The Robins Nest Forum

Team news, live updates and reaction all here this afternoon:

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/s ... m-10582053

A must not lose.

Not to be insensitive but Jesus, longest pre-match tribute ever...

We must be doing well, nobody has posted once in the first half.

Great 25 yard volley from Young, and good pressing from Archer to force the error. Archer still needs to do something quicker when reaching the edge of the area though. So often he gets there, takes too many touches, finds two players in front of him, and ends up doing nothing with it.

Excellent first half. Comfortably the best of the season so far.

Got to find a way to sign Hutchinson at least to the end of the season, hopefully longer.

The refs s#!t, for a change.

Belter. Two volleys from outside the box for Young. It's his day, alright.

Edit: second from a stride inside the box. Oh well

I am presuming we won't be caving in on this one?

Brilliant stuff.

Professional performance all round. The transformation in a couple of weeks is amazing. Only one man could have done this!

Fantastic performance. Newport are completely dreadful though and it's hard to see them sticking with David Hughes for much longer.

Massive shout outs to Wilson, AJB, Thomas, Young, Hutchinson and Archer who were all outstanding. The others all played their part as well. Bickerstaff may not look like scoring, but his workrate is phenomenal.

Ooh aaah, Stevie Cotterill

Si Robin wrote: ↑18 Oct 2025, 16:19 Fantastic performance. Newport are completely dreadful though and it's hard to see them sticking with David Hughes for much longer.

Massive shout outs to Wilson, AJB, Thomas, Young, Hutchinson and Archer who were all outstanding. The others all played their part as well. Bickerstaff may not look like scoring, but his workrate is phenomenal.

We could maybe sign Mo Farah as back up then.

Stiffer tests will lie ahead, but clean sheets and several goal scoring midfielders give us a decent base.
The ref let a lot go today but the game was more enjoyable for it IMHO.

Genuinely impressed with the King’s second coming so far. I thought things would get better but not this quickly. And massive kudos to the team for stepping up as well, exemplified by today’s performance.

paperboy wrote: ↑18 Oct 2025, 16:48

Si Robin wrote: ↑18 Oct 2025, 16:19 Fantastic performance. Newport are completely dreadful though and it's hard to see them sticking with David Hughes for much longer.

Massive shout outs to Wilson, AJB, Thomas, Young, Hutchinson and Archer who were all outstanding. The others all played their part as well. Bickerstaff may not look like scoring, but his workrate is phenomenal.

We could maybe sign Mo Farah as back up then.

Stiffer tests will lie ahead, but clean sheets and several goal scoring midfielders give us a decent base.
The ref let a lot go today but the game was more enjoyable for it IMHO.

I'd like to see Mo Farah running his laps whilst being pushed and pulled all over the track.

Si Robin wrote: ↑18 Oct 2025, 17:12

paperboy wrote: ↑18 Oct 2025, 16:48

Si Robin wrote: ↑18 Oct 2025, 16:19 Fantastic performance. Newport are completely dreadful though and it's hard to see them sticking with David Hughes for much longer.

Massive shout outs to Wilson, AJB, Thomas, Young, Hutchinson and Archer who were all outstanding. The others all played their part as well. Bickerstaff may not look like scoring, but his workrate is phenomenal.

We could maybe sign Mo Farah as back up then.

Stiffer tests will lie ahead, but clean sheets and several goal scoring midfielders give us a decent base.
The ref let a lot go today but the game was more enjoyable for it IMHO.

I'd like to see Mo Farah running his laps whilst being pushed and pulled all over the track.

What? we have to sign Zola Budd as well????

The kids might need to Google that one...

Great result and we have definitely improved a lot but let's keep grounded too, we have the league leaders at home next weekend and could easily fall back into the bottom two. The bookies have us second in the relegation odds for a reason.

Hopefully we can pick up ten or so points before the window and improve in the second half of the season.

Still have the worst goals for and against columns, but absolutely bloody certain there will be a few worse teams than ours over the rest of the season, bar another round of terrible injuries to key players. Cotts has had a bit of luck that Flynn didn't in that he's been able to name AJB, Sherring ,and Wilson, or any defensive trio, for three straight games.

Even if we are back in the bottom 2 this time next week, results against the top 6 probably won't decide if we stay up or not...but they could help us reach mid-table quickly.

I would say Newport look doomed and nailed in for relegation but I was thinking that about us a few weeks ago, so it can all change very quickly.

I don’t know loads about their manager but doesn’t appear to have much lower league experience in the trenches of a relegation battle. How long is he going to be there for now.

The two trips to Rodney Parade in 2025 will surely go down in CTFC legend. Great for the young lads to have two absolutely brilliant days out. These kind of away trips live long in the memory and solidify loyalty.

Just a shame we may not be able to go there next season.

Staying up will depend on winning home games against the bottom third in the division, and we have seven home games against teams currently in the bottom third to come (i've also thrown Barrow in that number). Pick up a few draws or nick a win or two against teams in in the top two-thirds of the table, plus a few decent away performances like we've seen today, then we will be OK. I'm thinking 12 wins, 12 draws should be the minimum.

What a differance a few weeks make.
Tweaks here changes there.
We just look organised.
But most of all we play with structure and purpose.

These wins will breed confidence. Im sure the team will now be looking forward to playing the best teams in L1 and L2 in the next few weeks.

Well done CTFC (top to bottom)

RobinHood wrote: ↑18 Oct 2025, 21:14 I would say Newport look doomed and nailed in for relegation but I was thinking that about us a few weeks ago, so it can all change very quickly.

I don’t know loads about their manager but doesn’t appear to have much lower league experience in the trenches of a relegation battle. How long is he going to be there for now.

Newport are everything you don't want in a relegation battle. 1. They have one of the lowest wage budgets in the division and are unlikely to be able to change much in January. 2 They have an inexperienced manager who has come out of the youth set-up higher up, preaching nice technical football rather than the ability to shut up shop, play the dark arts and scrap points. 3 They have a young side with no real experience, this can be great for energy when things are going well but when confidence reaches rock bottom it's hard to turn that around. 4. They have very little goal threat.

You can see why the bookies have them odds on for the drop and they've always been shorter odds than ourselves despite our awful start. So it's probably about not being the one side who goes down with them this season.

They’re also the type of team (thinking Aldershot, Dagenham, Sutton etc) that would find it very difficult to come back to the FL after relegation. Relatively low crowds, old facilities and presumably not much going on in terms of off-field revenue.

RobinHood wrote: ↑19 Oct 2025, 12:53 They’re also the type of team (thinking Aldershot, Dagenham, Sutton etc) that would find it very difficult to come back to the FL after relegation. Relatively low crowds, old facilities and presumably not much going on in terms of off-field revenue.

That's sounds awfully familiar

I was going to say the same, very similar club to us pre-takeover. Huw Jenkins seems to have a plan down there to sell young players to generate funds but they don't own the ground or training ground to my knowledge and have no other revenue streams. Crowds are similar to ours.

Robin wrote: ↑20 Oct 2025, 07:19 I was going to say the same, very similar club to us pre-takeover. Huw Jenkins seems to have a plan down there to sell young players to generate funds but they don't own the ground or training ground to my knowledge and have no other revenue streams. Crowds are similar to ours.

On hols, so great to read about improved performance, organisation etc. All I have seen are the highlights, if I was judging from just that, given the opposition, I wouldn't be getting ahead of myself, as it looked like it could easily ended up a draw. That could be highlights for you (?)

Ihearye wrote: ↑20 Oct 2025, 07:43

Robin wrote: ↑20 Oct 2025, 07:19 I was going to say the same, very similar club to us pre-takeover. Huw Jenkins seems to have a plan down there to sell young players to generate funds but they don't own the ground or training ground to my knowledge and have no other revenue streams. Crowds are similar to ours.

On hols, so great to read about improved performance, organisation etc. All I have seen are the highlights, if I was judging from just that, given the opposition, I wouldn't be getting ahead of myself, as it looked like it could easily ended up a draw. That could be highlights for you (?)

Hmm i'm thinking along the same lines. A great day out, but the goals came from a goal keeping calamity and a poor defensive clearance. The positive is we took those chances when they came. There will be much tougher challenges so i'm approaching with a cautious optimism! We still need a striker.

Herbie53 wrote: ↑20 Oct 2025, 10:19

Ihearye wrote: ↑20 Oct 2025, 07:43

Robin wrote: ↑20 Oct 2025, 07:19 I was going to say the same, very similar club to us pre-takeover. Huw Jenkins seems to have a plan down there to sell young players to generate funds but they don't own the ground or training ground to my knowledge and have no other revenue streams. Crowds are similar to ours.

On hols, so great to read about improved performance, organisation etc. All I have seen are the highlights, if I was judging from just that, given the opposition, I wouldn't be getting ahead of myself, as it looked like it could easily ended up a draw. That could be highlights for you (?)

Hmm i'm thinking along the same lines. A great day out, but the goals came from a goal keeping calamity and a poor defensive clearance. The positive is we took those chances when they came. There will be much tougher challenges so i'm approaching with a cautious optimism! We still need a striker.

Get the sentiment but feels a bit of a disservice to the pressure Archer put on backed up by the other forward players to force their GK to making a bad clearance. Similarly with the poor defensive clearance, if the defence is put under enough pressure for enough time it'll happen at some point.

Wonder if we could look to foreign shores for a striker e.g Jatta for Notts County came from Danish leagues before joining.

Notts County paid a six figure fee for Jatta and it would need to be done in the window. I'm not sure how the rules are post Brexit but also bringing in players from outside of UK there may also be visa implications.

Ihearye wrote: ↑20 Oct 2025, 07:43

Robin wrote: ↑20 Oct 2025, 07:19 I was going to say the same, very similar club to us pre-takeover. Huw Jenkins seems to have a plan down there to sell young players to generate funds but they don't own the ground or training ground to my knowledge and have no other revenue streams. Crowds are similar to ours.

On hols, so great to read about improved performance, organisation etc. All I have seen are the highlights, if I was judging from just that, given the opposition, I wouldn't be getting ahead of myself, as it looked like it could easily ended up a draw. That could be highlights for you (?)

I don't agree with that. Other than the very start we controlled and managed the game, our midfield bossed it and we could have scored another when Hutchinson was clean through but Newport didn't threaten at all apart from the one ricochet which hit the post.

Agree. It's nice to win a game from two great strikes (but let's call them defensive errors ) but we had other chances. Archer through one on one, the keeper making a smart stop from Hutchinson, being the best of them. On another day we could have won 4-0, but let's look at it negatively and say it could have been a 0-0 draw

Every game could be a 0-0 draw if chances aren't taken. Every defence makes an error for every goal, if you look at it from that perspective.

Newport created little.

We were largely in control the entire game.

You could say the goals derived from defensive errors but then most goals do, The key is to generate enough pressure to force those errors. We did that.