Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Addicks are a different prospect now – Duff
CHELTENHAM Town manager Michael Duff enjoyed his side’s early-season victory away to Charlton Athletic – but is under no illusions that a repeat performance will be anything other than hard work this afternoon.
The Robins shocked their hosts at the Valley in September, with goals from Matty Blair and Taylor Perry providing them with a 2-1 win.
Duff recalled: “With the ball, yes, it’s probably as good as we’ve been.
“But, they’ll be a different animal on Saturday, a different manager, different formation and different players in the team.
“We caught them on a good day for us, in terms of them not being quite at it. We need to try to hit those levels again to try and eke out another good performance and this time try to see it through for a win.
“I went to watch Charlton at Crewe on Wednesday night and it was a funny game. They were excellent for 20-25 minutes, conceded from two set plays and then sort of came away from what they do.
“They had a go in the last 10-15 minutes and were probably unlucky not to get a result really. They had a disallowed goal, which was a bit of an odd decision, but since Johnnie (Jackson) has gone in, they have been on an unbelievable run and they have some good players.
“I expect them to be better than they were against Crewe and we played well at their place, so I don’t think they’ll take us lightly.
“Again, as always, Charlton against Cheltenham is a big team against a little team, so we’ll have to be at it. We are both similar in the table, so it shows it could be quite a close game.
“I am not sure they underestimated us on the day, but there was a bit going on at the club at the time.
“It wasn’t quite working, but if you look at the form since Johnnie has gone in, his record before the last three has been excellent.
“They have some good players and they are a big club in the League. They’ll be disappointed with where they are in the table and I imagine they’d expect to be in the top six.
“They’ll be expecting to kick on in the second half of the season and whether they get into the top six, I don’t know. But they will definitely be expecting to be higher than they are now by the end of the season.”
Cheltenham have introduced a number of new players to the squad in recent days, including youngster Aaron Ramsey from Aston Villa.
Duff added: “I have not spoken to Steven (Gerrard) at all over this.
“We know Aaron Danks pretty well, the first team coach at Villa. Mile Jedinak, who looks after the loans, I have a relationship with.
“He’s someone we’ve been interested in for a while. We do have lists of players and if something happens we can try, but it doesn’t mean we will always get them.
“With this one, we’ve managed to replace the ones we’ve lost with the ones who were top of our lists.
“(Ramsey) is an exciting prospect, but that’s all he is and he’s here to learn.”
Meanwhile, Robins midfielder Dylan Barkers has joined National League North club Leamington on loan from an initial month.
Leamington are at home to AFC Fylde this afternoon.