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| Cheltenham Town FC est. 1887 |
History has been really nice to Cheltenham in the past 25 years.
They became a football league club in 1999 by beating clubs like Hayes, Kettering and Kidderminster to become champions of of the Football Conference.
Three years later, they reached the third tier after beating Rushden & Diamonds (The Icarus of English football). But their manager, Steve Cotterill, left the club before their first season in that league and suffered relegation.
Three years later, Cheltenham made it back to the third division, now League One. The Robins achieved their highest finish ever in 2007 by reaching 17th place with 54 points and 15 wins.
2009 sees the club relegated and nearly relegated back to the doldrums in 2010. They nearly returned in 2012 & 2013, but losing to teams like Crewe Alexandra and Northampton Town cost the club and the doom was sealed with the town relegated to the Vanarama Conference in 2015.
One year later, Cheltenham bounced back as champions with 101 points! Luckily, they narrowly survived relegation by relegating Hartlepool United in their last game at home that season.
After 2 mediocre years, a new manager arrived. The Duff-man himself, Michael Duff! He came around in 2018 and kept the Robins up, but it was 2020 when he was aiming to take Cheltenham higher and higher, aiming for League One football.
But then, Coronavirus came and halted the season. Town made it into the playoffs. Yippee! They lost to Northampton in the semis. Boo!
2020/21. Lessons learnt, the boys from Gloucestershire go again. Duff's eleven started winning more games and were up high competing for promotion. But then comes the FA Cup. Manchester City, the oil money Oasis club have arrived and they want to win it. Cheltenham lead, but leak at the end conceding three goals to Guardiola and his lads.
That was fun, wasn't it? Well, it get's better. April 2021. Cheltenham are finally promoted to League One! Pandemonium throughout the town as the Robins reach dreamland. May 2021, they thrash new boys Harrogate Town to become champions of League Two. Astonishing scenes.
Cambridge, Bolton and Morecambe join in for fun.
But who's to blame for this surge in success? Andy Wilcox took over as chairman in 2018 and appointed Duff as manager, who signed Alfie May as the leading goal scorer. Not bad for a spa town that's bigger than Bath and is known for the horse races.
And now here we are. League One. Two more promotions, then Premier League. Imagine that?
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As this graph shows, Cheltenham are doing good so far. After 39 games, with seven left, Cheltenham are set to reach their highest league finish of all time.
They have beaten big clubs like Ipswich, Sunderland, Oxford United, Charlton Athletic and many more. Alfie May has scored 19 goals this season and looks close to win the golden boot.
But who knows where Cheltenham Town will go next. Will they keep on rising? Will they make it to the Premier League? Could they convince Lionel Messi to play for them? We shall wait and see...
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