Cheltenham boss Duff reacts to confirmation of play-off clash with Cobblers

Cheltenham Town manager Michael Duff has reacted to the news that his side will take on the Cobblers in the League Two play-off semi-finals later this month.

The Robins finished fourth under PPG and will face Northampton over two legs, at the PTS Academy Stadium next Thursday and then again at Whaddon Road the following Monday.

"The mood in the camp is positive," said Duff. "People are looking forward to it now. Everyone just wants to finish the job. We reported for pre-season nearly a year ago - we were in I think 25 or 26 June. We're in June again now. There's a lot of hard work that's gone into this season.

"I'm sure we're exactly the same as the other three teams, we'll be doing everything we can, preparing the best we can, in not ideal circumstances. The situation is the situation and we're trying to finish the job off.

"Ultimately there's going to be one team that are going to get promoted out of League Two and we want to make sure it is us."

Cheltenham were beaten 3-1 by Championship side Cardiff City in a behind closed doors fixture on Tuesday.

"It was a really good workout," added Duff. "Everyone got 60 minutes against good opposition in Cardiff. There was some really good football played. Everyone seems to have come through it unscathed which is a bonus because it's obviously a bit sooner than what we'd normally do.

"We wouldn't normally ramp it up this quickly with the situation we're in and the time scale we're on. Hopefully it gives the lads confidence because there would have been a few nerves. The really pleasing thing was there was some really good football played.

"We've gone from returning to training on Monday. Monday and Tuesday they weren't allowed to go near each other so to a week later playing an hour against a Championship team, that's a really steep curve that you wouldn't normally get to.

"You'd normally periodise it more but everyone is in the same boat so it's trying to get them as fit as we can and as mentally resilient as we can. You don't want to go into today and break five or six but I think that the players will feel a lot better for getting it done now.

"Their bodies have proved they can do it against tough opposition as well. Cardiff have got some good players as well and ultimately there was some really good football played which I was happy with."

It's now nine days until his team take to the field for the play-off semi-finals first leg at Northampton on Thursday 18 June.

"It's constantly adapting - it changes from day-to-day," continued Duff. "You're reacting off the players, each session, even with games. We've had games pencilled in and they've been cancelled.

"We're in the same boat as everyone else so the difficulty we've had is the fact we've got to thank Neil Harris and Cardiff for coming up to us as a Championship club.

"A lot of them are playing each other - the top two leagues are playing each other. For them to travel to us to give us a game at our ground gives us a feel of what it might look like in terms of distancing while in the changing room and the subs being sat in different areas and things. That's why we wanted to do it. It was a bit of a dry run."