Cheltenham Town v Crewe Alex 25-26 Preview - Good Against the Town

This means absolutely nothing, but I found it interesting all the same. The Alex are 8-1-2 against teams that have town in their name this season. Their 2 defeats were against Swindon and Fleetwood, both at home. That funnily enough sent me down the rabbit hole.

Going back to 22-23, their away record against teams who were called 'Town' is 13-7-5, including a 4-0-0 record this season, as they've beaten Fleetwood, Harrogate, Crawley and Swindon. Their last defeat on the road against a 'Town' side was, ironically, Cheltenham last season. Again, all this means little, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Anyway, here is my preview of their midweek visit to Whaddon Road:

Long Journeys Done

This game is significant for 2 reasons. Number 1, this should be their final Tuesday game. And 2, it's one of their last sizeable trips ticked off. Once this one is in the bag and finished, they will have just one game that clocks in at over 150 miles there and back in Grimsby. The other 3 are Shrewsbury(74 miles), Accrington(125 miles) and Chesterfield(109 miles). None of those 4 require them to head that far south either. They've clocked some serious miles since Christmas and that daunting run is coming to an end, thank goodness.

Isaac Clutchinson

I don't usually highlight individual players, but I feel in this case its warranted. It's fair to say Cheltenham wouldn't be 10 points clear of safety without loanee Isaac Hutchinson. It's bizarre how he's even ended up at Cheltenham in the first place. We saw him flourish with Walsall 2 seasons ago in L2 and that earned him a move to L1 with Bristol Rovers. Things didn't go so well for him and them and it led to public social media spats between him, his family and the Gas fanbase. Hence his loan move.

He's certainly made the most of this move, becoming the key figure in the Robins attack, with 11 goals and 3 assists to his name so far this season. The Alex on their visit to Whaddon Road last season were undone by a loan midfielder, Joel Colwill, who scored twice to give the Robins the win. The Alex will need to ensure the same doesn't happen with Hutchinson this time around.

Unbeaten, but still not great

Cheltenham are enjoying a 7 game unbeaten run, their longest of the season(and incidentally, longer than any run the Alex have put together). However, whilst that looks impressive, it is masking some fairly big caveats. One, they have only played 2 top 7 sides in that run. And 2, it doesn't hide the fact that statistically, they are still a pretty poor side.

They are 22nd in the xG Table, 24th for xG created, 22nd in xG difference, 23rd in shots on target per game, 23rd in big chances and 24th for touches in the opposition box. They have conceded the 3rd most goals in the league, have given up the 2nd most shots against and the most shots on target against. There is no metric that suggests they are anything other than a poor side, even in the light of their unbeaten run. Their last home outing was narrowly scraping a draw against Barrow and conceding 2, which is some doing when Barrow struggle to score against most teams.

Struggles

But, all the above being said, the Alex aren't in a good place right now are they? 2 defeats, 1 scored and 5 conceded, it doesn't make for particularly good reading. They need a bounce back result in the worst possible way, especially with the narratives about how they collapse in the back parts of seasons coming around once again. Is this, once again, where Bell and his downtrodden group shine?

In a long Tuesday night away game where few will honestly expect them to go and get a win? It has been in the past. It will need to be again.

3 points

And that in itself speaks to a larger point. At the end of the day, the Alex really need to be getting 3 points here. In addition to the stats mentioned above, the Robins are 2-0-7 at home against sides in the top half and those 2 wins were against Walsall, where they got battered for 90 minutes but hit the Saddlers with a late sucker punch freak own goal to win 1-0, and Salford, who were down to 10 men for 42 minutes. Chesterfield, Bromley, Barnet, Notts County, Swindon, Grimsby and MK have all come away with a win from Whaddon Road. If the Alex want to make the top 7 or even stay in touch with the top 7, they need to do the same.

Ref Watch

Steven Copeland

Copeland has bizarrely only done 2 Crewe games and has sent off an Alex player in both. The first was Ryan Cooney in the EFL Cup defeat in 23-24 and the 2nd was Chris Long against Notts County last season. I hope he doesn't make it 3 for 3 here.

2025-26 Record: 17 games(7 League Two, 7 National League, 1 FA Cup, 2 EFL Trophy), 61 yellows, 2 reds

Last Game: Newport County 1-2 Colchester United, EFL League Two, Saturday 7th March 2026

Crewe Alex Record: 1-0-1, 8 yellows, 1 red

Injuries/Absences

Cheltenham

The Robins were missing George Harmon(LB), Josh Martin(LW) and Mo Faal(ST) against Shrewsbury, but none are that crucial to them it seems.

Crewe Alex

The Alex will be nursing a few walking wounded from Saturday I suspect, as Billington, Demetriou and Connolly all spent time hobbling around towards the end of the game. Hopefully all 3 will be fit for this one.

Team

Hmm, what do you do. They have options, but not many are in particularly good form and a number are well below full fitness. I'm sorry though, some tough decisions are going to have to be made. Can Demetriou and Thomas do a midweek game? Probably not. So, they drop to the bench. They don't have the players to go to a back 3, so I'd keep the same 4-2-3-1 but press some half fit players into starts.

At the back, Connolly slots in alongside Pond, with Hutchinson and Billington continuing at full back. In midfield, I'm asking Sanders to give me 60 minutes alongside Jack Powell. Not ideal, but what else can you do?

Then upfront, I'm starting Lankester on the right, putting O'Reilly in the middle and pushing Holicek to the left wing, with Agius dropping to the bench. March continues upfront.

Score Prediction

I still have a little bit of confidence in this group. They didn't turn into a shambles overnight, no matter how bad Saturday was. They are also playing a team significantly worse than Walsall. It's away from home in front of a small and probably subdued crowd, which might also be to their liking. They'll need a big response and I'm hoping we get one. But for now, I'll sit on the fence and predict a draw.

Cheltenham Town 1-1 Crewe Alexandra