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Ian Baraclough calls for history to be made as Cheltenham Town take on Barnsley in heat of survival battle

Cheltenham Town have the chance to beat Barnsley for the first time in the club’s history this weekend with assistant manager Ian Baraclough wanting more risks to be taken.

The Robins are currently attempting to achieve the impossible by staying in League One for the fourth year running, another success never to have been completed by the Gloucestershire side.

“I’d love to create history,” the former Northern Ireland boss admitted.

“That’s what it’s all about.

“You’ve got to look at milestones, you’ve got to look at things to strive for and, for me, that’s to just keep creating history as much as possible.”

Cheltenham fell to a 2-1 defeat away at eighth placed Oxford United last time out and will be looking to revive their fortunes again after suffering a last gasp winner to the U’s.

With ten games left in the Robins’ League One campaign, manager Darrell Clarke has previously stated he feels his side needs to win half of those to remain in the league.

The importance of snatching three points from their upcoming opponents is paramount, and so more risk must be taken.

“There are times where we’ve spoken to the players where, certainly where you get yourselves back into games, there’s a tendency to go and sit on what you’ve got,” Clarke’s assistant stressed.

“But we’ve got enough in the squad to be positive and go and, we’ve got to try and win games.

“A point, yes, it’s OK, but compared to three and what it can do to you, bridging that gap, we have to go out and target winning every game.

“We’re asking the players to be positive but taking risks in the right areas, not be too loose, and I think they’re good enough players to go and hurt teams so that’s the kind of risk that we look for.”

Highlights from Cheltenham’s loss to Oxford last week

Their opponents this weekend currently sit in fifth place and firmly in the play-off places.

Against the top six sides, Cheltenham have had some tricky games, but they did manage to beat league leaders Portsmouth as well as picking up a point in the away fixture.

Sitting in the bottom four, the Robins have needed to go into these games with an underdog mentality, making games as difficulty as possible for the opposition.

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“From the games that I’ve seen when we’ve gone to places like Bolton, one of the top teams, I think we’ve done alright,” continued Barraclough.

“We’ve applied ourselves really well and made it difficult for the opposition but obviously we’ve been threats when we’ve gone forward.

“It’s a bigger pitch, a bit more of an open game, and hopefully we can be better on the transitions than them and make sure that we hurt them.”

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