MATCHWATCH : Cheltenham Town (a)

[Sutekh]

When : Friday December 29 2023, 7.45pm
Where : Whaddon Road, Cheltenham, GL52 5NA
Capacity : 6,700

Next up is a first ever league visit to Cheltenham Town.

Cheltenham are slowly recovering after a dreadful start to the season which saw them fail to score a league goal until their 12th game but that was a 1-1 draw at home to Derby so there is certainly some talent and capability in the their squad and anyone thinking this will just be a case of turning up needs to think again.

On a fairly decent run of 3 wins and 2 draws from their last 7 games Cheltenham won't just lie down and keeper Luke Southwood will no doubt be on top notch form for this game. Cheltenham do struggle to score goals though with just 15 in the league so far while conceding almost twice as many so there's certainly weaknesses to be exploited by Reading.

McIntyre might be back to claim a place on the bench, while Yiadom will presumably still be unavailable due to a knee problem.

Referee

Scott Tallis

Previously

No previous games

Historically

Reading have won 4 of the previous 5 games against Cheltenham but four of them were in the FA Cup. This is therefore the first league visit to Cheltenham. Previous cup visits to this part of Gloucestershire have resulted in a 1-1 draw in 1998 and a 2-1 Reading win in 1957.

How to follow the game

1. Get a ticket and travel to the game
2. Listen to Radio 5 Live and/or a myriad of other radio stations for score flashes
3. Ring/text a mate for updates
4. Use a RoyalsTV subscription
5. BBC Radio Berkshire (FM : 104.4, 104.1 or 95.4 depending where you are in the area)

[WestYorksRoyal]

I'm torn on this. Their form is good, but so is ours and ultimately I think we have more quality. We should be targeting a win, but a draw not bad.

2 teams the division wrote off, but the likes of Wycombe, Shrewsbury, Cambridge and Burton need to watch out as all 4 relegation spots are available.

[Jerry St Clair]

Has the makings of a belting game this one.

I was at Cheltenham v Shrewsbury today and the Robins were very comfortable. As they were at Carlisle on Saturday.

Darrell Clarke has worked an absolute miracle since Wade Elliott was sacked in September. This Cheltenham team is the polar opposite of the one that meekly surrendered at the Madejski in August. They are aggressive, physical and attack-minded.

Hold onto your hats because I think it’ll be lively.

[skipper]

Has the makings of a belting game this one.

I was at Cheltenham v Shrewsbury today and the Robins were very comfortable. As they were at Carlisle on Saturday.

Darrell Clarke has worked an absolute miracle since Wade Elliott was sacked in September. This Cheltenham team is the polar opposite of the one that meekly surrendered at the Madejski in August. They are aggressive, physical and attack-minded.

Hold onto your hats because I think it’ll be lively.

That's what we want though, a thoroughly entertaining ding dong!

Really hope we can edge them.

Also hoping we can spank Exeter on NYD, as I'm attending!

[Orion1871]

Nothing to fear. They've had some good recent results, but we smashed Carlisle and should have beaten Shrewsbury but for the freak ending. So the teams Jerry says they've beaten comfortably in recent weeks aren't something we should be overly concerned about.

Have to respect them though, they obviously have spirit to recover from the terrible start they had, so they are a danger.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I keep thinking a draw here wouldn't be a bad result considering their comparative upturn in form recently but that would also mean 4 draws in our last 5 games at a time where we could use some wins. 6 points from our next 2 and I think we will survive, we just need to keep plugging away and hopefully by the end of January if we are in the mid table pack, we probably won't go down.

[Hound]

Yeah draw would be ok

Massive month coming up, play about 5 teams in and around the bottom

[Royal_jimmy]

Draw is the minimum acceptable result. Should be targeting 3 points though. Us and them have improved since the return fixture so would hope the game is also better.

[Stranded]

This will be tougher that many expect - whilst we have picked up 12 points in the last 8, Cheltenham have managed 14 scored 11 to our 16 but only conceded 7 to our 12.

First goal could be really key here as whilst of later they don't score, they don't concede many either.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I know we're in similar form, but we have better players. We were able to sign top end L1 players like Wing and Smith, while they lost theirs in May. Do the basics right and we should be able to produce a couple of moments to win it.

[Snowflake Royal]

It's not must win by any stretch, but losing would be a real shitter.

[Wycombe Royal]

94 bus, couple of beers in town and then walk to the stadium.....

Looking forward to this one.

[Jerry St Clair]

First goal could be really key here as whilst of later they don't score, they don't concede many either.

This was definitely true a couple of months ago. Cheltenham were, and still are, a confidence team. But Darrell Clarke is prepared to take risks to score goals. At Blackpool, with Cheltenham 3 down at half time, Clarke put two forwards on and basically played an all-out attacking 4-2-4 formation getting back to 3-2.

He’s made similar, if not quite so extreme, changes pretty early in games since.

[Stranded]

First goal could be really key here as whilst of later they don't score, they don't concede many either.

This was definitely true a couple of months ago. Cheltenham were, and still are, a confidence team. But Darrell Clarke is prepared to take risks to score goals. At Blackpool, with Cheltenham 3 down at half time, Clarke put two forwards on and basically played an all-out attacking 4-2-4 formation getting back to 3-2.

So first goal was still important then

Fair enough, I know you watch them more than I do, or likely ever will, was very much going on the F/A column

[Snowflake Royal]

First goal could be really key here as whilst of later they don't score, they don't concede many either.

This was definitely true a couple of months ago. Cheltenham were, and still are, a confidence team. But Darrell Clarke is prepared to take risks to score goals. At Blackpool, with Cheltenham 3 down at half time, Clarke put two forwards on and basically played an all-out attacking 4-2-4 formation getting back to 3-2.

So first goal was still important then

Fair enough, I know you watch them more than I do, or likely ever will, was very much going on the F/A column

Sounds like 3rd goal was most important.

[Clyde1998]

It's not must win by any stretch, but losing would be a real shitter.

This. We can't lose this one; a draw wouldn't be a disaster. It took them eleven(?) matches to score their first league goal, but since then they've been on upper mid-table form.

[Hound]

Always rated Clarke as a good manager at this level

[Royal_jimmy]

This will be tougher that many expect - whilst we have picked up 12 points in the last 8, Cheltenham have managed 14 scored 11 to our 16 but only conceded 7 to our 12.

First goal could be really key here as whilst of later they don't score, they don't concede many either.

Yes very difficult indeed. Could easily lose if we are not at all at the races. Southwood will want to get one over on us as well.

[Brogue]

Will be interesting to see how they set up as they must be thinking the same as us. Must not lose draw would be ok. But being the home team are they going to take the game to us.

[Sutekh]

Other division 3 games, involving struggling sides, on Friday (all 7.45 except Wigan which has a 7pm ko)

Burton Albion v Shrewsbury Town
Exeter City v Portsmouth
Fleetwood Town v Bolton Wanderers
Leyton Orient v Wycombe Wanderers
Port Vale v Blackpool
Stevenage v Cambridge United
Wigan Athletic v Carlisle United