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"I've had four or five goes at the play-offs with different teams at different levels but the principles remain the same. It's a two match competition now against the same team, which is very unusual for clubs like ours. People tend to look at the two league games that you played against each other and try and compare that with what is coming up. But those games are often months apart with different teams and different elevens. I don't think there is any comparison and I think the only thing you can compare it with is playing two games in four or five days against the same opposition. I've done that once or twice before and trying to pass that on to the team it's like saying that the two matches are like two halves.
"We can't approach the two games any differently. If we were playing Wycombe Wanderers away in January we would be talking about how we think we can win the game, where we think we can be strong, what we think we've got to be careful about with the opposition and that still stays the same. In the main we've kept the preparation and the routine the same as what we've done throughout the season but everyone knows it's quite a different sort of proposition ahead of us. We need to treat the game of football as we would a league game, to put the occasion away and look at the football match in its entirity.
"So far in the play-offs this season nobody has won a home game. People keep telling me it's great to have home advantage in the second leg but that has not been proved correct and my experience tells me that's not necessarily the case. Even playing away is not so important because away goals no longer count double. It comes down to two separate football matches and adding the scorelines together. We have to make sure that at the count-up we have the advantage on that one.
"People will say that Wycombe have slipped out of the top three but I think they have coped very well with losing their leading scorer Nathan Tyson and it was only towards the end of the season when they had some terrible personal upheavals that their form strayed a little bit. They seem to have found that back a little bit now, they have kept their shape and their pattern but I think they will look at Cheltenham Town and think the same way about us. John Gorman saw us last week at Mansfield and they will know that we have not changed too many things. I'm a believer and I think John is as well that if it's not broken don't fix it and they will be two tough, tight games.
"Jamie Victory is out until next season but he is the only player I don't have at the moment. That's a good situation and it's come at a good time because you want to have your best players available and playing well on the day. At the moment I have everyone available, there will be some disappointments around but I have a very good idea about what I want the team to be for the first game. I'm pretty sure what I want to do and hopefully I'll get it right. We've scored something like 80 goals in all competitions and in the last seven matches we've had six different scorers. We've got nobody flying away with 25 goals that people say "stop him and you stop the team" but we feel we can score home and away. It won't be easy and we need to be as clinical as we were last week and see if we can make it count."
Wanderers' pacey right-back Danny Senda spoke exclusively to Wycombe's official website about the big match, talking about John Gorman's future, as well as his own :
"Cheltenham are a very good side. I've always rated them. They work very hard and are always organised. I don't think home advantage in the first leg will make much of a difference because you have to get a result home and away. Obviously if we can get a win at home we'll be more comfortable going there but it doesn't really matter.
"It's a good decision for the gaffer (John Gorman) to step aside. This season has been mentally tough for a lot of us but he didn't have chance to mourn Myra (his wife) and jumped straight back into the job. The lads have really responded to Brownie (Steve Brown) and Rhino (Keith Ryan) and Terry Evans has been a breath of fresh air so hopefully we can do well for them.
"I really don't know what is going to happen. With all that has happened this season I haven't had time to sit down and think about a new deal or what else is on offer for me. Once the Play Offs is finished I'm going to have a break and then come back to make my decision on what I am going to do."
Wycombe go into the game with an almost fully fit squad, only shy of Spanish midfielder Sergio Torres. Joe Burnell is available after a niggling leg injury, as is striker Jermaine Easter, who is showing no ill effects from the ankle problems that saw him leave the Causeway Stadium on crutches last Saturday. Wanderers have collapsed into the end-of-season lottery in a run of form that has seen them win only six league games out of 21 in 2006, losing ten, including a dreadful six in a row. Their results have undoubtedly been affected by three things though, the sale of Nathan Tyson, the death of player Mark Philo in a car-crash, then the death from cancer of manager John Gorman's wife, the Buckinghamshire outfit seemingly being cursed.
Cheltenham also have few injury problems for the game, Jamie Victory being the only man missing, the left-back out for the season with a groin injury. Skipper John Finnegan should return after being rested for the 5-0 hammering of Mansfield, ex-Bristol City striker Steven Gillespie fighting for a place upfront with Kayode Odejayi and Steve Guinan, after recovering from a hamstring injury in time to grab one of the goals at the Field Mill. Town have shown consistent, if unremarkable form, going into the play-offs, their away form in their last six games being particularly average, showing LWLWLW in their run-in on the road.
The match is broadcast live on Sky Sports Two, kick-off at 6.05pm. The second-leg will be at Cheltenham on Thursday night, kick-off at 7.45pm.