Duff gets ready for four cup finals
Robins face crucial run of home games after third defeat in a row,
MICHAEL Duff says Cheltenham Town face four cup finals against fellow relegation battlers at Whaddon Road in their League Two survival fight.
The Robins face Macclesfield Town on Saturday, followed by games with Cambridge United a week later and Yeovil Town on February 5, with Port Vale coming up on February 23.
Duff’s men have now lost their last three games, away at Crawley and Carlisle and at home to Tranmere, after a run of one loss in 10 games looked to have pulled them clear of trouble.
But the losses, combined with an upturn in form for some teams around them, leaves them two points above to dotted line - and Sol Campbell’s Silkmen could overtake them with a win on Saturday.
The Robins went on their fine run after a summit involving staff and players following the limp 2-0 home loss to Stevenage on October 27, which meant Duff had taken three points from his first eight games in charge.
But despite the recent setbacks, Duff still feels his squad are “a million miles” from where they were against Stevenage.
After the 2-0 loss at Carlisle on Saturday, He added: “We have four cup finals coming up at home and the players need to recognise that, as do the supporters.
“We need them to come along and make some noise and the players need to deliver more edge.
“When you go back to the Stevenage game we were comfortably beaten and I don’t think we were comfortably beaten at Carlisle.
“I think we had as many chances to score as they did and they took their chances and we didn’t take ours.
“I didn’t think there was anything in the game, particularly.”
Duff refuted the feeling that this run of home games represents a make or break period for the club’s survival chances.
“They are important there is not getting away from it,” he said. “It’s about points on the table and it doesn’t really matter who you get your points against.
“If you beat teams in and around you it puts them further behind you so to speak, but it won’t be all doom and gloom and there are still lots of points to play for.”
He said he will still go into this run of games with confidence, adding: “there was nothing between us and the team with the best form in the league, apart from last week they had 22 points from eight games.
“That shows you the run they have been on and there was nothing between the two teams.
“If you were a neutral and you came to the game, you’d think it was two good teams, but the best teams take their chances when they get them and the higher up you go games come down to moments in games and we didn’t take our moments and they did and we gifted them one as well.”
“I didn’t say a lot to the players and I didn’t need to. They are not naive, stupid and walking around with their heads in the clouds thinking ‘oh, we’ll be all right,’ they know they need to deliver.
“There has been plenty of talking, but they need to walk the walk as well as talking the talk.”
The loss at Carlisle came after an even first half was followed by two goals conceded in the 49th and 57th minutes - making it five goals conceded in the past two games in the first 15 minutes of the second half.
“They have been told,” said Duff. “We quietened them down, tried to play a little more directly that we have done recently and then it was just the next part, but you can’t give away goals like we did.
“I thought we were excellent at 2-0 down, but it’s easy when you are 2-0
down. It’s the mentality of the group and we have to be tougher in both boxes.
“The players need to take it on and learn, because we can’t give goals away against good teams.
“We are at the bottom end of the table and they are at the top end and there is nothing between the two teams, but it’s the small margins.
“We can’t keep saying we did all right because we are losing games. That’s what we need to learn from.
“It’s all right being in games and having lots of the ball, but it was basically two poor goals against and not taking our own chances.”
Duff’s hope now is to reproduce the form he saw around Christmas, with the 3-1 home win over MK Dons and the 4-1 win at Yeovil, which preceded this run of losses.
Duff said: “I don’t think we are far off it. We created numerous chances, we had good opportunities to put balls into the box that weren’t quite right and we didn’t work the keeper.
“I don’t think we are a million miles away. People will look at the defeats, of course they will, and we have lost three on the spin, but we haven’t deserved to lose previously, but at Carlisle we did because we shot ourselves in the foot.
“We can’t panic and results have gone against us so the gap has gone from eight points to two points in a week, but it can quickly go the other way as well.
“It’s not about other teams it’s about how many points we get. If we don’t get enough points we will be relegated, if we get enough points we won’t.”