Having bounced back at Wigan last weekend, the bookies have us as early 6/7 favourites to take all 3 points when we visit current basement club Cheltenham this weekend. Currently goalless, prolific marksman Alfie May has been replaced with young forward Rob Street, a summer signing from Shrewsbury. I distinctively recall street being a handful for the Shrews at Oakwell last season, albeit he did only find the net on 4 occasions last term. Cheltenham's first 5 games on paper always looked quite tricky, albeit only Bolton have beaten them by more than 1 goal. They also managed a credible goalless draw down at Portsmouth, despite the hosts having a monopoly on possession. Despite losing all 3 of their home games this season in all competitions, the Robins actually ended last season with reasonable home form. In their 13 home games post new year, they were only beaten by ourselves and Derby, and got a draw against Ipswich and Wednesday at the Completely Suzuki Stadium. They do appear to have regressed since then however. This will be just our 3rd visit to Cheltenham, and 5th meeting overall. Mike Sheron, Bruce Dyer and Gary Jones overturned an early Cheltenham goal to lead us to victory in our first Whaddon Road clash. Norwood, Kane, Phillips and Williams were all on target there last season, to make it 2 wins in two visits to the Cotswolds. Referee Sunny Gill has issued 31 yellow cards and a red, in 6 games so far this season. He's only in his 2nd season in the football league, so hasn't been in charge of any Barnsley league games in the past. He took charge of our heavy defeat to Derby in the FA Cup last season, in a game most notable for our poor performance rather than his. His next appointment was his last game in charge of our opponents on Saturday, Cheltenham's 1-0 away defeat at Bolton. After the promising display at Wigan last week, I where we defended very resolutely when needed, I can see us winning this game comfortably too. There doesn't appear to be any new injury concerns, and so I think Neill will be able to put out a similar side to last weekend. I'm going for another 2-0 reds win, with Cole continuing his early season form and grabbing a brace.
Feeling good about this, although I don’t think Cheltenham will be anything like a pushover despite their position. 2-1 perhaps 3-1 to us
If we can put in a performance like we did at Wigan, I'll say we win 3-0 If we don't, I'll think we can still get a point 1-1 I don't think we will be hit with a defeat either way