Michael Duff emphasised the importance of his side maintaining their good run of form this morning, but challenged his attacking players to have a bigger impact. He indicated that he will not hesitate to shuffle around the attacking line-up in the search for more goals.
“We’ve brought in three attacking players so I think we need to do more in the top end of the pitch.” said Duff. “We freshened that area up in January to create competition. We’ll need them all.”
“Whoever is playing in those forward positions now knows that they have to put the ball in the back of the net because we have good competition for their places.”
New loanees Callum Wright and Sam Smith, from Leiceseter City and Reading F.C. respectively, were both on the scoresheet when Cheltenham Town faced Walsall.
He went on to describe Saturday’s opponents, Bradford City, as having the ability of ‘title contenders’. The Bantams are sat all the way down in 16th in League Two, but have gone on a brilliant run of form in the last couple of months. They have picked up 19 points and have only lost once in their last 10 league games, propelling them out of the danger zone.
“We’re playing a team that have shown over the last 10 games that they could be title contenders,” he said. “We know that we’ll have to be very good to beat them.”
“You look at their recruitment and they’ve picked up some really good players in January so it’s literally a completely different team to when we last played them.”
The Robins are on quite the run of form themselves, winning three of four and remaining unbeaten in the games since they hosted Manchester City in the FA Cup.
“We’ve had a positive reaction (to the Manchester City game),” said Duff. The lads have enjoyed the occasion, did themselves proud and it’s energised the group. They’ve got a boost of confidence.”
Duff went on to address the injury concerns in his midfield, with Ellis Chapman adding to the already crowded list of unavailable players after he pulled up in the warm up ahead of the game against Walsall.
“He (Chapman) has a scan later on today but it doesn’t look particularly good. He won’t be available for the weekend.” admitted Duff.
“But, we’ve got enough people in the building. We can adapt and change the squad around in different areas.”
He also emphasised the importance of maintaining a high work ethic. With Cheltenham Town in a very similar position as they were this time last season, they will have to work hard to avoid missing out on promotion again.
“Our points total right now won’t get us anywhere,” said Duff
“It can change quickly, but the players and staff know that we’ve worked really hard to get into this position and we’ll have to work really hard to stay in this position.”
The Robins could go top if they are to win on Saturday against Bradford, and have two games in hand over league leaders Cambridge United.
