The Robins travel to County Ground to take on Ian Holloway’s Swindon Town in Sky Bet League Two action tomorrow afternoon.
Swindon have lost just once in their last 10 league games and Cheltenham First Team Coach. Ashley Vincent, understands how tough the match will be.
“We know they’re on a good run and it’ll be a tough test for us, but I think that they’ll be expecting the same from us and we have to make sure that we don’t disappoint.”
The reverse fixture in October was a tough afternoon for the Robins who fell to a 3-2 defeat in which they were 3-0 down after 47 minutes.
🗣️Hear from @CTFCofficial first team coach, Ashley Vincent ahead of their away game at Swindon Town.
— Park Life Sport (@ParkLife_Sport) March 14, 2025
– @AlexDay041 ✍️https://t.co/eqv7mbLbTU#stfc #ctfc #EFL pic.twitter.com/CMruxm0LcW
However, much has changed since then for both sides. Swindon have seen Holloway replace Mark Kennedy as manager, while Vincent believes for Cheltenham the defeat was a blessing in disguise.
“That result probably helped us more than anything else – to bang our heads together and go; look at ourselves and say we’ve got some work to do and we’ve got to go after this.
“Ever since then I think we’ve come together as a group and that’s staff, players and the supporters are on board now with what we’re all about – and they’ve been fantastic. I think that has shown in our performances as we have surprised a few.
“We picked up after that and went on a really good run.”
Vincent had two spells at Cheltenham as a player in which he made 131 appearances.
During his first stint for the Gloucestershire outfit, the former forward scored an equalising goal at Whaddon Road in a 1-1 draw against Swindon on August 25th, 2007, so he knows exactly what this West Country Derby means to the supporters.
“We’re a smaller following, if you like, even in comparison to Swindon.
“But, when we travel with over 1,000 and you know they’re behind you and it’s a 12:30 kick-off … it’s got that local derby feel.
“The boys will be ready there’s no doubt about that, as I’m sure Swindon will be – I think it will be a good game for the neutral.
“Ultimately, our main focus is to go there and come away with a positive result and the points, we want to keep our season alive. There’s 10 games to go and nobody is switched off here!”
While Swindon may come into this one in confidence, Cheltenham do too following their impressive 2-1 victory away at high-flying AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday night, in which Vincent acknowledges that hard work was the driving force behind achieving all three points.
“It was a really good away win against a team that are flying and going for automatic promotion.
“I think when you go away to a side who are flying and as I said, going for automatic promotion – a foundation of a really good away performance is that you have to run hard, put your body on the line and block shots.
“They’re the foundations for the performance but you can’t forget that the attacking players on the pitch have to go and find a decisive moment to go and win the game.”
