Despite seeing his side lose on penalty kicks, first team coach Wade Elliott was happy to see the individual progress players were able to make in Tuesday's Papa John's Trophy group stage fixture with Exeter City.
The visit of the League Two side to Gloucestershire ahead of the international break came at the right time for the squad, as a number of returning players were handed important minutes in an entertaining evening of football.
After 90 minutes and both sides locked at a 2-2 draw, Exeter came out on top in the shootout to decide the game, in what was both club's second outing in the competition this season.
"There's a two week break now so we spoke individually different players are going to need different things from these two weeks," Elliott said having led proceedings from the dugout on the night.
"So there are a lot of people who have had a lot of games who have had their training program tweaked a little bit, and then there's a few who needed 90 minutes.
"Every one of the XI who have started tonight have had slightly different challenges. Lewis Freestone has played in the middle of a back four, that's Bondsy's (Elliot Bonds) second 90 minutes in 11 months, Dan Crowley's first since towards the end of last season, the same as Vass (Kyle Vassell) and Christian Norton's first 90 minutes.
"Individually we've got what we wanted out of it for different people.
"It's very difficult to put a team together with not much preparation and people have not had a lot of football. We were never expecting it to be tiki-taka and free flowing, but what we can always expect is to do the basics really well and do the things that any success that the football club has had in the past couple of years which has been based on: hard work, second balls, all those sort of gritty things."
Watch the full press conference with Elliott above on iFollow and on the EFL iFollow app on your smartphone.
There is no match on Saturday due to the international break, but Cheltenham return to action on Saturday 16 October with a home fixture against Accrington Stanley.
You can buy tickets in advance for that fixture online and from the ticket office. All under-18s can enjoy entry for just £1 if you buy before matchday.