Cheltenham Town host Fleetwood Town in what could be a season defining match at Whaddon Road on Saturday. The two sides are separated by just three places and four points as 19th placed Fleetwood look to complete a league double over Michael Duff’s Cheltenham side.
Tuesday night’s win over Sunderland was a historic result for the club but the players can’t expect the same at the weekend and will have to work hard to ensure they win all three points, although they can use the game to spur them on, with Duff saying:
“Hopefully it gives them a little bit of belief, it gives them probably the reward that they’ve earned over the last few weeks. We probably weren’t as great as what we have been in some of the recent games but that little bit of luck we’ve not had, you know, two tiny little deflections that helped us put the ball in the net with probably the only two real shots on goal.
“We’ve had it so many times in this run when we’ve walked off the pitch when our keepers not made a save and we’ve lost or drawn so to have that the other way round was a good feeling, it’s a big club in a difficult moment but they’re a big club, well up there in the league, beat us 5-0 earlier in the season so hopefully it gives the lads a bit of confidence.
“I keep referring back to the three games in the first half of the season with the Wigan, the Rotherham and the Sunderland games because there was a distinct gulf between the two teams and I think we’ve played all three teams twice and in the second half of the season there’s been absolutely nothing between us, so I think that shows progress and the players will see that and we can kick on.”
Duff added: “It’s three points, it’s pointless if we don’t turn up Saturday and we get beat on Saturday it undoes all the hard work.”
Duff knows full well that Saturday won’t be easy despite the Robins higher league position, saying:
“I don’t think there’s many League One games that aren’t a battle.
“First and foremost you have to win that side of the game, to get a foothold in the game and to get hold of the ball. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing if you don’t prepare to roll your sleeves up and scrap.
“They’re [Fleetwood] very similar to ourselves, you can dress it up which way you want, they haven’t won in five / they’ve not lost in five. The real fine margins to the game. We believe that we’ve played quite well in the last few games but we haven’t won in twelve. But now you can dress it up as we’ve only lost one in six or seven.
“We know it will be a difficult game, they beat us at their place, they’re good at set plays, they’ve definitely got goals in the team. They can flip to one or two formations, they can comfortably go to a three or four. So it’s as always, it’s gonna be a difficult game but when we’re at home we try to do what we do.
“There’s no desperation, if we lose it’s not the end of the world, if we win we’re not safe. It’s just a case of keeping level headed, sticking to the processes that we work within and then hopefully at the end of the season we’ll have enough points to stay up.”
While Tuesday was a great result, Duff is keen to stress that that result alone won’t keep Cheltenham in League One. Duff pointed out that the coming game is just as important as Tuesday night and his side cannot get complacent. The target for all clubs fighting relegation is 50 points, the gold standard for safety in the third tier, and the Robins still need 14 points to reach that mark.
Duff said: “It’s just as important, I said before the game on Tuesday night, whether we won, lost or drawn, it’s three points or no points. If we win Saturday it won’t be enough, if we lose Saturday we’re not gonna stay up with the amount of points we’ve got at the minute.
“Any point is a prisoner we’ll take any point that comes, there’s no point more important than the other so we’ll be trying everything we can to get three, if we don’t we’ll park it up and move on as we have done in this run.”
