The Robins face the first of two fixtures against teams in League Two’s automatic promotion places with a visit to Mansfield Town on Saturday (kick-off: 3pm).
Michael Duff’s side make the trip to the One Call Stadium to take on the third place Stags, ahead of a home game against second place Bury on Tuesday night.
Under-18s can watch this weekend’s match for free, as Cheltenham head to Nottinghamshire looking to follow up two recent home wins in a row.
It’s New Year’s Day since the club last won away from home and Duff has called for a “resolute” performance from his side after they were close to earning a point at Grimsby on their travels last time out.
As part of the build up to World Book Day celebrations, young Robins fans making the trip can visit the Mansfield Football in the Community’s pop-up book shop to purchase some heavily discounted books. Find out more here.
Team news
Nigel Atangana and Alex Addai both miss the game through injury, while Johnny Mullins and Sean Long could feature as they continue to build up their minutes towards full fitness in reserve team games.
For Chris Clements and Rakish Bingham, Saturday’s match sees them return to their former club. Clements helped Mansfield gain promotion from the Conference into League Two 2013.
Watch Michael Duff’s pre-match press conference:
Opposition
Saturday’s opponents find themselves third in the table and locked in the automatic promotion places following their win over Forest Green last week. The Stags are chasing promotion to League One and have been up and around it at the top of the division all season.
Their manager David Flitcroft, previously the boss at Barnsley, Bury and Swindon, takes charge of a squad featuring a number of big names in the fourth tier. They will however be missing star striker Tyler Walker for this weekend’s clash. The on loan Nottingham Forest youngster has 19 goals to his name this term but was sent off right at the end of their game last week and will be suspended.
Nevertheless, they can turn to an attacking force that also includes Danny Rose, CJ Hamilton and January additions Jorge Grant and Nicky Ajose – so the Robins back line will need to deal with their threat.
Elsewhere in their squad the experience from the likes of Neal Bishop, Jacob Mellis and ex-Cardiff City man Ben Turner adds to the quality that has seen them play above League Two level.
At the One Call Stadium they’ve been a force to be reckoned with this season. They have the second best home form in the league, and have only lost twice at home since the start of the campaign.
Last meeting
It was early November when Mansfield visited the Jonny-Rocks Stadium earlier in the season, and the Stags fired in a 93rd minute leveller to earn a point from their visit to Gloucestershire.
Tyler Walker grabbed a double for David Flitcroft’s side to make sure they didn’t return home empty handed, and the Nottingham Forest loanee scored after only seven minutes to put them ahead.
Cheltenham responded well though. Within three minutes Ben Tozer struck to draw parity. Just before half time the Robins snatched the lead when Will Boyle took advantage of some weak goalkeeping from Bobby Olejnik to score at his near post.
The three points slipped away though in the dying embers of the game when in second half stoppage time Walker pounced to slam in from close range to secure a draw.
Watch back the highlights from that game earlier in the season:
Coverage
Catch all the pre-match build up, team news, match updates and live images throughout the game by following @CTFCofficial on Twitter. You can catch goal updates on the club’s Facebook page too, while after the game you’ll be able to read a match report and check out full reaction from the team.
Listen to commentary on the game live on iFollow and also on BBC Radio Gloucestershire.