Ashley Vincent was on hand to reflect upon an excellent away win at Wimbledon as well as look ahead towards a tough local game away against Swindon Town.
Regarding the result at Wimbledon, Vincent was full of praise:
“It was the gaffer’s decision to be more solid, more workman-like in terms of our away performance. The game was gritty, it was hardworking but also the change in formation allowed us to have attacking players on the pitch to go and counter – in the end its a really positive result and a really good away win against a team who are flying and chasing the automatic promotion places.
“When you go away from home against a side who are flying, blocks and interceptions are the foundations of a good away performance, and you’ve gotta run hard, put your body on the line – but you also can’t forget that the attacking players on the pitch have to find a decisive moment and go and win the game. Taylor coming on and getting the winner, that shows its a real good away performance from us; in terms of the thought process, gameplan and the boys getting going and putting that into practice”.
Cheltenham Town travel to Swindon Town tomorrow afternoon, with the two sides facing off at The County Ground in a 12:30pm kick off. Town lost the return fixture at the EV Charger Points Stadium 3-2 and were 3-0 to Swindon by half-time. Vincent hopes things can be different this time and that it will be a much more different game between two teams with different identities.
He said: “It was a tough game for us and we had gone through a couple of indifferent performances but we had a whole new squad, people finding their feet, the gaffer getting across his ideas and everyone trying to adapt to his processes and methods. That result helped us bang our heads together and realise that we had some work to do. Ever since then, I think we’ve come together as a group, staff, the players and our supporters and we’ve brought on board what we’re about now and they’ve been fantastic. I think that has shown in our results and performances and the fact that we’ve been able to surprise a few teams.”
Swindon come into the game having recorded one loss in their last ten and sitting just behind Cheltenham Town in 15th in League Two. Vincent highlighted the work of Ian Holloway and his influence on tomorrow’s opponents as well as the similarities between the two sides.
He said: “Swindon had a little bit of a dip in form after the last game and struggled, but they changed manager, and since then they’ve picked up and are on a good run of form. Tomorrow will show two very different teams from early on in this season and, from our point of view, we’re hoping for a very different result.
“Ian Holloway’s vibrant, he has a real positive nature within his teams and his staff and he’s very similar to the mentality and the atmosphere that we have here. The gaffer is the main man, he brings everyone together and makes sure there’s never too low of a low and too high of a high and I think its very similar there. From our point of view, we know we’re going there and they’re on a good run. They’ll be a tough test for us but I think that they’ll be expecting the same from us tomorrow and we have to make sure that we’re not going to disappoint.”
With ten games left of the League Two season, Vincent and the Robins sit seven places outside of the play-offs. Stability and consolidation were the focal points of the newly appointed managerial team at the start of the year and the former Cheltenham Town forward believes strides have been made to achieving these goals.
He said: “Gary the DoF, the gaffer and Aaron Downes as his assistant have all been fantastic. I don’t think there’s any doubt that after last season there was a lot of disappointment and a little of gloom around the place, but they’ve come in as fresh faces, found a style of play that works for us – so in terms of stability and consolidation they’ve definitely done that. However, football changes quickly and they won’t be sitting on their laurels thinking mid-table is enough and that they’ve cracked it. They know that we need to keep improving and we need to get the young players out on the pitch to develop them and make them better. That’s us trying to come up with game plans to win games and more games away from home like tomorrow.
“Playoffs aren’t impossible mathematically being seven points off. It’s a tough ask there’s no doubting that, but what we do have in the dressing room with the management team is character. If people slip up, we have to make sure that we’re there performing and are able to capitalise on that. We can’t let our season filter out and we need to be the best that we can be, achieve our maximum points total, and we have to be ready and not think about what ifs.”
