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Match Day Thread Preston North End v Cheltenham Town Deepdale 21/9/2021

Discussion in 'Preston' started by themaclad, Sep 20, 2021.

  1. themaclad

    themaclad Well-Known Member

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    Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club will compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system, after winning the League Two title. Nicknamed the "Robins", they have played at Whaddon Road since 1932. The club contests rivalries with Gloucester City and Forest Green Rovers.

    Founded in 1887, the club spent much of its early history competing in local football circles, before moving to the Birmingham Combination in 1932 and then the Southern League in 1935. They spent the next 50 years in the Southern League, winning the Midland Division in 1982–83 and then claiming the Premier Division title in 1984–85. They were subsequently promoted into the Alliance Premier League in 1985, where they remained for seven seasons until they were relegated in 1992. They finished as runners-up of the Southern League Premier Division for four of the next five seasons, and were promoted into the Conference in 1997.

    Under the stewardship of Steve Cotterill, Cheltenham won the 1998 FA Trophy final and then secured promotion into the Football League for the first time after winning the Conference title in 1998–99. He left the club after the 2001–02 season, having guided them to the FA Cup fifth round and promotion with victory in the 2002 Third Division play-off final. Immediately relegated after one season in the Second Division, they secured another promotion as manager John Ward guided them to victory in the 2006 League Two play-off final. Relegated after three seasons in the third tier, the club's 16-year stay in the Football League ended with relegation back to the National League in 2015. However manager Gary Johnson led Cheltenham to the Conference title with a 101 point tally in 2015–16, making them the first club in 26 years to secure an immediate return to the Football League as champions of the Conference. After Michael Duff took over from Johnson, he led the club to its first Football League title, winning the 2020–21 League Two title.

    MANAGER

    MICHAEL DUFF

    On 10 September 2018, Duff was appointed to his first managerial appointment at his former club Cheltenham Town in League Two.[10] He was awarded the League Two Manager of the Month award for September 2019 and February 2020.[11] On 1 November 2019, Duff signed a contract extension which will keep him at Cheltenham Town until June 2023.

    On 27 April 2021, Duff secured the club’s first ever automatic promotion in the Football League with a 1-1 draw against Carlisle United.

    LAST TIME OUT


    The two clubs have never met before

    MACS VIEW

    One of those games we should win but one we could so easily lose, this is a decent side we are playing under a pretty good manager, they have had two great seasons one falling in the play offs before putting that right by getting automatic promotion the season afterwards.
    Gave City a hard game in the cup last year and should not be underestimated
    Like the Morecambe game expect a strongish side from us although also expect the likes of McCann, Wickham and Potts to start, win this and the chances of getting one of the bigger clubs comes closer
     
    #1
  2. themaclad

    themaclad Well-Known Member

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    PNE Team News

    Speaking pre-match, Frankie McAvoy told iFollow PNE that he will field a strong and competitive team to take on Cheltenham as his side look to progress to the next round.

    Club captain Alan Browne could be back in contention to feature after missing the weekend’s draw against West Brom with a knock.

    Patrick Bauer suffered a broken nose in that game in a clash with Jordan Hugill and so will be checked on, while Josh Murphy will be unavailable for selection as he featured for Cardiff City in the first two rounds.

    The Opposition

    Cheltenham Town enjoyed a superb campaign last time out as they lifted the League Two title for the first time in their history.

    Former Burnley defender Michael Duff, manager of the Robins since September 2018, took his side to the Play-Off semi-final in the season prior, before then securing that automatic promotion in April 2021.

    They’ve made a solid start to life in League One too and will likely travel to Deepdale full of confidence.

    Key Stats

    The Robins head into this game four unbeaten in the league, having won their last two against Charlton Athletic and Oxford United respectively.

    Striker Alfie May was their top goalscorer last season, netting 12 times in all competitions, and he’s top of the list again so far this term with four goals.

    PNE have never met Cheltenham in a competitive fixture previously, but one North End man who has is Jordan Storey, who scored his second goal in professional football against the Robins back in April 2018.

    Man In The Middle

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    The referee for this evening’s game will be Dean Whitestone, who returns to Deepdale exactly a month after his last visit.

    He was the man who took charge of the 1-0 victory at home to Peterborough in August.

    Assisting Whitestone will be Steven Meredith and Shaun Hudson, while Bobby Madley is fourth official.
     
    #2
  3. themaclad

    themaclad Well-Known Member

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    PNE 4 Hughes, Rafferty, Maguire, Riis Cheltenham Town 1 Vassell

    PNE line-up: Rudd; Storey, Lindsay (van den Berg, 31), Hughes; Rafferty, Whiteman, McCann, Potts (Browne, 80), Cunningham; Riis, Wickham (Maguire, 7). Subs not used: Iversen, O’Reilly, Earl, Rodwell-Grant.

    Cheltenham line-up: Evans; Horton, Pollock, Freestone; Blair (Bonds, 78), Thomas (Raglan, 78), Barkers, Perry, Chapman; May, Williams (Vassell, 54). Subs not used: Flinders, Long, Armitage.

    Attendance: 6,561 (218 away fans)

    Referee: Mr D Whitestone

    Job done it was fairly straight forward although for a period of time in the second we did struggle after Vassell scored, the ex Lasher was a handful for both Storey and Van Den Berg.
    Both sides made many changes from Saturday with first starts for Wickham and McCann, sadly for Wickham a high tackle did him early on and his match lasted barely 7 minutes. We were dominate down both flanks with Cunningham seemed to be on a mission to provide the excellent Rafferty with a hatful of goals. It was all one way as Cheltenham barely got close to our goal, the only time Rudd got involved in the first 45 minutes was to give grief to the Cheltenham player who crippled Lindsay.
    Eventually took the lead half way through the half when following a series of efforts on goal in a short period of time led to a corner, Whiteman took it Hughes headed home.
    Lindsay was then substituted following what looked like a very late tackle could easily have been red he got a yellow. then going into half time Rafferty made it two, ball from the left and Rafu at the second attempt put the ball in the net. Could have been well in control had other efforts Riis completely missed his shot when well placed.
    We started the second half playing some decent football tried to kill off the tie but the introduction of Vassell changed all that, his first touch was to hammer the ball into the net following a flick on from a right wing cross thought it was an excellent strike.
    The goal gave them belief and they actually started to play some good football. Vassell fired in shots one over and one well saved by Rudd, there was also a scramble in front of goal were a last ditch tackle denied them an equaliser. We were hanging on a bit bit eight minutes from time Maguire scored from close range to give us breathing space and with virtually the last kick off the game Riis made it four, the Dane picking the ball up about 30 yards out holding off a couple of players before firing home past the keeper from the edge of the box.

    Into the last 16 for only the seventh time, home draw would be nice.
    Fell a bit for Wickham has had terrible injury luck also Lindsay seems injury prone however both were victims of poor tackles both suspect will be out for a while.
    McCann looks a neat and tidy player but Rafferty was top man last night not in the 25 Champonship squad but didn't let us down last night


    Preston boss Frankie McAvoy:

    "I was a little bit concerned about Connor's injury early on.

    "We worked on everything yesterday and then you lose one of your players straight away.

    "But Sean Maguire has been great for us anyway and he has come on so it didn't disrupt us too much.

    "I knew if we got the third goal it would be an easier night for us. But credit to Cheltenham they came and pressed us really really hard in the second half."

    Cheltenham manager Michael Duff:

    "I am not bothered about the final score.

    "I was disappointed with the first half, but really pleased with the second half. The fact we've gone out of the tie doesn't really bother me.

    "It wasn't a 4-1 game, but 2-0 down at half-time and we never really laid a glove on them. We didn't compete, didn't get on the ball, or do any part of the game well.

    "We tweaked it and I had a bit of a pop at them, but that's a young team."

     
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