POSF1: Cheltenham v Torquay Utd - 13th May 2012

Nah, at least two better in form teams than your lot and ours more than likely.

Nothing to stop you keep harping on about and trying to convince yourself, though I should wait until you have a better picture after next Thursday .

We have nearly sold all our tickets for the 1st leg: couple of hundred left.

Cheltenham 4 - 0 Torquay.

The game will come down to so many factors - fitness of key players (both mental and physical) and how any players that come-in adapt. I don't think form will play as much part as a regular season league game - we've been off form for a while now but I think there wasn't the crushing blow that there might have been if we had won the Crewe game and lost at Hereford.

I think that Ling might just really assess his options. We are entering a very special three match tournament where form and achievements to date are wiped-clean for all participants. I wouldn't be surprised if Jarvis and or Atieno got a start, some of the players looked leggy on Saturday and they both looked really sharp despite the lack of action.

I'm looking forward to to Sunday. I haven't seen us lose there for a proper match for over a decade (I've been to nearly all of them), I enjoy the pubs and aside from the area around the ground, Cheltenham is a nice town with very civil staff and supporters. Crewe or Southend would have been a real drag of a journey and those extra hours saved on the coach might even make the smallest of difference.

It will be too close to call and anything can happen - as we've seen over the the years in these two-legged affairs. Most of the players have the experience of the play-offs over the last few seasons and I don't think they will be phased by it at all.





See you next Thursday..... (I think it works better with 'Tuesday', but it still works).

The Cheltenham fans certainly seem to be in confident mood ahead of this one. I just happen to have last Friday's Gloucestershire Echo here with me as a result of being in the area in advance of the Hereford game.

Page 35 features something called the 'Fan's Panel' and a number of questions are posed to someone called Max Hobbs.

Among the questions posed to Max was 'Which team would you prefer to play against in the play-off semi finals?'

To which Max replies 'I'd take either of Torquay or Crawley, who have both been indifferent, much like ourselves of late.
I feel we could turn either of those two over'.



So no lack of bravado from the Cheltenham followers before this one. We'll see whether their team can live up to all this boastful talk.

Actually, thinking about it, I had to endure some pretty strong banter from a Cheltenham mate on my course at Bristol back in the early 90s, strongly fueled by our relegation from league 1 as it is known now. Cheltenham were non league then but he always used to delight in telling me how they were going to storm up the leagues and we were going to end up back in the conference! Pure fantasy of course....

That experience took me a long time to get over with Cheltenham up there with Exeter in the popularity stakes for a time.

But the question is, is that you Nick C, come back to torment me again? ;D

No doubt shown by the league table positions, and of course the 6 points you achieved against us in the league this season?