Town Visit Cheltenham Targeting Record Ninth Win Monday, 10th Apr 2023 08:06 Ipswich Town, up to second in League One following the Good Friday fixtures, travel to Whaddon Road to face Cheltenham on Easter Monday looking to equal a club record nine wins in a row and an EFL record of nine victories without conceding. The Blues go into the match behind Plymouth by two points and ahead of the Owls on goal difference but having played one game fewer than the South Yorkshiremen. Barnsley in fourth are now six points behind Town. Plymouth host Lincoln on Monday, while Sheffield Wednesday are at home to Accrington Stanley and Barnsley take on Shrewsbury at Oakwell. Friday’s 4-0 home win against Wycombe took the Blues’ winning run to eight matches, levelling a record established in the 1953/54 Third Division South title-winning season. Town have never won nine in a row in the league but were victorious in nine on the bounce in all competitions during the 1981/82 campaign in which Sir Bobby Robson's Blues finished second in the old First Division to Liverpool. That run started with a 2-0 home victory over Manchester City on November 28th 1981 and stretched to January 23rd when the Blues won 3-0 at Luton in the FA Cup.  Town have now kept clean sheets in their last nine matches and have gone 866 minutes without conceding, during which time they have scored 24 times. A ninth win without conceding - Town's current clean sheet run started with the 0-0 draw at Bristol Rovers - would equal an EFL record set by Stockport County in 2006/07. The longest run of clean sheets including 0-0 draws in the EFL is 11, held by Millwall (1925/26), York City (1973/74) and Reading (1978/79). Cheltenham currently sit in 16th in League One, seven points clear of the relegation zone. The Robins were beaten 2-0 at Lincoln on Saturday but prior to that had been on a solid unbeaten run of six games, including a 2-2 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday a fortnight ago. At home in League One this season, Cheltenham have won seven, drawn six and lost seven. They are unbeaten in five at Whaddon Road. Earlier in the season, they grabbed a 1-1 draw with the Blues at Portman Road and manager Kieran McKenna knows his side can taking nothing for granted at Whaddon Road, where they last won in the Southern League in April 1938. “They’re one of the teams that took points off us,” McKenna said, speaking after Saturday’s victory over the Chairboys. “Of course, Wycombe were as well and that’s a little motivation because both of those games were games in which we felt we played well in and deserved to get certainly more points than we did. “A difficult team in good form, have been playing well, we’ve seen a bit of them, we’ve Elkan [Baggott] there on loan as well, so we’ve seen some of his games. “I didn’t, but a lot of the staff watched the game against Sheffield Wednesday and spoke about how well they did, they were in good form, their striker [Alfie May] has just got Player of the Month, [forward] Aidan Keena’s come into the team, who [Town keeper-coach] Rene [Gilmartin] knows well from the Irish set-up and is doing very well as well. “They’ve had a good backline and organisation all season and I once had an FA Youth Cup game there and it’s a tight, small pitch with a hill. It’s not going to be easy. “We’ve spoken about that already. going to Bolton or going to Derby, everyone knows that they’re tough games, but the challenge with League One is that these are the games that people look at and think that for an Ipswich or Sheffield Wednesday or Derby, going to a smaller club like Cheltenham, it’ll be easy but it’s not. “There are good players there, there are good coaches there and it’ll be a big challenge.” McKenna and his players now know well that less fancied sides are well capable of making it a difficult afternoon for them and stealing vital points. “That’s probably the case at all levels of football,” he reflected. “But in League One, it’s certainly the case. “We’ve spoken lots about the variety of the challenges in the league and this is a completely different feel and type of game to playing maybe Bolton, but in a lot of ways it’s just as challenging. “How you perform in these type of games, how you find ways to give yourself the best chance to get a result, will be decisive at the end of the season, so we’ve got to go into it will full focus.” Town will be playing their third game in 10 days with another match, at home to Charlton, on Saturday. McKenna has played essentially the same side in over the last few weeks, although with Greg Leigh came in for Leif Davis and impressed at Derby. Might he make changes due to the level of involvement of some players in recent weeks? “We’ll look at it and assess it,” he said. “We’ve been consistent with the selection and I think the performances have dictated that, to be honest, the players have been performing very, very well. “That’s dictated a lot of the selections but at the same time we’ve got six more games in the month and I don’t think the same team is going to start in all six of those games. “I don’t think that would be the right thing for us to win the games and it wouldn’t be the right thing for us in order to keep important players fit and healthy right through to the end of the season, both of which we want to do. “We haven’t thought or planned for Cheltenham too much in terms of the loading, going into today it was all eyes on Wycombe. The players are in on Saturday and Sunday where we’ll recover and we’ll get ready and we’ll make judgements and assessment on how everyone looks. “Nathan Broadhead has had another heavy knock on the ankle that he twisted last week [at Derby] and it looks quite swollen, so we’ll have to assess that, we’ll have to assess other players who played the 90 today and we’ll try and pick the right team for Monday.” Christian Walton will continue in goal and McKenna may well stick with his same backline, although with Janoi Donacien perhaps coming in for Harry Clarke, as has been the case on previous occasions. Leif Davis and Wes Burns are likely to continue in the wide roles, while skipper Sam Morsy and Massimo Luongo are again probably the central midfielders, although it is possible the Australian international might be rested in which case Dominic Ball could make only his fourth league start for the Blues. Top scorer Conor Chaplin, who has now taken his tally for the campaign to 21, looks set to be one of the number 10s with Broadhead perhaps rested if there are any concerns regarding his ankle problem. Either Kyle Edwards or Marcus Harness would deputise if that’s the case. George Hirst, who has scored four in his last four matches, is likely to continue as the central striker.
Cheltenham could have midfielder Taylor Perry back having missed Saturday’s defeat at Lincoln due to illness. However, the game is expected to come too soon for full-back Ryan Jackson. Manager Wade Elliott knows his team are going to be in for a difficult afternoon given the Blues’ current form. Asked what’s behind the Blues’ excellent run, he told the GloucestershireLive: “A combination of a lot of different things. They obviously have good players, they've had time to build a squad that fits the way the coach wants to play. “They are well coached, so good players, well coached and a lot of momentum, it'll be at tough game.” The former Bournemouth and Burnley winger says he’s seen a fair number of Town matches. “I’ve watched a good amount of their games because the turnaround is so quick,” he said speaking after the defeat at Sincil Bank. “We do all our work a long time in advance.” Quizzed on whether he has any ideas of how to cause the Blues problems, he added: “We have thoughts, yes. But they haven't conceded for eight or nine games and they've won seven or eight on the bounce. “I am sure all the other teams have had thoughts about how they can hurt them, but we'll have to go out and give it our best shot in enacting it.” In November, in only the third EFL meeting between the teams, the other two last season, Cheltenham frustrated Town to claim a draw at Portman Road for the second successive season, the game ending 1-1. Luke Woolfenden gave the Blues the lead in the eighth minute but Ryan Broom levelled for the Robins on 34 with the visitors’ only shot on target and Town dominated the second half without finding a second goal. In February, McKenna’s 100 per cent home record with Town came to an end as the Blues were frustrated by Cheltenham, the game finishing 0-0. McKenna’s side dominated for most of the match and created enough chances to have claimed the three points. At Whaddon Road in August last year, Cheltenham came from a goal behind at half-time to beat Paul Cook's Town 2-1, their first ever victory over the Blues. Matt Penney’s brilliant first goal for the club gave Town the lead on nine and Macauley Bonne had a golden chance to make it 2-0 during a dominant spell following the goal. However, Cheltenham were the better side in the second half and goals from Callum Wright and Will Boyle sealed a first League One win of the season for the Robins. The clubs' only competitive fixtures prior to last season were in the Southern League in the Blues’ first two seasons as a professional club in which they achieved four wins out of four. In 1936/37 Town won 3-1 at Whaddon Road and 3-0 in Suffolk. The following year, the Blues were 3-1 victors at home and 2-1 winners away. Blues wing-back Burns had a stint on loan with the Gloucestershire club in the second half of 2014/15, scoring four goals in 14 matches. Centre-half Burgess made 17 starts for the Robins during a loan spell there during the second half of the following campaign. Fellow central defender Keogh was on loan at Whaddon Road from Stoke from March to May 2008, making 10 appearances. Young Blues centre-half Baggott joined Cheltenham on loan in January and has made one senior start. The Indonesian international is ineligible for Monday’s match. Former Town academy striker Charlie Brown joined Cheltenham in January last year from the MK Dons. Brown left the Blues to move to Chelsea’s youth set-up aged 16 in July 2016 having already broken into the U23s. Monday’s referee is Sebastian Stockbridge from Tyne and Wear, who has shown 83 yellow cards and four red in 29 matches this season. Stockbridge’s most recent previous Town match was the 4-1 FA Cup victory over Rotherham at Portman Road in January in which he awarded the Blues two penalties, converted by Chaplin and Burns, and booked Keogh and two Millers. He was also in charge of the 3-2 home defeat by Swindon Town in January 2021 in which he yellow-carded James Norwood, Flynn Downes and one of the visitors. Prior to that, he was in the middle for the 2-0 defeat at Accrington in October 2019 in which he red-carded Armando Dobra and Stanley defender Ross Sykes for an off the ball clash and booked Jon Nolan, Gwion Edwards, Toto Nsiala and two home players. He awarded a penalty against Nsiala which Colby Bishop netted and ruled out a Woolfenden effort which looked to have crossed well behind the line. Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Clarke, Donacien, Woolfenden, Keogh, Burgess, Burns, Jackson, Vincent-Young, Davis, Leigh, Morsy, Luongo, Ball, Humphreys, Camara, Chaplin, Broadhead, Harness, Edwards, Aluko, Ladapo, Hirst.
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