Manager Gary Johnson has warned his Robins against complacency when they face Port Vale in Sky Bet League Two – insisting Cheltenham will give the Valiants plenty of respect in Saturday’s league encounter (kick-off 3pm).
Cheltenham have climbed to 12th place in the table after a five game unbeaten run that saw them defeat Swindon Town 2-1 in dramatic fashion last time out at the LCI Rail Stadium.
Port Vale have recently appointed former player and terrace favourite Neil Aspin as manager as they look to climb away from the bottom two.
And Johnson knows his team must maintain their recent form if they are to take anything from Vale Park.
“Over the years I have come up against clubs with new managers – but it’s normally the first game you are very wary of,” he said.
“We are the second game for him, and Neil has had a chance to look at his squad now.
“They had a reserve game in midweek and he has seen all his pros. As the games go on you start seeing the new manager’s philosophy
“Port Vale are a good team,” he added. “They have still got players that they had a league higher. I know they got relegated, but they have retained a lot of players.
“They have some big names that have had big careers. We mustn’t go there thinking just because they are bottom of the table we will get a result.
“I will make sure our lads don’t think that. I don’t want them to think it is just a matter of turning up. We have to respect them.”
Cheltenham have taken 13 points out of a possible 15 in recent games, but Johnson has warned that with a little of a quarter of the season gone there is still plenty of football to be played.
“We’ve had a good run of form and got ourselves in with a shout of the play off positions,” he said. “You need to be challenging up there to go into the next part of the season with confidence.
“However, the teams at the bottom will all pick up points, even the ones that get relegated, so we’ve got to be careful that we don’t think we have just got to turn up – we haven’t!
“We have got to work as hard as we are working, show the ability we have and score the goals that we have been while not making mistakes at the back.”