A is for Allen, as in Martin, the current manager at Whaddon Road. Allen's built a reputation as a manager who accepts no crap. Allen's first role as manager was at Barnet, turning the Bees into a team capable of challenging for promotion back to the Football League, then he left for Brentford and changed them from a side battling relegation from League One into a team that barely lost in two Playoff Semi Finals. He soon quit though after losing to Swansea in the Playoffs, citing the reason that he felt a lack of commitment to invest from the board.
He joined MK Dons and despite Paul Ince taking a lot of credit for the Don's promotion a year after Allen left, it was Allen that turned the Dons from a team on the slide to a team on and assembling a side that again lost in the Playoffs, this time to Shrewsbury. Allen then left and it was his squad that dominated the division a year later.
He signed up to Leicester City and they were declared as one of the favourites for promotion, several months later and his relationship with Mandaric had deteriorated and he left the club. He went almost a year out of Football management before being appointed as manager of Cheltenham Town in 2008. However, he is not popular with the Cheltenham fans, winning less than 20% of his matches in charge.
He was recently put on gardening leave for alledgely racially abusing a bouncer at a night club, the claims have since proved false, but Cheltenham have kept him on gardening leave.
B is for Bristol City, a club with whom Cheltenham have shared a lot of players in recent years. Those players include Frankie Artus, Scott Murray, Aaron Ledgister, Alex Russell, Jennison Myrie-Williams, Steve Brooker, Alex Russell, Richard Keogh, Scott Brown, Brian Wilson, Steve Gillespie, Ben Cleverley, Kevin Amankwaah and Darren Jones, all of whom have played for both since 2003.
C is for the town of Cheltenham. Based in Gloustershire, it had a population of 110,013 in 2001. It is most famous for being the home of the Gold Cup, the flagship race of Steeplechase Horse Racing.
D means Dull, the word that could be described for the majority of games between the two sides, especially at Sincil Bank where the previous four meetings have produced just two goals, both for Cheltenham.
E is for an English record. In 1988/9 they had a game against Kettering Town and the final score of 7-4 became the highest ever scoring game to be played on a Sunday between two sides in the English League structure.
F is for Four-Five-One, the formation played by Cheltenham when away from home in John Ward's tenure at the club. A less than thrilling formation, it certainly worked as they were a hard team to break down and create chances for. Plus, with a striker such as Odejayi up front, you always had a good chance of pinching a goal or two.
G is for Grimsby's downfall. Cheltenham could be credited with starting the downfall of Grimsby Town Football club. The two teams played each other in the 2005/6 Playoff Final and with a 1-0 win, Cheltenham became the first side in five years to win the Playoffs without having finished fourth......the position where Grimsby did finish. Grimsby have since been getting closer and closer to relegation since.
H is for Hammond, as in Elvis. The former Leicester man was once tipped for glory....now playing for Cheltenham Town.....erm.
I is for I ATE ALL THE PIES. When Martin Allen signed Julian Alsop for the Robins recently, he called the rotund player a "big ball of lard!" However, in a list of the Top 50 all time Cheltenham Town players of all time according to a book called "Cheltenham Town Football Club : 50 Greats" by Tom Goold and Jon
Palmer in 2006.
J is John Schofield. The former Lincoln City coach and manager is the caretaker manager at Cheltenham. Schofield managed 58 games at Lincoln City after Keith Alexander left and almost gained the club automatic promotion before failure in the Playoffs. He left the following season and was appointed as a coach at Scunthorpe United, that was before being offered a role by Martin Allen at Cheltenham, an initial expenses only deal that turned into a permanent contract with a basic salary.
K is for Kayode Odejayi, a huge Nigerian striker that made his name at Cheltenham. Yet another player who has also played for Bristol City, he joined Cheltenham from Forest Green Rovers and although he averaged only a goal every five games, he was a handful to play against due to his size. His overall career record in England is 54 goals from 284 games.
L is for their Lincolnv dominance. The Imps haven't beat the Robins since 2000, a 2-1 win at Sincil Bank. Since then Cheltenham have dominated the fixtures, winning seven of the nine meetings, the other two being 0-0 draws. The sides met each other in the FA Cup in the 1998/9 season with the Imps gaining a 1-0 win thanks to a Lee Thorpe header. The Imps also won at Whaddon Road two years later in the League but Cheltenham have won every meeting at Whaddon Road since.
The closest City have come to winning in recent years was the 2003/4 season when City were 2-1 up with mere minutes to go, only for two goals in quick succession condemned City to defeat.
M is for the Millennium Stadium, a happy hunting ground for Cheltenham during their time in the League with two wins from two. The first saw them take on Rushden and Diamonds in the 2001/2 Playoff Final. John Finnigan had recently joined Cheltenham from the Imps and scored one of Cheltenham's goals as they beat Rushden 3-1. Four years later and they were up against Grimsby, this time Steve Guinan scoring the all important goal as Cheltenham won promotion to League One.
N is for Neil Grayson, a Cheltenham Town legend who hit 17 goals in their promotion season.
O is for Oxford, one of eight clubs that could be considered local rivals that Cheltenham have a history against at various levels. The other rivals include Bristol's Rovers and City, Swindon Town, Forest Green Rovers, Yeovil Town, Kidderminster Harriers and Gloucester City.
P is the Poor Start they have recorded. They started with a win over Grimsby but have won just twice since then, both wins coming on the road and both being last minute winning goals against teams from the Manchester area, Rochdale and Bury. Other than that it's been pretty miserable going for them and they have lost three of their last four away games by big scorelines, losing 3-1 at Torquay in the FA Cup, 4-0 at Accrington and 4-1 at Aldershot. The only game they didn't lose was a 1-1 draw at Port Vale.
They have a habit of conceding a lot of goals. They've conceded four goals on a total of three occasions so far, conceding three twice and five on one occasion. They've also only score more than one in two games this season, both of which were in the opening month.
Q is for qualifying. Cheltenham have one of the highest ever victories in FA Cup qualifying history, beating Chippenham Rovers in the 3rd Round Qualifying in 1935/6
R is for redevelopment. The away end at Whaddon Road has been redeveloped since City's last visit. The stand was half-way through it's redevelopment during the game in 2005 and had previously been a very small terrace, not it's a fairly neat small stand that City will be in for the first time when they visit Whaddon Road later this season.
S is Steve Cotterill, arguably Cheltenham's best ever manager. Cotterill took over in 1996 and they were promoted in their first season to the Conference, that despite finishing as runners up after Gresley Rovers failed to meet ground expectations...Gresley now play in a division below Lincoln United...says it all really doesn't it. Anyway, Cheltenham finished the next year as Conference Runners up before winning the FA Trophy at Wembley.
1998/9 saw Cheltenham secure promotion to the Football League and they were promoted in 2001/2. Cotterill soon left to go to Stoke, however, he quickly left Stoke and went to be Howard Wilkinson's assistant manager at Sunderland.
T is the Thrashing that Cheltenham Town handed to City in the 2005/6 season. Turning up 20 minutes late, myself and two friends arrived just in time to see Steve Guinan give Cheltenham the lead. Paul Mayo equalised in the second half but it finished 4-1. It was the turning point it City's season and they ended up joining Cheltenham in the Playoffs. Cheltenham beat Wycombe to face the team that eliminated the Imps, Grimsby Town in the Final.
U is for the Uniqueness of Roger Thorndale. Although one or two players such as Ryan Giggs have since achieved and surpassed such a feet, Roger Thorndale was a truly unique player back in his playing career, making 702 appearances during 18 years at Cheltenham Town, that in a time when players rarely stayed at a club for more than 18 months.
V is for Victory, as in Jamie, an ironically named player that played for Cheltenham during all of their recent golden era, making 258 appearances during his time at Whaddon Road.
W is Whaddon Road, or by it's proper (and sell-out) name of The Abbey Business Stadium, is the home to Cheltenham Town. It's a nice little stadium with a capacity of 7,066, 3,912 of that being seated. The away end will cost City fans £20, £14 or £7 to get into this season.
X is for Xavier Deacon. During the 1990/1 pre-season, there were strong rumours going around that Cheltenham had a player on trial called Xavier Deacon, a local Sunday league player that had scored for fun and invited for trial at the club. If the rumours were to be believed, he spent two days with Cheltenham before deciding they weren't good enough for his talents and he left the trial at that point.
Y is for Yet to play above League One. League One is the highest level that Cheltenham have played at and that has been for just four years during their history.
Z is for Zebra, a random word beginning with Z that I am using as I couldn't find anything interesting about Cheltenham that began with a Z.
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