Once again, we're the heavy bookies favourite albeit at odds against 8/7. Cheltenham got their first league win of 2023 in midweek defeating Cambridge on the road. This ended a run of 7 league games without victory, albeit Cheltenham have faced Derby, Plymouth and Bolton in that run. They actually scored twice against Derby and Plymouth en route to defeats showing they can mix it with the better sides in the league. At home Cheltenham are winless in their last 4, although once again when you drill that down, it doesn't seem too alarming. They've drawn back to back home games with Accrington and Port Vale (both 0-0) and the two games prior were against 2 of the current top 4 teams in the league. Their last victory in the league was over Wycombe in mid November. Overall however, they do only feature 19th in the league on home form, whereas we're the 3rd best away side. Of course, this is only our 4th meeting with Cheltenham, with us victorious on our only other visit to Whaddon Road in 2003. Mike Sheron, Bruce Dyer and Gary Jones cancelled out an early Tony Naylor goal to give us the points on that occasion. We're 2 wins and a draw to the good over Cheltenham overall. Our record against the sides currently in the bottom half is very good (12-2-2), with defeats to Lincoln and Morecambe the only blemishes to our record. With that in mind, our run of 3 games unbeaten away, 5 overall, and just 2 defeats in 14 league games, I can't see past another Barnsley victory here. I'm going for 0-2 with Thomas and Norwood on the scoresheet.
They don't score many, but also for a team in their position they don't let that many in. They'll be up for it, seeing their ex again, so a narrow 1-0 to us.
Whaddon Road fans will be looking forward to the "Michael Duff Derby" and they will be full of it to start with, wanting to show him what he left behind. An early goal will calm them down and if we can somehow get to 2-0 by half time things will be a lot more relaxed. Man for man we are far better than them so another win on the road should follow. I'm envious of those going down for it as it used to be one of my regular haunts when I lived in Gloucester for 20 years. I certainly loved watching that 3-1 win back in 2003, seeing the class on display in the likes of Bruce Dyer and Mike Sheron. I can see us repeating that score or better. With Bolton taking on the mantle of scoring for fun, usually enjoyed by Peterborough, we need to do the same. A few 4 or 5 nils will do our GD a power of good
Don’t think this will be the walkover some people on here think. They’ll be fired up for this one! But I wouldn’t bet against our lads at the minute and I’m going for a 2-1 win. Cole and Norwood to bag.
On paper it should be a straightforward 3-0 to us, and I think that's what it'll be on the pitch as well. We're getting towards the business end of the season and we seem to be getting stronger.