Cheltenham Town make the long journey up to North Yorkshire on Friday evening where they will face second from bottom Harrogate Town, in what could be described as a relegation six-pointer.
The Cheltenham-born manager took over a side at the foot of the table, with former manager Michael Flynn winning one of his 10 games before he was shown the door.
He has since brought The Robins nine points away from the drop zone with five points from the last nine available, and despite a poor run of results in a turbulent January period, Cotterill is confident of putting together a run of form at the back end of the season.
“We are on the back of a good result and you talk about one win in eight, but that happened in a January window where everyone was in and everyone was out, people had losses of form.
“The squad was really bare and early on in the season they had only won one in 10, so we are on an upward curve for the end of the season.”
Harrogate Town sit just two points from the bottom of League Two with long standing manager Simon Weaver overseeing two wins and a draw in their last three matches, and will be lining up very differently from the 1-1 draw back in December.
“They’ve had a lot of changes to their team from when we played them, there’s probably only going one or two survivors which is quite a big turnaround.
“That’s credit to Simon (but) they might have to be a bit more open at home, but I’ve only looked at a couple of games of them at home this week.
“You can’t go too far back because the team changes too much, but the boys are well versed so there won’t be any surprises and there isn’t anymore information that the boys could have going into this game.”
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After a dramatic 96th minute win against 10-man playoff contenders Salford City, and with the two late goals coming from substitutes Harry Ashfield and George Miller, those players will be knocking on his door and wanting to be considered.
“I think I pretty much knew within a couple of days of the last what I was going to do, but I pretty much had to do that anyway (with it) being a Friday night game.
“We’ve selected the team and worked with the team and let’s see where the team takes us.”
A Friday night away day is never ideal for the travelling side, with the distance from Cheltenham being roughly four hours on a coach, but there’s no room for complaining for any Cheltenham Town players.
“Personally whether I’m manager or not I don’t like it but sometimes needs must and that’s what you have got to do.
“And then you’ve got to hope that the boys are okay with an early start and such a long day.”
You can read Cheltenham Town’s preview and access tickets for the fixture here:
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Our preview of tonight’s clash against Harrogate Town ⤵️#ctfc♦️
