League One club Cheltenham pass 1,000 minutes of new season without a player scoring and set EFL record
Strikers going through a lean spell or crisis of confidence in front of goal is nothing new, but League One club Cheltenham Town have taken matters to a whole new level this season - and not just their forwards.
The third-tier side are bottom of the table with just one point taken from their opening ten fixtures, but more notably, have failed to score a single goal in any of them.
Indeed, factoring in a 2-0 defeat in the Carabao Cup first round and a 4-1 reversal in the EFL Trophy to Bristol Rovers - where they did score, but only through an own goal - then they headed into their tenth game of the league campaign on Saturday afternoon just ten minutes shy of the 1,000-minute mark for 2023/24 without any of their own players finding the back of the net.
That milestone duly passed against Lincoln City, who were 2-0 up by half-time and ultimately won by the same scoreline - making Cheltenham the first-ever EFL team to fail to score in their opening ten league matches of a season.
They could also yet add their name to another long-standing record too, for the most league matches in a row without a goal.
That remains at 11, set by Coventry City in 1919/20 and matched by Hartlepool United in 92/93. The Robins’ next league game, which they must score in to avoid joining those unwanted history-makers, is at home to Fleetwood Town - who themselves have only won once and are placed just above them in the League One relegation zone.
As such, Cheltenham will head into October with their top goalscorer - with one - being Bristol Rovers’ James Gibbons.
Somewhat inexplicably, the one point Cheltenham have earned this season came in a 0-0 draw with league leaders Portsmouth.
Cheltenham lost free-scoring forward Alfie May in the summer to Charlton, their all-time record scorer, but while the club may not have expected to replicate his volume of strikes through a single player, for nobody to score at all at this stage hints at somewhat deeper issues.
