I'm off to Whaddon Road tomorrow where I'll get to see - for the first time this season - two of the teams on my patch fight it out.
Cheltenham have had a mixed start to the campaign while Hereford have suffered badly - so much so that there has been talk of the demise (in a professional sense) of manager Jamie Pitman.
Pitman though appears to have the support of the local paper and - more importantly - the Chairman David Keyte.
The manager has told the BBC that his board have told him: "There is no pressure that if you lose on Saturday you are going to get the sack. But at the end of the day that is their decision. All I can do is continue to do the job I've been asked to do. And I will do that because that's what I'm like. And I will do that until I'm told otherwise."
Everyone at the club will be hoping that Pitman can perform the same miracle he did last term when he guided the Bulls to safety.
It's difficult to judge how the players are feeling at the moment. It's often the case that a bad run is precisely that and that if everyone sticks together, you can turn things around. This is what happened to Keith Millen and Bristol City last season.
On the other had, if Pitman has lost the dressing room ...
It will be interesting to find out which of the two scenarios exists and I'll let you know my thoughts on Monday.
Mark Yates position at Cheltenham looks a little more solid and he appears to have built on last season's efforts, but again, it will be nice to catch up with some old faces (and meet new ones) to find out how the land lies.
Every home supporter will be expecting three points from this one, but as any football fan of any club will tell you: This game has a habit of biting you on the bum when you don't expect it!
Yates himself told the Gloucestershire Echo:
"We have to deal with the expectancy at home, which we didn't do during the second half of last season, but I don't see it being an issue now because we have played well there in most games this year. We are at home, against a team who lost 6-1 last weekend and it's up to us to make things happen. If we turn up with the right attitude and endeavour, we have a great chance of beating them."
And striker Jeff Goulding has said: "The fans will get behind us and they were brilliant at Wimbledon. We really appreciated their support and it was a shame we couldn't put on a show for them. Hopefully we can put in a performance for them against Hereford and I am sure we'll react in the right way."
Joe Colbeck and Jordan Rose are likely to be unavailable for struggling Hereford as they make the trip to local rivals Cheltenham. Colbeck recurrence of his recent knee injury, while defender Rose also pulled his thigh.
Cheltenham have had a mixed start to the campaign while Hereford have suffered badly - so much so that there has been talk of the demise (in a professional sense) of manager Jamie Pitman.
Pitman though appears to have the support of the local paper and - more importantly - the Chairman David Keyte.
The manager has told the BBC that his board have told him: "There is no pressure that if you lose on Saturday you are going to get the sack. But at the end of the day that is their decision. All I can do is continue to do the job I've been asked to do. And I will do that because that's what I'm like. And I will do that until I'm told otherwise."
Everyone at the club will be hoping that Pitman can perform the same miracle he did last term when he guided the Bulls to safety.
It's difficult to judge how the players are feeling at the moment. It's often the case that a bad run is precisely that and that if everyone sticks together, you can turn things around. This is what happened to Keith Millen and Bristol City last season.
On the other had, if Pitman has lost the dressing room ...
It will be interesting to find out which of the two scenarios exists and I'll let you know my thoughts on Monday.
Mark Yates position at Cheltenham looks a little more solid and he appears to have built on last season's efforts, but again, it will be nice to catch up with some old faces (and meet new ones) to find out how the land lies.
Every home supporter will be expecting three points from this one, but as any football fan of any club will tell you: This game has a habit of biting you on the bum when you don't expect it!
Yates himself told the Gloucestershire Echo:
"We have to deal with the expectancy at home, which we didn't do during the second half of last season, but I don't see it being an issue now because we have played well there in most games this year. We are at home, against a team who lost 6-1 last weekend and it's up to us to make things happen. If we turn up with the right attitude and endeavour, we have a great chance of beating them."
And striker Jeff Goulding has said: "The fans will get behind us and they were brilliant at Wimbledon. We really appreciated their support and it was a shame we couldn't put on a show for them. Hopefully we can put in a performance for them against Hereford and I am sure we'll react in the right way."
Joe Colbeck and Jordan Rose are likely to be unavailable for struggling Hereford as they make the trip to local rivals Cheltenham. Colbeck recurrence of his recent knee injury, while defender Rose also pulled his thigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment