CHELTENHAM PREVIEW
“They’ll be difficult to beat, a strong manager and good players. Steve will fight for his team, I’ll fight for my team, and we’ll go toe to toe and then after the game, I’ll give him a true handshake, but I won’t see him for a while after the game if I’m with the Gasheads.
“He’s a good man, he’s got good players, and it’ll be another big test for us, but it’s another game we want to win, and we want to get to the summer off the back of an amazing run.”
TEAM NEWS
“Macauley Southam-Hales has had a little relapse, but it’s nothing; he just felt his back twinge a little bit in training. His hamstring is good, it’s fine. Clinton Mola is training, so there are no issues with Clinton.
“Alfie Kilgour will have an operation on Monday, so he tried to make it for tomorrow, but the surgeon is on holiday. But Alfie will be in on Monday, and if you’re ever going to have an operation, we’ve been fortunate enough to be at a point where we can release our captain to go and have this; it’s a minor procedure by today’s standards.
“But in three, four weeks’ time, Alfie will be in here every day, because I’ll be in, in the mid-summer, the medical staff will be in, but he’ll be released from here from about three weeks’ time to go on his family holiday.
“He’ll be ready to come back and play a part in pre-season. It will be a quick turnaround, and that’s why we’ve sped up the timescales and when he can be operated on. Most clubs, if we were in the battle, we would have got through painkilling, injections and different kinds of things, but the kid has been playing with it, in fairness to him.
“I don’t say it lightly, but he does have the heart the size of Big Ben, he’s been courageous for us, but he needs to go and have his operation, he needs to be returned to playing fitness before he’s released.
“I just really want him returned to full fitness, and he can go and have a lovely break, and he’s deserving of it because he’staken the pressure of watching a really poor and despairing Bristol Rovers to leading a courageous and successful Bristol Rovers in the space of the same season. The difference in the first part of the season to January onwards is immeasurable in football terms.”
