Paul Simpson spoke to us ahead of tomorrow’s game against Bolton.
“I went to the Bolton game on Tuesday and Cheltenham played very well,” he said. “I was really impressed with them. They had a goal chalked off that probably should have been allowed and they went a goal down against the run of play as well.
“Bolton were getting frustrated but I can see their strengths. You just have to look at the league table to see they are a very consistent team. They’ve got good patterns in the way they play.
“They’re a side who are a very, very settled group of players. They have a few issues this weekend I believe, with a few injuries and I’m not sure if their player’s back from AFCON yet. But you don't hold a place up at the top of the table if you've got a poor group of players.
“They're a really strong group of players. They're a strong football club - you go into that stadium and it's a magnificent stadium there. So we know it's going to be a challenge for us, a real tough test.
“We have an opportunity to get a double over them and we have to rise to that challenge. It doesn’t matter who we play, we have to start winning games. We need to win that first game to give us a chance to go on a run. I’m looking forward to this weekend because it’s a good test for us and we’ll see what we’re made of.”
With the crowd set to be over 10,000 including 3,000 away fans, he said: “We’ve had to give Bolton the Waterworks which in my opinion isn’t ideal, but we tried it for the Derby game to keep it for our supporters and there’s wasn’t much of an uptake. From a business point of view we had to look at it so that end will be full of Bolton fans.
“They will make a noise but I’m quite sure our fans will make plenty of noise as well. They were magnificent at Barnsley, I get their frustrations but hopefully we can do something in terms of our performance and the result that gets them cheering and backing us all the way on Saturday.
“We've got to start a run by getting a win – it would be brilliant if we can do it in front of our own fans. And that's the test for us, can we go and perform? Can we go and come out on top in all the individual battles and then more than anything, get three points?”
With the gap to safety now ten points, we asked whether that changes the mindset of the group: “No, it doesn't change the mindset because my mindset was always that we've got to start winning games.
“I’ve always been a big believer that if you don’t win your own games then it’s irrelevant what everybody else does. The gap is ten points which isn’t ideal, it’s a horrible situation to be in and it’s a hell of a challenge for us.
“We’ve still got the games left, the only thing I can say is that we have to start winning our games. There’s no point worrying what everybody else does, if we win then the rest will take care of itself. If we don’t, we know we’re going to be in trouble.”
And the manager was able to provide a positive update on the fitness of Ben Barclay: “Ben is back in full training, he joined in today which is good news. He’s only missed a week or two so it’s good to have him back involved.
“Terry Ablade has had a full week with the rest of the group and he’s looking sharp and lively. The chances are that he will be involved in the Cumberland Cup game at Penrith on Tuesday.
“We’re still waiting on JJ, he’s certainly made improvements and he’s got no pain there at the moment so we’ve just got to build that up because it’s been a couple of weeks since we had to set him back. Hopefully over the next few weeks we’ll get him out there.”
