coy with us.
“It’s different to what we normally deal with, especially at the moment with the transfer window. It’s quite a nice change to be doing an FA Cup press conference when it’s all about the smaller club, the underdog and issues around the match we wouldn’t normally talk about.”
