Cheltenham boss Duff unsure who he'll have available as he plans to face Cobblers in play-offs

Cheltenham Town manager Michael Duff is not yet sure which players he will have available when his side face the Cobblers in the play-offs.

The Robins, who will finish fourth in League Two under PPG, are due to face Northampton over two legs if the decision to end the regular season is, as expected, ratified by the EFL and FA in the next couple of weeks.

Jacob Greaves, Owen Evans, Max Sheaf, Tom Nichols and Jake Doyle-Hayes were on loan at Cheltenham when the season was suspended in mid-March and Duff says they are in 'conversation' with their parent clubs.

Skipper and former Cobbler Ben Tozer’s wife is due to give birth next month while striker Reuben Reid’s partner is in remission from cancer and fellow forward Alfie May also became a father recently.

“All we can do is make it as safe as possible,” said Duff. “It is difficult as players have wives who are pregnant and some who are ill, but whether they play is not up to me, that is a personal decision. I can’t tell them what to do.”

While he agreed with the decision to end the regular season, Duff feels the four teams to qualify for the play-offs will be at a disadvantage ahead of next season.

“From a financial viewpoint, yes it is the right decision to end the season as the clubs can’t afford to do it,” he added. “But if it is £200-300,000, that will be a big chunk of our budget for next season.

“We have had our joint highest finish in League Two but we had won six out of seven and fancied ourselves to get up. We are making the best of a bad situation and there is a lot of work to do between now and next week.

“But I would ask why do four clubs have to foot the bill while others are basically mothballing? Swindon, Crewe and Plymouth can plan knowing they are going into League One and other clubs are ahead of the game but the overriding gut feeling is that the three clubs who are not promoted will start next season on the back foot because of the financial outlay.

“It’s our joint highest finish in League Two and there is an achievement in there but it has been lost a bit. That is frustrating to a point but the bigger picture is that people are losing their lives.

“We had won six in seven before we stopped and were the in-form team and I am sure Port Vale will feel hard done by as they could have made the play-offs, but people can’t afford to do it.

“In League Two nearly everyone was happy for the season to finish while League One is a different animal. It's carnage.

“The top of League Two was pretty straightforward with the only contentious issue being if you didn’t play the play-offs and promoted us in fourth place but I am sure Exeter would have had something to say about that.”

Duff also believes his players will need around a month of training to get them up to speed for the play-offs.

“Usually they would get a six-week holiday after the season and a six-week pre-season,” he continued.

“Our lads are now in week 11 or 12 of inactivity and we know some lads will have looked after themselves better than others so we have to evaluate that.

“That’s human nature as some enjoy the fitness stuff more than others, but now we could be asking them to play a game in three weeks.

“Ideally we would need a month but the general consensus is that they want it all done by June 30 so I won’t get a month.

“It is usually four weeks into pre-season before people play 90 minutes but this is not an ideal world.”