“There’s a massive difference”: Cheltenham Town defender Caleb Taylor on the step up to League One
Cheltenham Town defender Caleb Taylor believes the difference between League One and academy football is “massive.”
“There’s a massive difference,” he told me after Cheltenham’s 1-0 win over Morecambe on Tuesday Night, “Every game no matter who you play against, it’s tough.”
The centre-back has been a standout player for The Robins since signing on loan from West Bromwich Albion in the summer, especially in the air and with the ball at his feet.
“You don’t know who you’re going to come across, whereas, in youth football some games will be a walk in the park.”
“The main thing is concentrating for the full 90 minutes, you can’t switch off for one second,” Taylor explained.
Tuesday’s win was huge for Town, stopping a three-game losing streak by beating Morecambe, a team they expect to be battling to stay in the division, and extending the gap to the relegation zone to four points.
“They were below us in the league so we felt like we had to win, but we still know that we’re only a third of the way through the season, we’ve got a lot to go, and we know that every game will be a fight”
Wade Elliot’s men were 1-0 up at the break and were determined to keep a first clean sheet since their win over Bolton on October 4.
“He told us to keep going, we may have to fight and deal with a spell of pressure, but he told us we’ve got to come through (with a win), and we did.”
When asked about the importance of keeping a clean sheet, he replied, “Keeping clean sheets for me is the main thing, it sets us up to win more games”
“If we get the fundamentals right we have more chance of winning.”
Cheltenham lost out to similarly placed Burton Albion on Saturday, so Tuesday’s game was a must-win.
“It’s massive, all the lads were disappointed on Saturday we felt it was a big opportunity missed”
“So today, to react to that and get a win is massive for us.”
Up next for the Robins is the visit of MK Dons, “They’re in a similar situation to us being at the bottom, so it’ll be a tough game,” Taylor admitted.
A win against another side that would’ve liked to have started the season better would be huge for their survival chances, especially a team with a budget as big as MK Dons’.
Taylor has got the threat of established League 1 forward Will Grigg to contend with on Saturday’s game, one that his parent club would certainly have an eye on.
West Brom have only won two of their opening sixteen matches in the Championship this season, sitting 23rd.
But the Baggies aren’t on Taylor’s mind right now, “I’ll focus on that next season, I’m focusing now on Cheltenham.”