Cheltenham Town welcomed League One’s Northampton Town to Whaddon Road on Saturday afternoon in what was the side’s final pre-season friendly before the EFL kicks off next weekend.
The Robins managed their first pre-season win under new manager Michael Flynn since a victory over non-league side Evesham United early in July. After playing Championship opposition in Bristol City and Plymouth Argyle, Flynn’s side opted for a battle against a team only one division above.
It is no secret that it has been a busy summer so far, with the starting lineup yesterday made up of ten new signings and one trialist. Whilst 14 new players have walked through the doors, 17 have gone the opposite way, after Cheltenham suffered relegation back to the fourth tier of English football. Former manager Darrell Clarke, who almost kept the side up on the final day of the season, also moved on to pastures new, taking up the chance to manage League One side Barnsley.
Speaking exclusively to The Real EFL alongside BBC Radio Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire Live, Flynn commented on the recruitment that is still needed before their opening fixture next weekend against his former side Newport County.
“In terms of what we need at the moment, I won’t just be panic-signing anybody. […] I’ll worry about that over the weekend. I’ve tried to make sure the quality of trialists has been decent.
“I don’t want training being dragged down quality-wise. We’ve had trialists from Wolves and Bristol City. A lot of them are coming from very club good clubs. We are looking, but we can only shop in what we can afford. I am looking to sign a couple more.”
Flynn did seem happy about the result. However, he was more concerned about Arkell Jude-Boyd and Harry Pell, who both came off injured at different points in the game.
“I said to you I’m not going to get too excited or too despondent about pre-season. I saw a lot of good things today, but unfortunately, we picked up two injuries. I would’ve rather have lost the game today and not had any injuries.
“I think Arkell is going to be OK. It was more of a precaution in the end as to why we took him off. I’m not sure on Harry [Pell], we’ll have to find out more on Monday and Tuesday. I thought there was a lot of good performances, when we changed the team a lot of them did well as well.
“We signed Harry for a precise reason, he’s good in both boxes, he’s a leader, so I might have to find somebody that is like that. But, I don’t know whether or not we’ll have the budget to do that. So, I’ll have to speak very nicely to Gary [Johnson] and the board if it is the worst-case scenario.”
New signing Joel Colwill went straight into the starting eleven, with him only joining from Cardiff City yesterday. Flynn was full of praise for the teenager after he had just one training session with the squad under his belt.
“For me today, Joel Colwill was superb, because he’s only had one training session and that’s the reason I’ve bigged him up a bit. He’s had one training session, we didn’t really do much yesterday, we touched on a few bits.
“He doesn’t know his teammates, how they play so I thought it was a very impressive performance from him today. Like I said, I’m not getting carried away, he’s obviously a bright talent but it’s a tough old league, long, long season. I’m delighted we’ve got him.”
Another new signing, experienced striker Ryan Bowman, also scored a brace in his new colours this afternoon, with Flynn also seemingly happy with the striker’s contribution so far.
“He scored behind closed doors actually, he scored in that game, scored two in there, so, I was pleased. When those injuries started happening, I changed a few a lot quicker than I would’ve normally. So now it’s about the long season ahead.”
As previously mentioned, Cheltenham Town kick off their League Two campaign against Newport next weekend, with all of Flynn’s focus now directed on the game at hand.
“Aaron Downes went there today. We’ve had Newport watched three times now. We’ll try and do the best we can to analyse the opposition. I’ll speak to him (Downes) later on, and we’ll set the stall out on how we can exploit those weaknesses.”
Writer’s View
Cheltenham Town completely played the Cobblers off the park, with Northampton not really having much-attacking threat. The first half was a glimmer of hope for the Robins, who have struggled in pre-season against Championship opposition so far. Bowman scoring his first goals could be pivotal as he, along with Matty Taylor and Liam Dulson, shoulders the responsibility of scoring goals this season.
Winning against a team a league above is what you want to round off pre-season, with it hopefully giving a confidence boost for next weekend. However, on a less positive note, the injuries to Jude-Boyd and Pell could disrupt the Robins’ season. Although Jude-Boyd looks to be fine, Pell may not have the same luck, with it looking like a potential knee injury for the 32-year-old.
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