Cheltenham Town FC

Gary Johnson on the start to the season:

I think it's important to get back-to-back wins for your confidence and for your points, it has helped us to get above 'credit' as far as our two points per game target.

We're on seven games, 15 points which normally is good enough to be right near the top but obviously Forest Green have done very well and they'll take some catching but we need to get some more wins on the trot and hope that they fall flat.

We're pleased to be unbeaten that's for sure, I think there are only three teams unbeaten so it helps our confidence as well.

It is all there for the bigger picture, the players can be confident in themselves, in what we're doing and trying to do. 

The club looks really strong, there's a lot of empathy at the moment between the players and the fans which is good and can only help us in the immediate future.

On targets looking forward:

We've said we've got to get promoted, I've said how we're going to get promoted. I've told the boys in no uncertain terms what they are going to need to do to get promoted.

You can't turn up in any league and get promoted because you are one of the bigger teams who just got relegated. If you get promoted out of this league you've really deserved it and to deserve it you need to do a lot of work.

On winning the hard way:

It doesn't matter what happens if you keep winning. If it takes a goal to get us going and then win, we'll let them have the first one each time because it's still three points.

The character has to be there though, I have said it takes a bit of adversity before we get going, which is what a goal against is.

When we get the first goal we normally settle down and normally come on strong like we did in the Southport game.

The three points are the most important, not how and when the goals are scored.

On Altrincham's perceived inconsistancy:

They showed what they could do against Tranmere, but it's a funny one because then Southport went and beat them quite heavily on Saturday. So we'll have to wait and see which one of their teams turns up, but we obviously have to make sure that our team turns up as well.

On Lee Vaughan:

He has looked strong in training, I think he's that type of experienced player that needs to play games. He hasn't had many seasons where he hasn't played in most of the games and I think this will be a difficult situation for him because it's difficult to get in games.

It's like the chicken and the egg because he's not going to be match fit unless he has matches. If someone misses most of pre-season and then the first seven or eight games of the season then it is always going to be difficult.

On other injury news:

It's only Eliot Richards now that isn't training, he's not quite ready to join in fully yet. The physio has only just started working with him today but it's looking good.

Jordan Wynter is another one that has had this long injury at the end of last year and he's got to get that fitness back, just like Lee Vaughan.

It's always difficult when you don't have reserve team football but we'll work them in training to try and get them sharp. Both of them have worked their socks off everyday.

On the fantastic Eliot Richards' news:

It's great, he's a bit of a superstar here. The new players who didn't know him before have taken time out to get to know him better. We didn't know him before but obviously we all have a lot of empathy for people who have been through what he's been through.

We're delighted for him, you can see the good news on his face. He's joined in a couple of times and you can see the quality in his finishing, even now.

It's just going to be the fitness and lung power that he needs to get back.

On giving the players rest:

We gave them a couple of days off after Monday. They deserved their break. We didn't let them fly off to the Bahamas or anything like that but we wanted them to be around and to relax. We'll do some sharpness work today and get them breathing heavy in preparation for Saturday.

On being the seeming favourites for Saturday's game:

I'm not going to leave anything to chance, we'll respect them. We're not going to turn up and fill our boots. We have to be on our game otherwise any team can beat you.

One day maybe our boys won't be on their game and will get a bloody nose from the opposition, who ever they are.

We have to demoralise teams, like we did at Torquay with 10 men, to do that means you've had to put in a lot of effort.

Players are normally at this level because of consistency, they can all play. The more consistent teams will be at the top of the league and the less consistent teams will struggle.