By theimps.tk
July 20 2009

Lincoln City won't exactly be thrilled to see Cheltenham back in the division. It brings a team City rarely beat, a manager who City rarely achieve a win against and a team that I expect to be in the lower reaches of the table come the end of the season. If there's one team that matches Darlington for their habit of beating Lincoln City, it's Cheltenham Town. During their last stint in League Two, the Robins and the Imps met on a total of six occasions, four of which went the way of Cheltenham and the other two ended in dire 0-0 draws. However, Cheltenham (a/k/a Barnsley FC's feeder club) are far from the side there were when they won promotion via the Playoffs in 2005/6. There's no Odejayi, there's no Wilson and there's no John Ward in charge anymore (although that might be a good thing as Cheltenham were boring as sin to watch under him).

In their three seasons away they were gradually finishing lower and lower in the table. 17^th in 2006/7 was followed by 19^th in 2007/8, only for them to finish 23^rd last season and it surprised little that they went down after winning just nine games of their forty-six game season, a record that now means that Martin Allen, despite the reputation he has as a good manager, now has a record of more relegations than promotions.

Looking at their last season in League One, they suffered a lot of heavy defeats, including two 4-0 defeats in the opening month of the season. Other big reverses including 6-3, 5-3, another 4-0 and several 3-0. However, Cheltenham were far from a boring club as they were only involved in two goalless draws all season. They also have their fair share of high scoring wins, including 4-3 against Colchester United and 3-2 at Morecambe in the FA Cup.

Transfer activity at Whaddon Road has seen more departures than arrivals. Hutton, Justin Richards and Barry Hayles have all come in, whereas Lloyd Owusu, Ashley Vincent, Shane Higgs, Alex Russell, Damian Spencer, Jamie Edge and Ian Westlake all headed out. However, they do have a fairly good squad by League standards....and Lee Ridley. Drissa Diallo has always stood out in this division and Elvis Hammond has always been touted as a potential star of the future.

Cheltenham's opening few months are far from easy as they play several sides expected to challenge for promotion, only really facing one side who is likely to feature down the bottom (Hereford). I don't really expect Cheltenham to do anything this season, they always start in this division with a few years of irrelevance and I can't see that changing.

The reason I believe they will stay up is because of Martin Allen, although Allen has never achieved promotion but has already been relegated with Cheltenham, he is a man who knows how to get results when they matter (well, expect in a Playoff situation) and although I expect Cheltenham will never in danger of relegation, this habit of getting results when they really matter will make the ultimate difference between a relatively safe lower-midtable position and a relegation battle.

20th : Cheltenham are back....yippee

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 20/07/2009 01:40

theimps.tk
20/07/2009 01:40

What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Reply Quote Report

I Blame Paul Mayo
20/07/2009 08:28

they will struggle, the players they have brought in are mainly hasbins.

Reply Quote Report

ALWAYSANIMP
20/07/2009 20:07

we did wallop them when we were in the conference at SB!!

Reply Quote Report

Rob Peel
20/07/2009 21:11

I presume Schoey is their no2? If so lets hope he gets a good reception at the bank....

Reply Quote Report

mightyimp1
21/07/2009 14:05

i'm sure he will

Reply Quote Report

Goto: Forum List•Message List•Search• Log In

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net