MATCH PREVIEW: Cheltenham Town vs Barnsley

Michael Duff returns to Whaddon Road in what will be his first game back there since he left six months ago.

Duff lead Cheltenham to their first ever League Two title during their 2021/22 season and after leaving the club in June 2022. He has since taken Barnsley to the playoffs places and 12 points off automatics with a game in hand.

Both teams are fighting for something as Cheltenham look to increase the advantage between them and relegation places, which at this moment in time remains five points after they got what was a vital win midweek winning 2-1 against Cambridge United.

James Olayinka, who is on loan from Arsenal, scored the winner but the first goal was an absolute wonder strike from Elliot Bonds with a 35-yard belter.

💫 Out of this world from Elliot Bonds #ctfc pic.twitter.com/Ck3HFWt3aJ

— Cheltenham Town (@CTFCofficial) February 15, 2023

New signing Aiden Keena will look to start ahead of Charlie Brown, in what would be his second start after making his first start against Accrington Stanley last weekend.

That Cambridge win would’ve relieved a lot of Cheltenham fans due to it being their first win in eight games after looking comfortably safe before that.

Barnsley are unbeaten in the last five, but with Duff also managing a lot of The Robins’ players so he will know how those players work and can use that to his advantage.

In terms of team news and who’s available for Cheltenham, Lewis Freestone is still unavailable after his injury kept him on the side-line for a while, with also Ben Williams, Will Ferry and new singing Will Goodwin unavailable due to injury.

Within Barnsley, Michael Duff has given an update on Josh Benson, Robbie Cundy, Slobodan Tedic and James Norwood.

Benson has been on the side-line since mid-January with Cundy also being out since early January.

Duff stated ‘hopefully, James Norwood comes back into the fold and there’s other people getting closer’.

With those getting close, consist of Tedic and Thomas who got minutes for the U21s side on Tuesday.

Mads Juel Andersen and Liam Kitching being close to suspension being on for yellow cards meaning that a booking in this game should they start would lead to a suspension in the next game.

If Cheltenham win they feel they will have a great chance of survival whereas, if Barnsley win they will remain in the shouts for playoffs which is both still all to play for and this is what makes the football league so interesting due to how close the gaps are all the time.