Cheltenham bows to the mighty Robins
The town has been stirred by the League debut of Steve Cotterill's side
Frank Keating
Sat 7 Aug 1999 16.52 EDT
We can' t read and we can't write,
but that don't really matter;
we all come from Cheltenhamshire,
an' we can drive a tractor
Classy and cool Cheltenham Spa has always been hot stuff at festivals. The town stages an annual music jamboree as well as a world-famed lit-fest; the high-summer marquee-ringed cricket festival is the game's oldest such survivor and, of course, horseracing's National Hunt festival has for more than a century and a half been the glorious harbinger of England's spring.
Today Cheltenham plays host to a brand new fiesta - and an unlikely one, somehow, for a place that fancies itself as a haughtily regal watering hole. For Cheltenham Town have made the Football League and will kick-off in the Third Division at home against Rochdale this afternoon.
Cheltenham College found-ed a rugby club in 1844, Dr Grace logged his first triple century at Cheltenham in 1876 - and since 1892 the town's unconsidered red "Robins" have been bob-bobbing along with their round ball in almost total obscurity.
Only once in those 107 years have the Town won against a League club - in 1934 when they beat Second Division Carlisle United in the third round of the FA Cup. Even then they had to borrow the town's rugby ground to accommodate the 10,000 supporters, as they did again for the fourth round when First Division Blackpool beat them 3-1.
The following year Cheltenham began their 50-year stay in the Southern League. They won that championship in 1985 when a young forward scored five goals in 14 games. His name was Steve Cotterill. He is now the manager and, when he took Cheltenham to victory in the FA Trophy last year, he became, at 33, the youngest manager of a Wembley cup-winning side, beating Gianluca Vialli by 11 days.
Cotterill went on to play for Wimbledon and Bournemouth before returning to manage Cheltenham in 1997. He has forced the town to sit up and notice - as well as winning the FA Trophy, Cheltenham were runners-up in the 1997-98 Conference and took then First Division Reading to an FA Cup third-round replay.
In April this year they secured the title and promotion when they beat Yeovil Town 3-2, the winner coming in the sixth minute of injury-time. Like Manchester United in Barcelona, you say. "More deserved than that," Cotterill retorts with a laugh, "because we'd outplayed them from start to finish."
Cotterill has been answering the club phone all week, and you quite expect him to be selling the programmes on Saturday. "The whole town's on fire and it's been all go this week. The first time we'll all be able to relax is when we kick off against Rochdale." They expect in excess of 5,000 to pack the dinky Whaddon Road ground.
With their elevation the conscious decision was made to have a full-time playing staff, which has meant eight of last season's part-timers leaving, unwilling to give up their day jobs. Cotterill has a squad of 17, with the proven goalscorer Hugh McAuley coming from Leek to partner in attack a Cheltenham folk hero, the Yorkshireman Neil Grayson.
Another devoted Townite is Ed Gillespie, the managing director of Cheltenham Racecourse. "The town's suddenly turned on to the soccer, so has the county," he says. Gillespie was at Lord's last Sunday when Gloucestershire's cricketers won the Super Cup.
"In the middle of the Mound Stand suddenly two complete strangers began reciting and chanting the names of Cheltenham Town footballers just as if they were household names like Bobby Charlton or Denis Law. A whole chorus took it up. It was terrific . . ."
Local romantics consider Cheltenham's team of 30 years ago the town's finest, when Bristol City's Bobby Etheridge came up to manage. Greybeards still go rheumy-eyed at the mention of whizzing goals from the No9 Gerald Horlick, and the "first English sweeper", a No5 called Graham Greene.
"It might be old age talking, because I was closer to the players then, but I fancy Etheridge's blend might just have shaded Cotterill's," says Derek Goddard, who has been covering Cheltenham for the local Echo for nearly 40 years.
Goddard will be holding back a tear or two on his press bench on Saturday: "League football always seemed so far off, just a dim and distant dream. Most years have simply been a constant battle for survival, if not on the pitch then certainly off it."
Omens are good, however. Clubs that have come up from the Conference - Scarborough, Lincoln, Maidstone, Darlington, Barnet, Colchester, Wycombe, Macclesfield and Halifax - have all finished their first League season in the top half, and three of them won promotion at the first attempt.
Says Gillespie: "It will be fascinating to see how they go. I sense one danger, and it would be tragic if the club lost all its local character, and characters, in the name of progress." We shall see what we shall see.
Carry on up the league
Town's first ever league game, a 2-1 win over Torquay, set the tone for a season of success. Sammy McIlroy's side finished second to gain automatic promotion at the first attempt.
Wycombe Wanderers 1993-94
After Steve Guppy became the first ever Wanderer to score a league goal, Martin O'Neill's side held an automatic promotion spot until the last week of April; a 4-2 play-off final win over Preston at Wembley finally put them up.
Having guided Darlington out of the Conference in 1990, Brian Little led them to the Fourth Division title a year later, losing only twice in their last 23 games.