{"id":476650,"date":"2025-10-05T20:52:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/476650\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T20:52:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:52:29","slug":"preview-cheltenham-town-vs-bristol-rovers-prediction-team-news-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/476650\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Cheltenham Town vs Bristol Rovers &#8211; prediction, team news, lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sports Mole previews Tuesday&#8217;s EFL Trophy clash between Cheltenham Town and Bristol Rovers, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.<\/p>\n<p>Fresh from securing just their second league win of the season, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/cheltenham-town\/\" title=\"More Cheltenham Town\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Cheltenham Town<\/strong><\/a> will be hoping to gain some momentum, when they host <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/bristol-rovers\/\" title=\"More Bristol Rovers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Bristol Rovers<\/strong><\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/efl-trophy\/\" title=\"More EFL Trophy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">EFL Trophy<\/strong><\/a> on Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/steve-cotterill\/\" title=\"More Steve Cotterill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Steve Cotterill<\/strong><\/a> celebrated a triumphant return to Cheltenham Town when his side beat Fleetwood Town 2-0, while Bristol Rovers were beaten 2-1 by Walsall last time out.<\/p>\n<p>Match preview<\/p>\n<p>Following the dismissal of former manager Michael Flynn, Cheltenham Town rehired Cotterill, who guided the Robins to three promotions between 1997 and 2002.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After three straight losses, Cheltenham&#8217;s second win, and second clean sheet of the league campaign, saw the team move out of the League Two drop zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Two goals in the space of three minutes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/isaac-hutchinson\/\" title=\"More Isaac Hutchinson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Isaac Hutchinson<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/josh-martin\/\" title=\"More Josh Martin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Josh Martin<\/strong><\/a> made sure Cotterill got off to a winning start.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Just two points clear of last-placed Newport County and suffering a 2-0 loss to Plymouth Argyle in their EFL Trophy opener, they will be hoping that a first tournament win of the season can mark the start of a run that will help them climb the League Two table.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As for Bristol Rovers, they have also enjoyed the return of a former manager in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/darrell-clarke\/\" title=\"More Darrell Clarke\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Darrell Clarke<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Replacing Inigo Calderon after their relegation to League Two, Clarke returned to the Memorial Stadium after seven years away.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although the return to Rovers did not start brilliantly, needing six games to find their first win, they have since gone on a run that has seen the Bristol-based club pick up five wins in their last seven.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Cheltenham Town, Bristol Rovers were able to get off to a winning start in the EFL Trophy, beating Tottenham Hotspur&#8217;s Under-21s on penalties.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Gas are unbeaten in their last six games against Cheltenham Town and will look to extend their impressive head-to-head record on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bM8\">Cheltenham Town EFL Trophy form:<\/p>\n<p class=\"bM8\">L<\/p>\n<p class=\"bM8\">Cheltenham Town form (all competitions):<\/p>\n<p class=\"bM8\">LWLLLW<\/p>\n<p class=\"bM8\">Bristol Rovers EFL Trophy form:<\/p>\n<p><strong>W<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"bM8\">Bristol Rovers form (all competitions):<\/p>\n<p><strong>WLWDWL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Team News<\/p>\n<p class=\"imgI\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Barnsley manager Darrell Clarke pictured on August 20, 2024\" class=\"vanilla-lazyload article-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/sportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net\/24\/36\/darrell-clarke.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cheltenham Town will be without skipper Scot Bennett, who was sent off against Plymouth in their EFL Trophy opener.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although under a different manager, Cheltenham Town opted to rest first-choice keeper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/joe-day\/\" title=\"More Joe Day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Joe Day<\/strong><\/a> in their only other EFL Trophy game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Should Cotterill want to do the same, expect Mamadou Diallo to return to the team and start in goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Already changing the formation from what Michael Flynn and interim manager Aaron Downes decided to play, Cotterill will likely stick with the 4-3-3 lineup that has served him well so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For Bristol Rovers, Ryan Howley is still likely to miss the trip to Cheltenham, due to an injury that has sidelined him since August.<\/p>\n<p>Striker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/shaq-forde\/\" title=\"More Shaq Forde\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"autotag\">Shaq Forde<\/strong><\/a> picked up a hamstring injury in pre-season and has yet to feature once all term, and although he has returned to training, it is unlikely he plays on Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cheltenham Town possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Diallo; Jude-Boyd, Sherring, Barber, Harmon; Young, Backwell, Hutchinson; Martin, Bickerstaff, Archer<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bristol Rovers possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Young; Senior, Moore, Mola, Biongo; Chang, Cotterill, McEachran, Thomas; Harrison, Dewsbury<\/p>\n<p class=\"sm_center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"SM words green background\" class=\"l\" height=\"53\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/sportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net\/20\/33\/sm-words-green-background.png\" title=\"SM words green background\" width=\"210\"\/><\/p>\n<p>We say: Cheltenham Town 1-1 Bristol Rovers<br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With both sides thriving under new management, it will be intriguing to see how seriously Cheltenham approach the EFL Trophy, with League Two survival remaining the priority.<\/p>\n<p>Bristol Rovers, meanwhile, will be looking to continue their impressive run of form. We expect a tightly-contested cup tie, with the game likely heading to penalties after a draw.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/efl-trophy\/cheltenham-town-vs-bristol-rovers_game_230723.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ID:583013:1false2false3false: from db desktop :LenBod:collect6085:No Data Analysis infoPreviews by email<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/preview\/subscribe.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> to get <strong>Sports Mole<\/strong>&#8216;s daily email of previews and predictions for every major game!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sports Mole previews Tuesday&#8217;s EFL Trophy clash between Cheltenham Town and Bristol Rovers, including predictions, team news and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,37128,748,154254,158445,158444,393,94,68300,4884,65959,68302,68301,66888,68303,11385,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-476650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-rovers","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-cheltenham-town","12":"tag-cheltenham-town-bristol-rovers","13":"tag-cheltenham-town-vs-bristol-rovers","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-football-previews","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-lineups","19":"tag-possible-lineups","20":"tag-predicted-scorelines","21":"tag-prediction","22":"tag-sports-mole","23":"tag-team-news","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115323544885440001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}