Cheltenham Town travel to Sheffield Wednesday this Saturday, with Michael Duff’s men looking for a return to winning ways.
The Robins were beaten by Plymouth Argyle 2-0 mid-week, but Duff says he’s looking forward to the opportunity to bounce back.
“But It’s one of the big ones., your Sheffield’s your Sunderland’s.
“You take the history of the club, the stadium the players, we don’t need to motivate them this weekend that’s for sure.
“It’s a great place to go and play, a proper old-fashioned stadium and the supports make a lot of noise.”
Cheltenham’s season looks to be all but over, with the threat of relegation fading away and the club not reaching the playoff spots, but Duff won’t let his players get caught up in the moment.
“Well I think it will be a good day for everyone, it’s the first time the club has gone there.
“But it will only be a good day if we put on a performance, we’ve been away from home a few times this season and taken a few punches on the nose, Cambridge who beat us 5-0, got beaten 6-0.
Embed“What you don’t want to do is look around the stadium ‘oh this is nice isn’t this great’, next thing you know your 3-0 down after 10 mins.
“It’s a reward for hard work but you have to work hard otherwise it will be a bad day out,” Duff went on to add.
“These are the games that you want to be playing in we worked ever so hard to get out of the league below, and these are the rewards of getting promoted, to play with better players in front of bigger crowds in these stadiums.”
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Going back to Hillsborough will bring back some unwanted memories for the Cheltenham boss who was at the stadium in 1989 when the disaster occurred.
“When the disaster happened it was difficult, I was only 11 so I didn’t really understand what was happening at the time.
“You see all the memorials and you see a few things that stick with you that wasn’t particularly nice but its not about me, I’ll have a couple minutes to my self to look over to see where I was sitting, but we’re there for a game of football.
“It was a tragedy, a sad day for thousands of people, but it definitely sticks with you can’t unsee something you saw.”
