The last time Cheltenham scored a league goal, the UK was gearing up to host the Eurovision Song Contest, Frank Lampard was Chelsea’s interim manager and the Ashes was still over a month away.
Cheltenham fans have felt every day of the four and a half months since. The Robins set an unwanted all-time EFL record against Stevenage last Saturday, racking up a ninth game from the start of a season without hitting the back of the net once.
Three more games and they will add another record, for the longest run of scoreless games at any point in EFL history.
It feels like a realistic fear. Cheltenham lost 20-goal striker Alfie May to Charlton in July but even adjusting for that, they have created the smallest expected goals tally in League One by some distance.
It was only 16 months ago Michael Duff led the Robins to their highest-ever finish, ending 16 points clear of the League One relegation zone in 15th and scoring 66 goals along the way – only four fewer than Rotherham, who were promoted in second place.
Even last season, his replacement Wade Elliott, in his first managerial role, finished only one place lower. The alarming drop-off since has already cost him his job.
“Everyone’s going to say losing Alfie in the summer,” local radio commentator Mark Halliwell tells Sky Sports of the root of Cheltenham’s problems. “That has to be a factor in it, and a lot of fans believe he was sold on the cheap.
“It’s a bit of a stretch to say he kept them up on his own but anyone who scores that number of goals in a team which finishes 15th and then 16th is going to be in demand. They haven’t been able to find a way to replace him.”
Chairman David Bloxham has eluded as such. “It was something we couldn’t avoid,” he told Gloucestershire Live this week.
Elliott did too, only two games into the season. “It’s pretty obvious where we are a little bit deficient at the minute,” he said after a 1-0 loss to Northampton even before the transfer window closed.
The Robins may well have the smallest budget in the division. Elliott had joked earlier in the summer he had a vacancy for a new 20-a-season forward, but replacing the man responsible for almost 40 per cent of their goals since promotion was always a tall order.
Wade Elliott was sacked as manager after a 3-0 defeat at Peterborough in their eighth game of the season
It was made tougher still without the club’s director of football, head of recruitment and first-team analyst, who left for Shrewsbury weeks into the summer window, needing Elliott to juggle extra responsibilities through pre-season.
Cheltenham have been left to rely on Aidan Keena, a club-record signing from Sligo Rovers in January and 21-year-old Rob Street – who scored four in 38 for Shrewsbury last season.
The two have had 31 shots between them across Cheltenham’s nine games, but with the weight of expectation falling squarely on their shoulders, it has grown heavier and heavier as the blanks have racked up.
“They’ve struggled to work out how to get the best out of Aidan without Alfie there,” Halliwell says. “The others are still bedding in and when you lose someone like Alfie, you need someone to step up and as yet, no-one has. Not just the strikers, but around the team.
“We only scored two goals last season from corners, so there’s not been that to fall back on either. The amount of goals we scored from set-pieces when we came up from League Two, they are so important at this level.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Cheltenham were beaten 3-0 by Stevenage in their first game after Elliott’s departure
There have been moments. Cheltenham have been denied by the woodwork twice in their last two games. They have made more ‘big chances’ than Northampton, who sit a point above the drop zone, and attempted more final-third passes than both Derby and Wigan, who have scored 27 goals between them.
How many of those passes have connected? Fewer than anyone else. That’s where the problems start, as well as the even greater concern of scoring the chances they do create.
“Personally, I think there’s enough in the squad to turn it round,” adds Halliwell. “There have been spells in every game, bar Bolton (a 3-0 defeat), which have been promising. But it’s already very difficult, because there’s already a six-point gap to safety.
“Against Stevenage in their last game, they’d hit the bar and had a shot kept out by a great save, but the moment the second goal went in it was like someone had popped a balloon of their confidence. You could see it go.
“You have to hope that when a goal comes, when something goes Cheltenham’s way, it builds a bit of momentum.”
On Friday, former Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke was announced as the new manager at Whaddon Road after club legend Steve Cotterill turned down a return to the club.
Darrell Clarke was Port Vale manager until April and led them to promotion from League Two in 2022
If he takes over the reins, he will have to hope for better luck than his predecessor in avoiding the drop back to League Two. Though few disagreed with the decision to part ways with Elliott after a seventh defeat from eight, Bloxham conceded he had been “very unlucky” with the hand he was dealt.
In addition to losing May in the summer, 13 players have missed game time to injury since the start of the campaign including promising young striker George Lloyd, who enjoyed a strong pre-season and could have been an outside bet to aid their striking woes.
“Wade lost at home to Alvechurch in the FA Cup, lost his second game 7-0 to Exeter in the League Cup, but turned it round and took us to such a good finish when we never really looked in danger of going down,” Halliwell says.
“We only missed out on a day at Wembley in the Papa John’s Trophy on penalties too, and losing those three backroom staff in the summer wasn’t good for the pre-season preparations.
“He was unlucky, but he always said to judge him on results. Eight games, seven defeats, no goals. I’m sure he’ll have learned a lot and deserves credit for a lot of what he did, but it was inevitable that the change would come sooner or later.”
Clarke will be at Lincoln on Saturday, watching his new side from the stands at Sincil Bank. The 45-year-old, who was most recently in charge at Port Vale, has signed a two-year contract – and knows he has to hit the ground running.
His first game in the dugout will be against Fleetwood Town, currently second-bottom of the league, when the two sides meet in the West Country on Tuesday night. Lose that, and goal scoring records will be the least of their worries.