Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Duff ready for another stern test in Lancashire
MICHAEL Duff takes his Cheltenham Town side north again today, this time to take on Wigan Athletic in League One.
The trip comes after Tuesday’s 4-1 Carabao Cup defeat, also in Lanacashire against Preston North End and the Whaddon Road boss is expecting another tough game. Wigan are top of League One and have won their last four games.
Asked this week how he intends to find a way past the in-form outfit, Duff told reporters: “Difficult. Good team. They lost their first game to Sunderland and are unbeaten since then. Good manager, good players, good bench. Big club.
“It’s our job to try and find a weakness and the first thing we need to do is make sure we deliver a performance. It’s all good having ideas and plans, but if the players don’t stand up and be counted first and foremost, we won’t be in the game.
“So that’s the first port of call and from that you try and give yourself a platform to play from and work from there.”
Asked how Charlie Raglan had come through his return from injury as a substitute on at Preston, Duff replied: “Rags trained on Thursday morning and he’s had no reaction from the game. Hopefully he has no reaction from training and he should be available for the game on Saturday.
Duff revealed Liam Sercombe is also back in contention for Wigan.
“He’s only missed a week, so he’s trained on Thursday and he’ll train on Friday and he’s definitely back in the thinking.”
As far as Callum Wright’ knee injury is concerned, it appeares his parent club Leicester will be overseeing his recovery.
Duff said: “We’ll be dictated to by Leicester, so they want to re-scan him, get their own doctors to have a look at the report and we’ll be guided by them from now on.
“Nothing is going to be happening in the next two or three weeks, but hopefully, for his benefit, it’s not as bad as feared.”
Duff added: “We don’t know the extent of the injury, so there’s no point in me speculating whether it’s a week, two weeks, three months or six months. He is Leicester’s player so they will decide what they want for him and we’ll be guided by that. If it’s a three-month injury and they want him, to come back in January, then great. If they say “that’s it now” and that’s the deal done, the deal is done. So, we are not in control of the situation so we can’t worry about it too much.
Last Saturday, Alfie May’s secondhalf strike was enough to earn Cheltenham an impressive home win over Oxford in League One, leaving them in ninth place in the table.