From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tom Bradshaw in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cheltenham Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Cameron Norman falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
0‑1 against Cardiff City, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Joe Sbarra pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Lamin Sillah in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cheltenham Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Leon Bätge
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Joe Sbarra
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lamin Sillah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Fábio Tavares’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cheltenham Town.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ben Stevenson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Fábio Tavares was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ben Stevenson
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market14 Sep 2026
He is 14, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market14 Sep 2026
He is 14, and nobody at Cheltenham Town signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tom Bradshaw was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match5 Sep 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match5 Sep 2026
Notts County left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Shamal George
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Chinonso Chibueze and Cheltenham Town agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tom Bradshaw in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cheltenham Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ben Stevenson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Bade Aluko
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Cheltenham Town
20 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.45 on the card, and the Cheltenham Town support went home talking about one name.
Market31 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Cheltenham Town signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Chinonso Chibueze and Cheltenham Town agree another 4 years.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Shrewsbury Town will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mario Pokar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
40 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Tom Bradshaw yet — 8.20
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tom Bradshaw in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cheltenham Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tom Bradshaw. 1‑0 against Accrington Stanley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Luke Young falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Theo Vassell gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Shamal George has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Cheltenham Town know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cheltenham Town, another week without a signature from Cameron Norman.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Harry Forster would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Harry Forster is living that version at Cheltenham Town, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tom Bradshaw and Cheltenham Town agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
The shirt still fits. Jordan Thomas is back at Cheltenham Town, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tom Bradshaw in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cheltenham Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Luke Young falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cheltenham Town, another week without a signature from Shamal George.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ben Stevenson commits to Cheltenham Town for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Cheltenham Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luke Young is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cheltenham Town, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
Market3 Aug 2026
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Robbie Cundy leaves Cheltenham Town the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.