Crewe Alex v Cheltenham Town 25-26 Preview - New Year, New Start?

Fun fact and a positive one for a change. The Alex have a generally excellent record in their first league game of the new calendar year. They are 11-2-5 in their first fixture of the new year since the turn of the millenium. Some of those games weren't even on January 1st either, so their record on that exact date since 2000 are 11-0-2. We can go even further. The Alex have not lost a league game at home on January 1st since 1985. They generally turn up in this fixture, so hopefully that continues. This is my preview of Cheltenham's visit to Gresty Road:

Reverse the Record

I mentioned it for Newport and I'll mention it again here. Part of why the Alex failed to make the play-offs last season was losing games against bottom 8 opponents. Newport were one of them, Cheltenham were most definitely another. Their 2 defeats against the Robins were horrendous. They were 1-0 up on Boxing Day before collapsing to lose 2-1. Then, with their play-off hopes on the line, they lost 3-2 at home in another woeful performance.

That also speaks to an increasingly poor record against the Robins. Since beating them in the play-off final back in 2012, the Alex have won just 3 of the last 15 meetings, which given they won 9 of the first 16 shows a reversal of fortunes. They need to start turning that run back in the right direction.

Surging

It'll be tricky against a Cheltenham side that are bang in form at the moment. Ok they lost to Swindon on Monday, but for the most part they are in excellent form, winning 7 of their 13 games under Steve Cotterill. That run has pushed them from 24th to 18th and they will feel confident about continuing that good run here.

They have quality upfront in the likes of Jake Bickerstaff, Hakeeb Adelakun, Jordan Thomas, Ethon Archer and Isaac Hutchinson and they will pose a threat for the Alex's shaky and mistake prone back line.

Need a response

Bell alluded to the fact the Alex seem to need a response every few weeks and it's becoming more and more true as they fail to build any sort of decent form. But they very much need a big response here. 1 win in 8, 13th in the table, a long trip to Barnet coming up on Sunday. The fans started to turn on each other in the stands at Newport so I'm led to believe and fail to win here and I do think Gresty Road will become toxic.

But then, isn't this when Bell uses one of his 9 lives to pull a win out of nowhere? They usually do and they'll need to do so again.

Unbeaten Run

Whilst we wring our hands over the Alex's form, they have quietly put together a 5 game unbeaten run at home. Ok, their last 2 were disappointing draws against strugglers, but let's call a spade a spade and admit both performances could and should have yielded 6 points. Only 2 deflected goals against Newport and Thibaut's stupid red card against Bristol Rovers denied them.

Yes, they are missing players, but at home they should be able to perform to a reasonable standard and hopefully pick up a result to extend their unbeaten home run to 6.

Ref Watch

Dale Baines

The brother of former Everton player Leighton has been slowly working his way up the pyramid, but has yet to take an Alex game before.

2025-26 Record: 11 games(1 League One, 1 League Two, 7 National League)

Last Game: Tranmere Rovers 1-0 Fleetwood Town, 26th December 2025, EFL League Two, 7 yellows

Crewe Alex Record: N/A

Injuries/Absences

Crewe Alex

Adrien Thibaut completes the final game of his ban, but once again all eyes are on the team sheet to see if any of their injured starters come back. March, Tezgel, Golding and Lankester I suspect will remain out and it's wait and see on the others.

Cheltenham Town

The Robins might be about to lose Isaac Hutchinson, who could be heading back to Bristol Rovers. George Miller is closing in on a return, but other absences could be Scot Bennett, Jokūbas Mažionis, Tom Taylor, Taine Anderson and Sam Sherring.

Team

Once again it's hard to know who to pick for this one given we don't know who is fit and who isn't. But I'm going to suggest the same team to the one I wanted to see at Newport. Mingi starts again at RB, Croker comes in at CB to replace Connolly and partners Billington, Finney starts at LB to rest Hutchinson, Sanders and Lunt start in midfield, then behind Bogle upfront I'm putting Agius, Holicek and Rankine, to rest O'Reilly.

As for the bench, erm, yeah...

Score Prediction

This is just the kind of game Bell and the team pull a result out of, especially given it's on New Years Day and at home. See Carlisle last season. See Bradford, see Tranmere. They desperately need a win and whilst Cheltenham have improved, they are still a poor side. Even a depleted Alex side can get a win against them. Will they? Doubtful. But for now, I'll stay positive and predict a narrow win.

Crewe Alexandra 1-0 Cheltenham Town