Several Robins to miss Hereford friendly

Cheltenham Town will be without several players for tomorrow's friendly against Hereford United at Edgar Street.

Defender Michael Townsend was injured last night in their game against Southampton which they lost 3-1. He joins Damian Spencer, Steven Gillespie, Brian Wilson and Michael Wylde all of whom are unlikely to feature.

"Pre-season was going really well until we picked up this little string of injuries," manager John Ward told the offical Cheltenham website.

"We deliberately structured the pre-season programme to end with two tough games in Southampton and Hereford United.

"We saw how good Southampton were last night and Hereford are on the rise having won promotion back to the Football League.

"These are the games we wanted because we can only expect a tough test at Swansea (the Robins first league one game of the season) and we want to prepare as well as we can."

As regards Hereford United, manager Graham Turner will be expecting a better show from his young side than that seen at Forest Green last Tuesday. He admitted to BBC Hereford and Worcester that he had experimented with the squad.

Dean Beckwith, who suffered a cut to his face at the game, is expected to be fit and new signing Martyn Giles will feature as long as his international clearance has come through. As yet it is unknown whether Luke Webb will get another game.

Admission to the game is £8 for adults and £4 for concessions. The Meadow End is expected to be closed again tomorrow.

The most recent meeting between the clubs took place at Hereford's Edgar Street ground in February 1999, Cheltenham winning 2-0 with goals from Mark Freeman and Jamie Victory.

---