Maxi Hobbs

Website Designer and football league fanatic from Cheltenham

It’s been a month to the day since I ranted joyfully about the happenings at Whaddon Road and I must admit I expected a downturn in form, my post proving somewhat of a curse as I praised Cheltenham Town to the bitter core… in fact it has done completely the opposite!

I will no doubt be one of the Football League’s most positive bloggers around at present. Whilst fans of Northampton, Chesterfield and Doncaster will rant about their woes and tales of hatred and heartache on a Saturday afternoon, here at Cheltenham we are cruising along beautifully and have now spent over a couple of weeks in the top 3, it’s ever so nice up here!

Marlon Pack once again controls the midfield battle at Oxford

A quick glance at the fixtures for November proved we had a difficult but ultimately decent set of fixtures to play with. Home games against Barnet (in the JPT) and Port Vale were against teams struggling to find any sort of form, and the away ones at Bradford, Oxford, and Tranmere (FA Cup) were classic examples of “if we could knick the first goal, the home fans would get on the backs of the home players”. As it happens in each of those 3 away games we did knick an early goal, in fact before the clock hit 3.10pm in all of these fixtures Cheltenham has recorded the opening goal and led 1-0, and in all of these fixtures the lead was never relinquished with the only goal against us a quite wonderful free-kick from Peter Leven. At Bradford Kaid Mohamed struck on the 8th minute, at Tranmere Daryll Duffy’s solitary penalty won the game in Birkenhead and at Oxford Sido Jombati’s cross-cum-shot found the corner to help Cheltenham onto a 3-1 win at the Kassam

Daryll Duffy, the Rubies top scorer

The home games come with a bigger weight of expectation, but against Port Vale, patietience was a virtue as we eventually saw the Valiants off 2-0 in one of the most comfortable wins of the season. Unfortunately, even at Cheltenham, things can go wrong and Mark Yates decision to tinker with the team for JPT game at home to Barnet backfired miserably with a dire display, devoid of any quality… the fringe players had the chance to stake a claim, none of them did sadly. However, that defeat is long forgotten now and although a potential trip to Wembley was lost, no league points or places were!

For the statto’s that leaves Town already 8 points into the play-off zone, just 4 points from the summit. It leaves the Rubies with 10 wins in 12, 7 away wins on the bounce and the last draw, a 0-0 draw with Hereford seems an absolute lifetime away.

It all set’s itself up quite nicely for a Cupset this weekend then? Luton are the opposition and funnily enough, when fans watch the draw unfold, they are baying for the home fixture, yet at Whaddon Road the news of an away draw was greeted with smiles! Times are that bizarre! The tie is ultimately winnable, but a definate banana skin. Luton have already dumped out League 2 Northampton (although Cobblers fans will hardly call that an achievement) and they have also dispatched of higher league opposition in recent seasons so the Ruby players need to keep their professional heads on this weekend. We are no doubt our own worst enemies. The prize of a win (not just financially) could be huge, on the other hand it could give us a miserable trip to Ipswich or Hull. All Ruby fans will tell of how we are due a good cup draw and if Luton can be surpassed, could it be our year?

Our finest hour in recent history points us back to 2006… A team of hungry players who possessed plenty of quality, togetherness and a will to win from bizarre positions. That season saw the club win promotion to League 1 via the play-offs and gain a moneyspinning cup draw at home to Newcastle (our biggest fixture to date) shown live on the BBC. This season there are stark similiarities to that season, and many believe this squad possesses even more quality.

We’ve crept quietly up the league so far but now teams are starting to take notice, heck, let’s enjoy this brilliant time to be a fan of Cheltenham Town and SHOUT ’til our hearts content… it’s bound to end soon, right?

Tags: cheltenham town, daryll duffy, league 2, luke summerfield, mark yates, oxford united, port vale, tranmere rovers

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Football happenings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.