Time for everyone to muck in at Whaddon Road

"Cheltenham will be challenging for promotion by next March."

Not a statement you would have heard from many football fans last August. Even in Gloucestershire the thought of a return to League One was not foremost in the minds of the most blinkered Robins supporter.

Let's be honest, Cheltenham Town are a smashing little club - with the emphasis on the word 'little'.

They don't have too much money and can't rely on big gate receipts and have punched well above their weight since gaining promotion to the Football League. They are effectively a non-league club - like several others in League Two - defying the odds by bouncing between the Leagues One and Two.

And so to hear the jeers ring out at the end of the game on Saturday was quite surprising.

Did Cheltenham play well? No, they were well below par. Did they deserve a rollicking? Yes, and you can be sure that Mark Yates gave the players both barrels in the dressing room. He was seething after the game and training yesterday wouldn't have been much fun!

But just one week before they had narrowly missed out at runaway title favourites Swindon - and understandably felt hard done by getting something from the game.

What team goes through the full season without putting in a dodgy performance or two at the very least? Cheltenham are having a spell at the moment when it isn't going for them and they need everyone pulling in the same direction if they are to finish the season on a high - and that includes the fans.

As Yates walked over to show his appreciation of them - despite his own disappointment - he was greeted with jeers. He then cupped his hands to his ears and waved a dismissive hand at them. In my view they were lucky not to get a two fingered salute.

I remember chatting to John Ward one day after a game had been postponed at Whaddon Road and he told me that he was having a tricky time of it. Half of the supporters remembered the days in non-League and so were just happy to b playing in League One or Two, the other half hadn't known the hard times and expected to be challenging for the Premier League. He was spot on and highlighted the fickle short-term memories of most football fans.

The damage some Bristol Rovers and Swindon fans did with their jeering last season contributed to both clubs being relegated. I spoke to players who questioned "the point of busting a gut for people like that".

Of course Cheltenham won't go down - Yates and his squad have already done more than enough to guarantee league football next season - but if the Whaddon Road faithful think that supporting their team with vitriol is acceptable, they might just find that they end up jeering the club out of unlikely play-off contention.

The argument is that "we pay our money and so have a right". Rubbish! A true fan should play a positive role and make life uncomfortable for the OPPOSITION DURING the game not slag off their own players after it. A football fan pays for the pleasure of being a club volunteer.

Too many supporters these days see it as their right to attend games just to get the week's trials and tribulations out of their systems, but rather than direct it at the visitors they don't appear care who it's directed at.

And true fans chant and sing for their team while the game is being played - on Saturday you could have heard a pin drop during the game such was the impression the home support made.