CHELTENHAM Town have surprised all by maintaining a consistent place in the automatic promotion places this season, and Marlon Pack knows tomorrow’s game against Swindon is as massive one for their League Two title aspirations.

Despite having to work with a small budget, Mark Yates has assembled a side that has deservedly been fighting at the top end of the table throughout the season.

While there is no doubting the quality of their first 11, a lack of real strength in depth had many expecting their promotion challenge to fade after the new year, when injuries and suspensions would take their toll.

But instead they have remained in the top three and a win over Town tomorrow would close the gap on first place to three points.

“The Swindon game is going to be massive, even more so after our recent results,” said Pack, who has arguably been one of the best players in the division this season.

“We’ve shown how good we are by the fact that we can be up there with teams like Swindon and Crawley, who have good big budgets and can spend big.

“We deserve to be up there because we’ve been there all season and it will be a big opportunity this weekend.

“We beat them earlier on this season, but their team is very different now to how it was then. We know it will be tough but we’re looking forward to it.”

Pack will come up against his friend and former teammate Matt Ritchie tomorrow.

The two progressed through the youth ranks at Portsmouth and still keep in touch to this day.

“I know Matt quite well from when we were down at Portsmouth. We played in the same youth team down there and then we’ve moved on about the same time,” he added.

“It’s been quite similar to when we played them earlier in the season. There’s been a bit of banter building up to the week and I’m sure there’ll be more on the day.

“Hopefully by the end of Saturday I’ll be the one with the bragging rights again.”

One day after competing against each other on the pitch, Pack and Ritchie will head to London for the Football League awards, where they are both nominated for the League Two Player of the Year.

“It’s all friendly banter and it’s great for both of us. I’m happy for him and I’m sure he’s happy for me,” said Pack.

“We’ve come through the ranks there and it hasn’t quite gone as we might have liked but it’s our first full seasons out somewhere else permanently, playing for another club, and to both be nominated for it is great.”