Mark Yates believes there should be optimism ahead of the season opener away at Bury.
Cheltenham Town manager Mark Yates speak to the local media ahead of the season opener at Bury:"It has to be a new era. Everyone should have optimism and have belief in what we're trying to do. We are two days away but we have put a lot of work in and we have changed one or two things but it has been a tough pre-season. There have been games we have done well in and there has been some where we haven't done so well. The real stuff starts now and all the work we have put in must start to come to fruition. We're not expecting it to be all singing and all dancing on Saturday but we expect certain things to happen that we have been working on in pre-season. Of course we are all looking forward to it.
"It was tough in our first season but we kept the club up and it was tough the following season because we had re-build completely but then we had a couple of good ones. Last year was disappointing for what the expectations had become. I don't know what people's expectations are this year but mine are a damn sight better than last year in terms of what we achieved. I think we are more than capable but we are a couple of players lighter than what we would have wanted to be. More and more players will become available after Saturday but we are still hopeful of bringing maybe one in before Saturday. The team will be pretty much picked so whether that player, if we get him, goes straight in we'll have to think about it. We have some good young players here and experience so it's a good mix and we should be full of optimism.
"It's going to be a tough league. Bury are the favourites apparently, Portsmouth will be up there for me and Northampton, Stevenage and Shrewsbury will be strong. There are lots of strong sides and I have every belief we can do ourselves justice and do ourselves proud.
"We have some good players here and we are trying to give them a few different ways of playing. On the whole pre-season has been pretty productive. There is still plenty to work on but the work ethic is certainly here.
"The aim is to have three players in by the end of the month. Two of those might be loans. Harry Reynolds will be on the bench this weekend to back up Trevor (Carson). I want a midfield player and a striker too so at the minute the one we want to bring in before Saturday would be one of them. I know who I am after but getting them out of clubs at the minute is proving difficult. I am more than happy going into the first few weeks of the season with what I have got. We have competition for places so unfortunately on Saturday I will make ten or eleven people disappointed because they have all worked hard believing they have a chance of playing so we will upset a few but it is not about one game. It is about 46 games and using the squad to the best we possibly can.
"Both Asa (Hall) and Matt (Taylor) should be fine. They have both trained this week and we have a good week on the training ground. We are hoping that the Kidderminster game was just the little kick we needed to make sure we were on our toes. It'll be a tough game because Bury a decent side and they have some good attacking options. They are the favourites for the league but we must put on a good showing and try to put a spanner in the works."
Mark's extended press call can be viewed on Robins Player later today.
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