Cheltenham Town (A) Jan 4th, 12.30pm kick-off

Match Centre 24/25
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"He was the world’s last gun fighter
And he always worked in drag
Carrying his six shooters
In a special velvet bag…

Then he carefully slipped back
Into his other life;
A gas fitter in Cheltenham
With two kids and a wife."

(Gunfighter ballad for a modern world - Terry Ireland)

I have to confess to having run out of superlatives where this squad is concerned - A few weeks ago looking forward to the Christmas and New Year fixtures, the prospect of games against Port Vale, Doncaster Rovers, and Notts County (twice!) left me with the overwhelming impression of “maybe we could get a point out of that one, or that one, with luck” - and the result has been the clean sweep (along with a few clean sheets) that we’ve all witnessed. So here we are exactly half way through the season, with 52 points at a phenomenal rate of 2.26 points per game!

Anyway - what of Cheltenham Town? They’re currently 13th in the League 2 table on 31 points, 11 points above the drop but 21 adrift of the leaders. There are numerous connections between our two clubs in terms of players and managers as you are probably well aware - they would include manager Michael Flynn, his predecessor Darrell Clarke, and players Owen Evans, Liam Kinsella and George Miller. As an aside, back in 1967 when Cheltenham were decidedly non-League, their player of the year was a young Ronnie Radford (RIP) - who went on to hit that screamer for Hereford Utd against Newcastle Utd, the goal of the season I believe. Recent form for Cheltenham looks like this:

December 7th Doncaster Rovers (A) Drew 2-2
December 14th Morecambe (H) Won 2-0
December 20th Gillingham (A) Drew 2-2
December 26th Crewe Alex (H) Won 2-1
December 29th Notts County (H) Lost 3-5
January 1st Port Vale (A) Drew 0-0

A very mixed bag of results. Owen Evans is their bench-warming goalkeeper at the moment, with Joe Day (Goalkeeping coach) taking playing precedence.

Prediction? Who cares? Even if we lose we’ll still be top of the pile by a country mile - and our traditional away form has taught us that if we can come away with a point it will be a job well done. But this season (so far) has thrown many of our traditional assumptions out of the window, and the combination of the skills and attitude in this squad would suggest yet another 3-pointer. Our injury position, along with the fatigue seen in the crowded fixture list recently may well play a part in Mat Sadler’s team selection - Evan Weir (he of the miraculous clearance) left the field injured in the closing seconds against Notts County, and of course we are missing Jack Earing and George Hall.

Sod it - I’ll go for our standard formula … 0-0 at half-time, and 0-2 (away win) at the end…

UTS!!

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Can’t wait to get this game out of the way and give the players some well deserved R & R . I’d like to see McEntee,Weir & Daniels given a start just to freshen things up a bit. Maybe put Allen at right wingback and give Barrett a rest. I’m going for 3-0 with Lowe getting his first hatrick.

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Can we go on winning ? I hope so but a draw is more likely .1-1

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Another doddle, 1-2 win on our way to being promoted by March. Coasting :boom:
Edit: With Osh bossing the midfield for the 4th game in a row, keeping the dynamo that is Kins quiet. :wink:

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McEntee and Weir should start and I’d be tempted to give Connor a breather and bring in Browne. Uncle Albert upfront with Nathan doesn’t really work as others have mentioned, so I would revert to Lowe and Jamma up front, with DJ to come on with at least 25-30 mins remaining. Might be tempted to give Dave a rest for much of the game too with Taylor Allen or Daniels taking his place.

Jamma - Lowe

Lakin - Stirk - McEntee

Gordon - Weir - Williams - Daniels or Allen - Browne

Simkin

Subs likely to use: DJ, Uncle Albert, Jellis,

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If anyone has a ticket and can no longer make it, please DM me.

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Loving these previews @Welsh_Saddler :ok_hand::clap:

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Weather looks dodgy for this one, frozen pitch a possibility.

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Minus temperatures overnight starting from today so I suspect you might be right.

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Havent Sky provided some sort of inflated cover for other televised games.
Seem to remember it being mentioned for the Vale game

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That might be the best option, get it postponed and give the players a nice rest, still a good cushion at the top and another game in hand…:+1:

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I’m confident it will be ok

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Dont want it postponed, we seem to adapt better to poor conditions than other teams

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We do, but it’s a bit different trying to run around a hard pitch at 100 miles an hour and more of a risk of injury.

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I honestly thought that through December we had put ourselves in a really strong position but, starting with the Boxing Day game and the following three it would be challenging what with Doncaster and Notts County who are both going well plus a punishing schedule and if we were to come up short this would be the moment .
I know things can change quickly in football but I just can’t see anything derailing the season because every player is 100% committed to the job in hand and I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t yet another victory for the super saddlers.

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Would like to see McEntee start this one. Apart from that more of the same please Walsall. Last month had been Brilliant and if we win this we break our record for consecutive wins.

Cheltenhams form is good though and Flynny would love to beat us I’m sure.

‘Nham have some good players including Luke Young and former Saddlers George Miller and Liam Kinsella - both of whom I (wrongly) thought we should have kept.

A high scoring 5 4 win for the Saddlers with DJ coming off the bench to get the winner. UTS

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And then maybe signing for them …

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If we get a fee and win the game I’d take that. Though I’d be sad to see DJ go.

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I think the DJ handling by MS is what has stopped me backing him fully since he became manager.

DJ was the one everybody wanted signing as our number one striker, but has found himself having the last ten minutes here and there all season.

So far he has proved his decisions have been right, so who am I to argue.

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I’m with you there mate. I can’t see how DJ is behind Adomah.

I just hope the club respect him going forward. If that means staying on the bench or maybe even out the squad when Flash is fit and DJ is happy with that then all good. He’ll likely get a promotion winners medal out of it at least.

At 31 I suspect he’ll want first team football though so I hope we don’t hold him back if he wants to leave and there’s clubs like Cheltenham interested.